The Michael J. Fox Foundation Annual Report 2018 Impact + Innovation | Page 41

2018 Annual Report
Spotlight on Giving:
Bow Tie Cinemas
Historic photos of Sophia Loren,
Humphrey Bogart, Joan Crawford
and other Hollywood royalty line
the conference room walls at Bow
Tie Cinemas’ Times Square offices.
These black and white images
document a family history steeped in
tradition and a love of movie magic.
Dating back to 1900 and the era of
Nickelodeons, four generations of
the Moss family have helmed the
oldest motion picture theatre in the
United States and dedicated their
efforts to giving back.
When Charley Moss Jr., the third-generation of
the entertainment company, was diagnosed with
Parkinson’s disease (PD) in 2014, the family’s initial
shock transformed into action, which provided a
unique opportunity to raise the curtain on PD with a
wider audience.
Introduced to The Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF)
by MJFF Board member Bonnie Strauss, Charley and
the Bow Tie team partnered with MJFF to develop
a cause marketing and fundraising campaign to run
in 50 movie theatres across the country. Since it first
launched in fall 2017, the Bow Tie campaign has
been a blockbuster. Between MJFF public service
announcements on 400 screens, posters in lobbies,
coin canister collection stations, solicitation of support
from theatre vendors and contributions derived from
concession sales, the campaign continues to grow
— breaking box office records by raising more than
$200,000 during the 2018 campaign and bringing the
two-year total to over $325,000.
“When you’re a business that serves the public, and the
public sees that you are passionate about giving back and
supporting a cause, they are going to participate alongside
you,” reflects Ben Moss, Charley’s son and Bow Tie
partner. “I know people personally who have taken this
idea to other businesses that they patronize and said ‘Hey,
it would be important for your guys to do this as well.’”
A key driver of campaign success was the engagement
and education of the Bow Tie staff — which started
with Charley sharing his Parkinson’s journey with
employees and other members of the Bow Tie
community — and was supported by research updates
from MJFF.
“It was hard revealing such a personal thing,” says
Charley. “But the reaction that surprised me more
than anything else was the number of people who said,
‘Thank you for sharing with us.’ That was enormously
gratifying and made me aware of the significance of
educating the public about PD.”
Bow Tie Cinemas’ Chief Operating Officer Joe Masher
recalls, “Staff love to hear from the Foundation directly,
and as the cause is very personal to Charley, his wife,
Ann, and the family, that had a positive effect on the
results of the campaign.”
“Helping people understand and manage the disease
and its impact is critical,” continues Charley. “I could
have used that education, and it really didn’t exist, or
at least I wasn’t informed of it. So that’s what led to our
decision to focus our efforts on education about PD.”
39