"Friends" & "Grace and Frankie" Co-Creator and Producer Marta Kauffman to be Honored at Big Sunday's 3rd Annual Gala on Thursday, March 8, 2018 in Los Angeles

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Feb 28, 2018, 09:18 ET

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Leaders in entertainment, business, philanthropy, and the arts will gather at the 3^rd Annual Big Sunday Gala on Thursday evening, March 8th to celebrate two distinguished honorees – Marta Kauffman and Kaiser Permanente. Big Sunday, one of the USA's foremost organizations connecting people through helping and opportunities to volunteer, now in its 20^th year, will host the Gala celebration at Candela, 831 South La Brea Ave., Los Angeles, California 90036 beginning at 6 PM.

Marta Kauffman, "Friends" & "Grace and Frankie" Co-Creator and Producer, who will be honored at Big Sunday's 3rd Annual Gala on Thursday, March 8, 2018 in Los Angeles

Both Ms. Kauffman and Kaiser Permanente have participated with Big Sunday for many years.

Ms. Kauffman is an Emmy and Golden Globe-winning television writer, producer and showrunner. Having earned her BA in Theater Arts at Brandeis University, Kauffman and then-writing partner David Crane – whom she met at Brandeis – got their big break in the early 1990s after two of their television pilots were greenlit, including Dream On (1990) and The Powers That Be (1992). During their run as head writers on Dream On, the pair met producer Kevin Bright, with whom they would later launch Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions, eventually producing the smash success series, Friends. Friends ran for 10 years (1994-2004), receiving 63 Emmy nominations, and winning Outstanding Comedy Series in 2002. Bright/Kauffman/Crane also found success in the hit television sitcoms Veronica's Closet (1997-2000), starring Kirstie Alley, and Jesse (1998-2000), starring Christina Applegate. Kauffman also served as Executive Producer for several inspired television projects, including the television series Related (2005-2006), and the widely acclaimed television movies Five (2011) and Call Me Crazy: A Five Film (2013). Both projects featured top-tier female talent in front of and behind the camera, creating short vignettes that focused upon breast cancer and on the subject of mental illness. In 2012 Kauffman took her first venture into the world of online viewing, writing and directing all three episodes of the series Georgia for the YouTube network for women, Wigs. In 2015, Kauffman started her production and development company, OKAY GOODNIGHT, with industry veterans Robbie Tollin and Hannah KS Canter. Their first series, the comedy-drama Grace & Frankie, debuted its fourth season on Netflix in January 2018 and is currently in production on season five. Grace & Frankie is co-created with Howard J. Morris. The series features a dream-team ensemble top-lined by veteran actors Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Martin Sheen and Sam Waterston. Kauffman produced the documentary Seeing Allred with co-directors Roberta Grossman and Sophie Sartain, which debuted at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. The project reunites her with Grossman and Sartain, with whom she worked previously on 2014's Independent Lens: Mimi and Dona, 2012's Hava Nagila: The Movie and 2008's Blessed Is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh. In 2016, the Writers Guild of America, West awarded Kauffman and her Friends partner David Crane with the Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award for lifetime achievement in television writing. Kauffman also received the 2016 Outstanding Television Writer award at the 23rd annual Austin Film Festival & Screenwriters Conference. Kauffman is based in Los Angeles, California and has three children, two dogs, two cats and too many horses.

Ms. Kauffman is being honored for her extraordinary contributions to Big Sunday. Marta became involved with Big Sunday soon after the organization was started in 1999. Aside from serving as Big Sunday's first Board Chair, she has been a supporter and a Big Sunday volunteer for several years. Marta loves horses and over the years through Big Sunday she has taken countless groups — veterans, runaway youth, foster kids, at-risk teens and many others — on beautiful trail rides, preceded or followed by a great meal. Many of these people had never been on a horse before (much less had the opportunity to spend a day in the outdoors, enjoying nature) and the experience has been a life-changing one for them. Marta has been a great friend to the organization in countless other ways, too, over the years.

"I believe in exponential giving, where one gives to a certain organization, and that gift then goes on to a larger audience, touching an incredible amount of people, who then go on to touch the lives of even more people. Big Sunday is that kind of organization, one that has grown exponentially and continues to positively impact more and more people. I can't think of any other organization that combines helping, giving and community. We all get together and work, as a community, towards a common goal. Especially now, when so much of our focus is on political matters and organizations, Big Sunday is more important than ever because when we're participating, we're all one," said Ms. Kauffman.

Kaiser Permanente has been a wonderful and generous Big Sunday supporter for several years, helping the organization through both donations and volunteer efforts involving Kaiser Permanente staff from many offices throughout the Southern California area over the years. Among many other things, volunteers from Kaiser Permanente have given their time and talent to Big Sunday endeavors at Title I schools, drop-in centers, homeless shelters, and environmental projects.

Kaiser Permanente is committed to helping shape the future of health care. Kaiser Permanente is recognized as one of America's leading health care providers and not-for-profit health plans. Founded in 1945, Kaiser Permanente has a mission to provide high-quality, affordable health care services and to improve the health of its members and the communities it serves. Kaiser Permanente currently serves 11.8 million members in eight states and the District of Columbia. Care for members and patients is focused on their total health and guided by their personal Permanente Medical Group physicians, specialists and team of caregivers. Kaiser Permanente's expert and caring medical teams are empowered and supported by industry-leading technology advances and tools for health promotion, disease prevention, state-of-the-art care delivery and world-class chronic disease management. Kaiser Permanente is dedicated to care innovations, clinical research, health education and the support of community health.

Big Sunday (www.bigsunday.org) has been connecting people with opportunities to help, volunteer and give back together since 1999. Recognized nationally, Big Sunday is one of the USA's premiere resources for helping year-round. Big Sunday functions as an efficient and impactful clearing-house of volunteerism and community engagement, organizing and facilitating numerous programs and a host of unique ways for people of every age, background and means to volunteer and/or give, making it easy for diverse people to participate in good works together to support the huge variety of causes that they care about. The organization works as a resource that unites, hosts, and is connected with hundreds of individuals, families and communities. Big Sunday was started in Los Angeles and has hosted projects in more than 10 states as well as Australia and the United Kingdom. Each year, Big Sunday engages, empowers and brings together tens of thousands of volunteers from every walk of life. Big Sunday's mission is to connect people and build community via helping. Founded in Los Angeles 20 years ago by David Levinson with just 300 volunteers, the organization has now completed in excess of 1 million volunteer man-hours, and over 6,000 volunteer projects worth several million dollars in donated in-kind goods and services, and skilled and unskilled labor costs. Big Sunday is driven by the belief that absolutely everyone has some way that they can help someone else. Big Sunday events and programs have become more popular than ever, as people search for a way to focus on what we share in common and to celebrate Big Sunday's belief that we are all in it together.

Big Sunday was named by the Points of Light Foundation as one of "10 national nonprofits that are making a tremendous impact on our country's most critical challenges by mobilizing volunteers…These organizations also demonstrate a collaborative spirit through partnerships with other organizations to help strengthen communities across the nation."

Gala Sponsors Include:

Platinum Sponsor:
Michael Skloff

Gold Sponsors:
Disney
Sam & Leah Fischer/Ziffren Brittenham LLP
HBO

Silver Sponsors:
Anonymous
CBS
Gibson Dunn LLP
Kaiser Permanente
Marta Kauffman
Aliza & Michael Lesser
Live Nation
Netflix
Parsons
Philpott Meeks
Venable LLP

Bronze Sponsors:
Alan Bernstein
Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP
Bernard & Judy Briskin
Cornerstone on Demand
Bert Deixler
Kelley, Drye & Warren LLP
Shari & Richard Foos
Howard & Susan Mandel
NBC-Universal
Northrop Grumman
O'Melveny & Myers LLP
Oakwood School
Linda Perlman
Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP
Skydance Television
Temple Israel of Hollywood
Warner Bros.
Marilyn & John Wells
Wood Smith Henning & Berman LLP