We caught up with Telethon Community Cinemas founder Ken Gibbons to learn about the history of the cinemas and how they support children in WA.
After running his own business and looking for an opportunity to pursue in the fundraising space, Ken Gibbons visited one of Perth’s outdoor cinemas and found the experience to be less than ideal.
Ken had been involved in the cinema industry when he was at university, and held a passion for fundraising. He decided to combine his interests into a new experience, Movies by Burswood Inc. It would later become Telethon Community Cinemas.
Ken’s interest in fundraising began at an early age. During his school days, he experienced bullying as a result of a stutter, and this bullying left a lasting impression on him. Over the years, he has been involved in various fundraising initiatives to help others avoid going through the same experience.
“As a kid with a stutter, like a lot of people going through the same sort of process, I went through hard times at school, so that became the reason or the rationale of why we raised the funds.”
Fundraising into the millions
The Telethon Community Cinemas made a slow but steady start towards fundraising efforts, but have since made a great contribution to the local community.
The cinemas raise funds for several beneficiaries and have supported many others over the years, including schools, clubs, and charities.
“In our first seven years we raised one million dollars, total. In our 20 years we’ve raised ten and a half.”
The cost of running an outdoor cinema
The Telethon Community Cinemas raise approximately $600,000 each year, and it goes to their main beneficiaries as well as approximately 30 organisations.
The cinemas cost around $1.2 million to run across the four locations, and so the season aims to raise at least $1.8 million to maintain their fundraising goals.
While Ken has always been heavily involved in running the day-to-day of the cinema experience, his workload is now shared with a team of between 500 and 700 volunteers a season.
“We don’t have any paid staff at screenings. A volunteer opens the gates and a volunteer shuts the gates and runs everything in between.”
Ken still attends regularly, if not daily, despite the volunteer help he has on board;
“In the early days, I was here pretty much every evening and seeing people depart at the end of the night, happy, smiling and being aware that we help thousands and thousands of kids, that’s really the reward.”
