DEI rollbacks prompt corporations to pull sponsorship from major Pride parades

Several of the nation’s largest LGBTQ Pride celebrations are down hundreds of thousands of dollars in corporate sponsorships this year, with some event organizers saying promised funds have been withdrawn or reduced and others saying they’ve been ghosted by longtime corporate partners.

Pride organizers say some companies fear being targeted by the Trump administration over participation in diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, while others are preserving cash in a tumultuous economy.

“I know that they’re facing tough decisions inside those organizations, and I don’t want to call them out. I want to call them in,” Suzanne Ford, the executive director of San Francisco Pride, said of disappearing sponsors. “We will remember who stood by us and who didn’t. When it was politically popular, they were lined up.”

Eve Keller, co-president of USA Prides, a national network of LGBTQ Pride organizers, said members across the country have reported receiving significantly less in sponsorship dollars this year. Some of the smaller, rural Prides are down 70% to 90% when compared to the average year, she said.

“We’re trying not to sound a huge alarm or to make this the only focus, but when we are down money, we’re down safety and security and accessibility as well,” she said, adding that most Prides don’t want to make any cuts to their security measures, so instead they are holding fewer and smaller events.

Last month, Pride St. Louis announced Anheuser-Busch declined to sponsor the organization’s annual PrideFest in St. Louis, where the brewing company is based, after a more than 30-year partnership. The announcement also noted that “funding has been coming in well below expectations,” leaving Pride St. Louis more than $150,000 short of last year’s total Pride budget, which organizers told NBC News was about $480,000.

However, on Wednesday, Pride St. Louis’ DEI and outreach director, Jordan Braxton, said the organization made up almost all of that deficit with an outpouring of individual donations. The loss of the Anheuser-Busch partnership is still “devastating,” Braxton said, because it sends a hurtful message to the community that the company’s support is dependent on who is president.

Anheuser-Busch did not return requests for comment.

The organizers of several of the country’s premier Pride celebrations told NBC News they have also lost funding from corporate sponsors this year, to the tune of $200,000 to $350,000 each. For some larger organizations — like those in New York City and San Francisco — the shortage makes up about 10% of their total Pride event budget, while for others, like St. Pete Pride in Florida, it could be about half.

Some organizers said past sponsors that are not returning or are reducing their sponsorship amounts this year have cited the political climate and the Trump administration’s hostility toward DEI and the LGBTQ community, while others have cited fear of an economic recession. Some didn’t provide any reasons at all, organizers said.

Bob Witeck, president of Witeck Communications, a firm specializing in LGBTQ marketing, said he isn’t surprised that corporations are reducing or withdrawing Pride sponsorships this year, because many of them are feeling vulnerable to “unfair and uninvited attacks.” He said publicly regulated businesses and those that work directly with federal agencies and under contracts “are more vulnerable to possible litigation as well as facing potential losses.”

Ford said several companies that had agreed to sponsor this year’s San Francisco Pride march had withdrawn: Anheuser-Busch, Comcast, Diageo and Nissan. Those sponsorships add up to about $300,000, Ford estimated.

The total budget for this year’s celebration, she said, is $3.2 million, and the nonprofit had hoped to raise about $2.3 million of that through corporate sponsorships, with the remainder coming from individual donations, beverage sales and other means. So far, corporate sponsors have committed $1.25 million, Ford said, adding that San Francisco Pride is still waiting to hear back from several large companies that have sponsored in the past.

Lloryn Love-Carter, a spokesperson for Nissan, said the company is “currently reviewing all marketing and sales spending, including auto shows, sports properties and other entertainment activations, to maximize both efficiency and breakthrough effectiveness.” Love-Carter added that “Nissan remains committed to promoting an inclusive culture for employees, consumers, dealers and other key stakeholders.”

A spokesperson for Diageo said there were some changes to the company’s sponsorships budget in California, but that the company was still going to be active around San Francisco for Pride Month in June and would be involved in Pride events around the country through its Smirnoff vodka brand.

A spokesperson for Comcast, which owns NBC Universal, the parent company of NBC News, declined to comment on why the company isn’t sponsoring San Francisco Pride this year. The spokesperson said local teams make their own sponsorship decisions and noted the company’s California team is sponsoring other Pride celebrations in the state including Silicon Valley Pride, Oakland Pride and events associated with San Francisco Pride that are hosted by other nonprofits.

Navigating a political and economic ‘tightrope’

Corporations began increasingly supporting Pride festivities in the years following the Supreme Court’s 2015 decision in favor of same-sex marriage. A few years ago, large companies had become so ubiquitous at major Pride events — with their logos emblazoned on everything from floats to paper fans — that some revelers began to lament the so-called corporatization of Pride, or what became known as “rainbow capitalism.”

However, over the last two years — as dozens of states have passed legislation restricting LGBTQ rights and conservative influencers have targeted pro-LGBTQ companies — the landscape has shifted, and some companies are leaning away from publicly supporting the community.

Anheuser-Busch and Target faced particularly intense conservative pressure in 2023: Anheuser-Busch for its Bud Light partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, and Target for some of the offerings in its annual Pride collection.

President Donald Trump further fueled the corporate retreat from Pride initiatives with a series of executive orders from his first day in office. In one order, Trump declared DEI initiatives “illegal and immoral” and barred the government from funding them. In another, he prohibited federal funds from promoting “gender ideology,” which has become a right-wing term to refer to transgender people and their rights.

At the same time, many big corporations are facing economic headwinds, including the Trump administration’s efforts to reduce government spending and the implementation of tariffs that have roiled the markets.

Byron Green, the board president of St. Pete Pride in St. Petersburg, Florida, said no sponsors have officially pulled their support for the annual event, though he hasn’t yet heard from many of them. Some have had to significantly reduce their sponsorships, Green said, including one major donor who previously gave $40,000 to $60,000 and is only donating about $10,000 this year.

“They have all said, ‘We get government funding, and we have to be very careful, because we don’t know if that funding is going to go away,’” Green said, adding that companies are worried about being able to pay their staff.

In the past, the nonprofit has relied entirely on corporate sponsors to cover the $600,000-$700,000 budget for Pride events held throughout the month of June, including its annual parade, which draws hundreds of thousands of attendees. So far, the nonprofit has received about half of that, according to Green.

“We are navigating what feels like a tightrope,” he said. “How do we create the experience that is the largest Pride in the state of Florida and one of the largest in the Southeast and the pace of dollars coming in is drastically less than it has been in the past?”

Ryan Bos is the executive director of Capital Pride Alliance, which organizes annual Pride celebrations in Washington, D.C., and will host this year’s WorldPride, an international celebration that is held in a new location every two years. Bos said the nonprofit was in talks with Target — which sponsored WorldPride in New York City in 2019 and has sponsored D.C.’s Capital Pride march in the past — but the company ultimately decided to pass.

Bos said other sponsors, like Wegmans Food Markets, have recommitted and increased their support for the festivities, which will take place from May 23 to June 8.

Kevin Kilbride, the media marketing manager of NYC Pride, said the budget for the organization’s annual Pride events in June is usually between $3 million and $6 million. Last year’s budget was $4.6 million, and this year’s will be about $3.5 million, he said.

Kilbride said about two-thirds of the organization’s previous sponsors have reaffirmed their support for this year’s events, which include one of the largest LGBTQ Pride marches in the world. As of Thursday, he said, one-third of the organization’s total partners had either pulled, scaled back or not yet finalized their funding commitments. As a result, NYC Pride is looking at a $350,000 dip in sponsorship funding, he said.

“A lot of it still is in the air at this point,” he said. “Folks are just moving a little bit more strategically and slowly than usual … and I think it’s a combination of the political environment, folks not sure what the repercussions would be, if any, but also the economy as well.”

Target is still sponsoring New York City’s annual LGBTQ Pride march, Kilbride said, though he noted the company has “chosen to take a silent partnership role,” and as a result is not listed as a sponsor on its website.

Target declined to comment on its decision not to sponsor WorldPride and on its partnership with NYC Pride.

Some brands face a ‘chilly environment’

Several Pride organizers — including those in Seattle, Boston and Minnesota’s Twin Cities — said they are being more selective about which sponsors they work with to ensure the companies’ policies align with their values.

Philadelphia Pride made the decision in 2022 not to work with corporations at all as a response to the community conversation about rainbow capitalism.

Twin Cities Pride, which draws about half a million people to its annual parade, announced earlier this year that it would not be partnering with Target as a sponsor for this year’s events after the Minneapolis-based retailer told employees in January that it would roll back DEI initiatives.

Andi Otto, the executive director of Twin Cities Pride, said he chose to turn down the company’s $50,000 sponsorship because he didn’t like the message it was sending to the LGBTQ community and communities of color. After Twin Cities Pride announced it wouldn’t partner with Target, Otto said, he launched a fundraiser that ended up doubling Target’s planned sponsorship.

Target declined to comment on Otto rejecting the company’s sponsorship.

Witeck said he’s not surprised that some brands are “facing a chilly environment” this year, as some Pride organizers and LGBTQ advocates question the values and consistency of some of their past sponsors.

“Community leaders have long opposed forms of ‘rainbow-washing’ if it’s felt the company has demonstrated weak or faltering loyalty,” he said, using a term similar to rainbow capitalism.

Pride celebrations ‘not going away’

Pride organizers have said the effects of losing major sponsors could vary widely, though none of the organizers who spoke with NBC News said they are scaling back security — and many, in fact, have said they’re increasing it.

NYC’s Kilbride said that as a result of having fewer committed sponsors and a reduced budget this year, three dance parties will not return for this year’s NYC Pride slate.

“We just have fewer options with a lower budget as far as what we can do, what kind of spaces we can provide for this community at a time that it’s obviously, in my opinion, more important than ever for these spaces to exist,” Kilbride said.

Otto said Twin Cities Pride, which typically spends about $800,000 on its annual Pride festival, is currently short about $200,000. In addition to declining Target’s donation, Otto said the organization had one big sponsor back out of negotiations and has not heard from several of its past sponsors yet. As a result, he said, this year’s festival will feature three stages for performances instead of its usual four.

The organizers of San Francisco Pride, which hosts a concert, parade and street fair the last weekend of June, usually start planning the three-day event nearly a year in advance, Ford said. As a result, she said, any potential funding shortage won’t affect this year’s events.

While many Pride organizers are making due with fewer corporate sponsors and lower budgets this year, Keller said the important thing to remember is Pride is “not going away.”

“You’re going to see even more people show up and need to find a safe space and find community and find where they can be their authentic selves, and that’s going to be at the Pride parade,” she said.