A spokesperson for the group Heritage of Pride confirmed that about 25% of their corporate sponsors had either pulled out of sponsoring New York City’s Pride parade or reduced contributions, leaving organizers scrambling to replace those funds.
“The vast majority of what we have heard is that folks are treading carefully from an economic perspective,” Kevin Kilbride told The New York Times during an interview published in late May. He asserted that companies are distancing themselves from the Pride movement for political reasons.
“…Some folks have definitely mentioned the fear of potential blowback from the Trump administration if you are a big corporation and you are publicly supporting D.E.I. initiatives,” Kilbride told the outlet.
Now the event is happening in ten days. A few weeks ago, Heritage of Pride organizers had been focusing on community funded donations after big corporate spenders pulled back. They were facing a shortage of about $750,000.
“That gap we’re trying to fill with a community fundraising campaign. So in the middle of May, we launched a peer-to-peer campaign so folks can start their own fundraiser online, share it with their friends, and then have folks donate to that,” he told NYT.
Kilbride confirmed the organization planned to “lean a little bit more into individual giving and support from the community.”
Per NYT, four of the five companies that were Platinum sponsors last year either scaled back contributions or canceled. Those include Garnier, Skyy Vodka, Target, and Mastercard. Pepsi and Nissan are also not contributing funds this year.
Several other cities have reported similar results, with corporate and individual sponsorships being reduced this year compared to others. This has led to some Pride events in large cities being canceled.
This pulling back from Pride has become a trend with major retailers. Target shoppers noticed that the retailer has moved their Pride messaging to the back burner. Social media is buzzing with photos of patriotic apparel displays in Target stores during the month of June. Just two years ago, these same displays would have been decked out in rainbow flag glory.
In 2023, Target was blasted for offering “tuck-friendly” female swimsuits, which led to boycotts and sinking sales. After the backlash, Target scaled back its “Pride” displays in June 2024, only offering “Pride” merchandise at a limited number of stores. Now, almost all have been replaced with red, white, and blue.
