Phoenix Pride faces $350,000 shortfall as sponsors cave to Trump’s anti-DEI attacks

Phoenix Pride is facing a major budget deficit — to the tune of $350,000. This comes after they saw pretty significant losses at this year’s annual Pride festival in attendance and sponsorships, and as they’re seeing donor support drop significantly.

And they’re not the only Pride organization across the country that’s facing these challenges. In August, Boise Pride had a $250,000 deficit a month before their festival. And in May, NYC Pride saw a $750,000 shortfall because of corporate sponsors pulling back.

It comes as the Trump administration has attacked diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives across the country; many companies have dropped their programs in response.

And that’s hit organizations like Pride hard, according to Daniel Eckstrom. Eckstrom is the president of Phoenix Pride’s volunteer board of directors. The Show spoke with him more about it.

Full conversation

DANIEL ECKSTROM: Well, you know, when we started with our new budget in the beginning of January of 2025, you know, we, as a board and as a staff really tried to cut as much as we could because we knew that the climate of things in the country was going to shift.

So, you know, we did a 22% cut to our annual budget, which a majority of our budget is our festival, so right off the top, we did a 22% cut on that.

But then, you know, after everything was all said and done and after our festival was complete, you know, we found that we had a dip in admissions, about a 38% loss, a 50% loss in our beverage sales, probably around a 30% loss in our festival sponsorships, and, about a 36% loss in our parade sponsorship. So that's kind of what led us to what we're facing currently.

LAUREN GILGER: Wow. So, OK, I mean, part of this, right, is that things cost more. The cost of putting on a festival is probably more expensive than it used to be.

But it also sounds like it's because of the kind of current environment. You've heard this from a lot of folks. Like you mentioned in your Facebook post about this, DEI cuts and attacks by the Trump administration. What do you think that kind of current environment means when it comes to these losses?

ECKSTROM: Yeah, and, you know, and you're right, I think really it's come all the way since COVID, the increase in costs, but this year is, you know, particularly, we found it very, very difficult to maintain some of the sponsors that we had previously, and that was, you know, because of things like corporations cutting their DEI initiatives, and just the current political climate overall, you know, meant that maybe people didn't feel safe to want to go out and celebrate something like Pride. And so we've really just, we've really seen a lot of different reasons why this is kind of where we're at right now.

GILGER: You also mentioned loss of sponsorships, donors, things like that. Have you heard from, had conversations with donors or companies that used to support Pride and don't anymore?

ECKSTROM: You know, we, we, we reach out to everybody that, that has previously sponsored and you know, we try to reach out multiple times if we don't get a response, but, you know, we also do our due diligence and looking to see, you know, what type of initiatives they, they support and what type of initiatives maybe they didn't support, and so, we do reach out and we do, we do ask, but we don't necessarily get back responses to some of those questions.

But you know, it, it definitely is something that, that we were, you know, afraid of, and we were hoping that it wasn't going to happen, but, you know, it, it really did because it, it led into, you know, to where we're at now, you know, with the 30% loss in our sponsorship just for our festival, and then you add the percent loss that we did for our parade sponsorships as well, and that's over 60%, so yeah.

GILGER: Let's back up for a minute, Daniel, and just talk about what Pride is and kind of why it matters to the queer community, right? Like, I mean, there's a big history here. It's kind of an important organization in the history of LGBTQ+ rights. I mean, talk a little bit about that and kind of the role that Pride has had in the community for so long.

ECKSTROM: Yeah, our Pride was founded in 1981, and, you know, we have been part of the community since then, and I think in the early 1980s, it was a very different climate and a very different landscape to what is now in 2025.

But I think the circle rounds often and now we're facing, you know, a lot of similar struggles that we did in the early '80s, and so I think that Phoenix Pride and just Pride in general, whether it's in our own community or in some other community somewhere else, it really is a beacon of, of hope for people. I think, you know, for people that are recently coming out or for people that maybe have kids that are coming out or family members that are coming out, it's someplace that they can go and celebrate, and they can be themselves.

We want to continue that and we want to be able to be that within our community, because I feel it's very important and it doesn't matter if it's, you know, 2025 or 2045, Pride is always going to be needed because there are always going to be people out there that need support, that maybe their family aren't giving them or maybe their friends aren't giving them, but something that we can give them.

GILGER: So, this massive budget shortfall you're facing, I mean, what impact will it have on the organization going forward? You, you do more than put on festivals, we should say. You give out grants and scholarships, funds, things like that.

ECKSTROM: Right, so one of the major things that it's facing is, you know, we won't, we won't be able to give out our partnership grants this year. Luckily, we will be able to continue to give out our, our scholarships because we do that through the Miss and Mr. Phoenix Pride pageant that we have yearly, and those contestants raise money for our scholarship programs.

But you know, things like our, our grants, we won't be able to do this year, you know, and, and what we wanted to do when we put out this statement is we also put out a survey to the community to ask what we could do differently and what we can do to maybe help move this organization forward.

And you know we've gotten a lot of responses and we are as an organization going to look at all of that in depth to hopefully help us, you know, maneuver into a new era of what Pride looks like, right.

GILGER: So what might that look like? What did you hear from folks and, and where do you think it could take you?

ECKSTROM: You know, I think one of the major things that we keep seeing is, is going back to a grassroots effort and, and really that's what Pride started as, you know, grassroots efforts of people that, that were tired and that were fed up with how they were treated and it seems like that seems to be an underlying theme of what people want Pride to go back to, which is something that is definitely needed in our current, in our current state of our country. And so, you know, we're going to be taking a look at how we can do that, how we can bring different groups of people together.

GILGER: Let me ask you lastly, Daniel, just like how you feel about all this, right? Like, you're not the only Pride organization in the country that's facing shortfalls like this, that's facing sponsorship cuts and donors cuts because of maybe this current administration, the current environment like you've mentioned.

Is it still important today or maybe even more important today, you think?

ECKSTROM: Absolutely. I think now more than ever, Pride is important because we are seeing a lot of things that are trying to stifle our Pride, are trying to you know, cast doubt and cast shadows over who we are as an LGBTQ+ community, and and I think it is very important to continue to support organizations like Pride.

There's a lot of different organizations throughout our community that do great work for the LGBT community, and I think that if the community wants these organizations to flourish, you know, we all need to kind of stand together and figure out how we move forward.