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Axios
2 days ago
- Business
- Axios
Charlotte Pride prepares for deficit as corporate sponsors scale back
Charlotte Pride is navigating how to prepare for its annual festival and parade as corporate sponsors turn away from supporting LGBTQ+ organizations across the country. Why it matters: Meredith Thompson, Charlotte Pride's managing director, tells Axios she expects the organization to face a financial deficit heading into their annual parade and festival in August. The Pride Festival will be Aug. 16-17 in First Ward Park and surrounding streets — a shift from its previous home on South Tryon. Context: The risk for engaging around LGBTQ+ issues has increased 42% since this time last year, according to GravityResearch insights, as Axios' Eleanor Hawkins reported. Axios has confirmed companies like Verizon and Walmart are scaling back support in parades across the country. State of play: Some sponsors have stepped back, while others have chosen to remain involved while keeping their name quiet or have decided to support other programming Charlotte Pride offers year-round. Charlotte Pride declined to name specific companies that have decreased their support this year, however. What they're saying: "When a sponsor says, 'I want to support you, but I want to do it quietly and I don't want to be visibly aligned with Pride,' that's sort of hard to hear over and over, because our mission is visibility," Thompson says. There are also sponsors she has yet to hear back from. The latest: Mecklenburg County's fiscal year 2026 budget allocated $125,000 in economic development dollars for Charlotte Pride. Between the lines: Contracts with festival sponsors are often on an annual basis. Some of the sponsors for the upcoming festival include Krispy Kreme, Novant Health, McDonald's, Adams Beverage, PNC Bank and Bank of America. By the numbers: It costs roughly $760,000 to put the festival on. That's just hard costs, Thompson says. It doesn't include expenses like payroll. "It costs a lot of money to put on a free event of this size," Thompson says. "It's totally worth it for us and for the city." The festival generated $15.8 million in total economic impact in 2023, according to Charlotte Pride's website, which reflects data from the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority, Thompson says. The festival also accounted for more than 16,500 hotel rooms. The big picture: Charlotte Pride is leaning on individual donors and grant funding to continue to host the city's largest annual event that attracts roughly 250,000 people a year, Thompson says. About 10,000 people have marched in the parade annually in recent years. There will be a ticketed VIP section during the festival. Proceeds from ticket sales will support future festivals. Thompson says the goal is to keep the festival and the parade free, but they are considering more ticketed programming for future festivals to help make ends meet. The bottom line: "I feel like there is such a vibrant LGBTQ and ally community in Charlotte that I just can't see us diminishing or going away," Thompson says. "It's not going to be easy though."
Forbes
4 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
Pride Month 2025 Exposes The Limits Of Corporate Allyship
Activists carry a rainbow pride flag during the WorldPride 2025 parade in Washington, DC. ... More Photographer: Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg If you scrolled through corporate social accounts last June, your feed was likely full of rainbow logos and Pride Month tributes. This year, the contrast is hard to miss. Many of those same companies have gone quiet—no rainbow avatars, no influencer campaigns, no public declarations of support for LGBTQ+ employees or customers. What happened? The short answer: political pressure and shifting corporate risk calculations have led many major brands to retreat from Pride Month in 2025. While companies continued Pride campaigns in June 2024—albeit more cautiously after the Bud Light controversy and Target backlash—a noticeable shift has now taken place. According to Gravity Research, which advises companies on social and political risks, 39% of surveyed brand executives planned to reduce Pride-related engagement this year, with 61% citing the Trump administration as their reason. Not a single respondent said they planned to increase it. Since taking office, the Trump administration has targeted corporate DEI efforts with executive orders threatening investigations into "illegal" programs and suggesting companies could face regulatory scrutiny—or even blocked mergers—if they don't comply. Conservative "go woke, go broke" campaigns have amplified the pressure, and companies have responded by scaling back or going silent entirely. This retreat from corporate Pride Month initiatives is measurable. An analysis by tracked companies that displayed Pride-themed rainbow logos on LinkedIn. Of 344 companies that used rainbow logos in 2023, 61% did so again in 2024, and only 46% of those continued the practice in 2025. The below graphic shows examples of ten of the companies that did not update their logos to be Pride-themed 2025, after doing so in previous years. I reached out to these companies to ask why they changed their Pride strategy, but none provided comments. Companies that didn't change their logos to celebrate Pride in 2025 The shift extends beyond visuals to actual spending. Digiday reported that LGBTQ+ influencers who once relied on June partnerships for significant annual income faced near-total silence from brands this year as Pride-related advertising spend plummeted. Even longstanding Pride parade and festival sponsors have pulled back. According to Gravity Research's 2025 Pride Pulse Poll, 37 percent of respondents decreased sponsorships of external Pride events. The impact is tangible: according to The Drum, NYC Pride faced a $750,000 decrease in sponsorships, San Francisco Pride a $200,000 decrease, with brands including Mastercard, Anheuser-Busch, PepsiCo and Comcast withdrawing support. This corporate pullback comes precisely when LGBTQ+ representation and purchasing power are at historic highs. According to Gallup, 9.3% of US adults now identify as LGBTQ+—a number that has doubled since 2020 and reaches over 20% among Gen Z adults. Merrill estimates this community's US purchasing power at $1.4 trillion annually. While Pride's origins lie in liberation and equality rather than corporate "rainbow capitalism," company support still matters to employees and customers. Randstad's 2024 Workmonitor Pulse Survey found that only 49% of LGBTQ+ employees felt comfortable discussing their sexuality or gender identity at work, while 57% want their companies to introduce inclusive policies and take public stances on LGBTQ+ issues. Despite administrative pressure, public support remains strong. According to GLAAD, 71% of Americans agree that brands should be able to show support for the LGBTQ+ community during Pride Month. Yet companies increasingly view Pride as a liability rather than an opportunity, turning public celebration into strategic retreat. Despite pressure from the current administration, the public still appears supportive of Pride support from companies. According to GLAAD, 71% of Americans agree that brands and companies should be able to show support to the LGBTQ+ community during Pride Month. But still companies seem to be changing their view of Pride from a brand opportunity to a perceived liability. The public-facing celebration has turned into a strategic retreat. Corporate support for LGBTQ+ rights has long walked the line between genuine allyship and opportunistic marketing. What we're seeing in 2025 reveals what happens when that support faces real pressure: many companies choose silence over solidarity. The consequences extend far beyond missing logos and cancelled sponsorships. These choices send clear messages—to employees, customers, and the broader public—about whose rights companies will defend when the stakes get high. This Pride Month, fewer brands are waving rainbow flags. But the communities those flags represent haven't gone anywhere. They're watching, taking notes, and remembering which companies stood by them when it mattered most.
Axios
6 days ago
- Business
- Axios
National brands pull back from New Orleans Pride amid Trump-era pressure
Major corporations are scaling back support for New Orleans Pride events amid pressure from the Trump administration, organizers tells Axios. Why it matters: The retreat signals a broader shift away from corporate diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The big picture: National sponsorships are down this year for Pridefest and Black Pride NOLA, organizers tell Axios New Orleans. "We have absolutely seen that trend continue locally," says Pridefest organizer Jack Browning. Potential sponsors have declined, saying they are cutting back on DEI spending or they are staying out of the political fray, he says. Others say their pot of money is just smaller this year. Nikki Alexander-Tumblin, the founder of Black Pride NOLA, says her organization has "had to figure it out" this year with fewer sponsors, but still put together a full slate of events. By the numbers: 39% of corporations nationwide are scaling back on external Pride Month involvement this year, according to Gravity Research data. This is a sharp increase from last year, when only 9% said they were changing their external Pride engagement. Roughly 6 in 10 companies cite the Trump administration as the top reason for this change, while conservative activists and conservative policymakers come in second and third, per Gravity Research. Zoom out: Corporate sponsors have pulled out of Pride events in New York City, D.C., Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Columbus, Virginia and elsewhere, too. The move also comes amid increased skepticism of "rainbow capitalism," a term describing companies using Pride imagery and language to appeal to LGBTQ+ shoppers each June. Go deeper. Yes, but: Pridefest in New Orleans is making up the difference with community support, Browning says. New Orleans & Co., the city's tourism arm, kicked in $5,000 to pay for the event's headliner, and more than 20 community members donated to be ambassadors. Other sponsors include local businesses like the Phoenix, Entergy, Robért Fresh Market, Crescent Care and IV Waste. Shell, which has a large presence in New Orleans, is sponsoring this year's Pride parade. And Viiv Healthcare, Gilead, Yahoo, Cox, Operation Restoration and New Orleans & Co. are sponsoring New Orleans Black Pride Weekend, Alexander-Tumblin says. Stunning stat: About 5% of adults in New Orleans identify as LGBTQ+, one of the highest percentages in the country. The bottom line:"I think we as LGBTQ people have found that when our backs are against the wall and we need to find ways to do this on our own, we will find a way," Browning says. Disclosure: Cox Enterprises is the owner of Axios Media, which has editorial independence.
Bloomberg
11-06-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Less Corporate Pride Is an LGBTQ Opportunity
This is a moment for queer and trans people to embrace their history of challenging inequities. By Michael Arceneaux writes about pop culture, politics, race, sexuality, religion, class and gender. He is the author of "I Don't Want To Die Poor" and "I Can't Date Jesus: Love, Sex, Family, Race, and Other Reasons I've Put My Faith in Beyoncé." Save Pride Month is well underway, but you might not notice it if you walked into major retail stores or scrolled through many corporate social media accounts. Instead of companies loudly showing support, rainbow-branded merchandise and logos have quietly disappeared. Corporations, it seems, have followed through on pledges to scale back their visible displays of allyship. An April report from Gravity Research, a risk management research firm, said that nearly 40% of companies planned to do so this year. For longstanding critics of 'rainbow capitalism,' a term referring to businesses that use imagery and language to appeal to LGBTQ shoppers like me, the decline in corporate support is unsurprising. A recent Pew Research Center poll found that 68% of LGBTQ adults thought that all or most companies promoting Pride do so because they think it's good for business.
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Some Companies Plan To Reduce Pride Month Engagements, Cite 'Increasing Pressure Not To Engage And Speak Out On Issues' As Leading Factor
Some 39% of companies plan to reduce Pride Month engagements this year, a recent poll of more than 200 corporate executives conducted by Gravity Research found. Despite Pride Month becoming a splashy marketing event for brands over the last decade, respondents say that the Trump administration's policies towards DEI have them rethinking their participation. Fear of reprisal is the driving factor behind reduced Pride Month engagement for 61% of executives. Pushback from conservative activists and other GOP policymakers are also major concerns for the companies, the survey found. Don't Miss: Maker of the $60,000 foldable home has 3 factory buildings, 600+ houses built, and big plans to solve housing — 'Scrolling To UBI' — Deloitte's #1 fastest-growing software company allows users to earn money on their phones. "It's clear that the administration and their supporters are driving the change," Gravity Research President Luke Hartig told CNN. "Companies are under increasing pressure not to engage and speak out on issues." The subdued approach to Pride Month is a part of a broader pivot in corporate America. CNN says that many businesses are now scrapping all kinds of programs designed to increase diversity in the workplace, thanks to pressure from the administration. However, advocates for gay, lesbian, and transgender Americans say that companies that bend to the pressure and downplay support for LGBTQ+ customers and employees risk losing business, especially as a Gallup poll found that more Americans than ever before – 9.3% – identify as LGBTQ+. Trending: Can you guess how many retire with a $5,000,000 nest egg? . "By weaponizing federal agencies like the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Justice Department to intimidate companies that support LGBTQ+ inclusion, this administration is creating an anti-business, anti-worker atmosphere," Eric Bloem, vice president of corporate citizenship at the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, told CNN. "Companies that show up only when it's convenient, or backtrack the moment there's political pressure, risk losing trust and credibility," he said. The executives polled by Gravity Research seem to be aware of this. Sixty-five percent of respondents said that they were actively preparing for backlash over their decision to reduce involvement in Pride Month by crafting reactive communication strategies and training HR teams to manage internal sentiment.A quieter approach to Pride Month marketing doesn't necessarily mean that companies are backpedaling on support for their LGBTQ+ customers and employees. "I do see there's pivoting happening (for Pride Month). What I don't see is corporates walking away from the LGBTQ community," the president of advocacy group GLAAD, Sarah Kate Ellis, told CNN. "They don't want to be caught in the crosshairs of this presidency, and they don't want to become the headline like Target or Bud Light." Bud Light sales plummeted in 2023 after a partnership with transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney. That same year, activists and customers attacked Target over its Pride merchandise. The backlash also led to a major drop in sales for the retailer. Instead, "Companies are going deeper and wider, rather than supporting an event," Ellis said. "They're finding better ways to thread their work supporting the LGBTQ community into their organizations." Read Next: Maximize saving for your retirement and cut down on taxes: . Deloitte's fastest-growing software company partners with Amazon, Walmart & Target – Image: Shutterstock UNLOCKED: 5 NEW TRADES EVERY WEEK. Click now to get top trade ideas daily, plus unlimited access to cutting-edge tools and strategies to gain an edge in the markets. Get the latest stock analysis from Benzinga? APPLE (AAPL): Free Stock Analysis Report TESLA (TSLA): Free Stock Analysis Report This article Some Companies Plan To Reduce Pride Month Engagements, Cite 'Increasing Pressure Not To Engage And Speak Out On Issues' As Leading Factor originally appeared on © 2025 Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. Sign in to access your portfolio
