{"id":376535,"date":"2026-06-26T23:52:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T23:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/376535\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T23:52:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T23:52:09","slug":"the-big-sponsors-lost-in-2025-wont-be-back-but-for-san-francisco-pride-it-doesnt-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/376535\/","title":{"rendered":"The big sponsors lost in 2025 won\u2019t be back. But for San Francisco Pride, it doesn\u2019t matter."},"content":{"rendered":"

After losing several major sponsors and struggling with funding in 2025, S.F. Pride\u2019s finances are back on track ahead of this year\u2019s event on Saturday and Sunday, the organization said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2025, S.F. Pride lost several high-profile sponsors<\/a>, including Comcast, Diageo, and Anheuser-Busch, leaving the organization scrambling to fill a $300,000 hole in its budget. San Francisco was part of a wave of corporate withdrawals from Pride organizations across the country, which S.F. Pride director Suzanne Ford said was in response to the Trump administration\u2019s anti-DEI campaigns.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Though other Pride organizations across the country have reported financial difficulties,<\/a> the group\u2019s director of sponsorships, Nguyen Pham, called the S.F. Pride\u2019s 2026 outreach response \u201cbetter than 2024.\u201d<\/p>\n

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While some big names like Diageo and Anheuser-Busch haven\u2019t returned, Pham said that long-time partners Kaiser Permanente and new backers like Philz Coffee and the San Francisco Opera have stepped in to fill the gap. \u201cIt seems like these large corporations are feeling the heat from their employee base and customers,\u201d Pham said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For S.F. Pride, rebuilding its funding portfolio is about rebuilding connections. \u201cRegardless of the tenor of the conversations in a prior year, we will always extend the olive branch to invite people back in,\u201d said Pham. \u201cLast year, we were doing quite a bit of calling out. This was the year of calling in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not everyone is enthusiastic about the return in force of corporate partnerships, though. Boof Pride, an independent ticketed event, critiqued the main organization on its event invitation<\/a> as a \u201cmanaged cultural event now brought to you in part by your bank, your airline, your health insurance provider, or lack thereof, and our party planner in chief, Mayor Lurie.\u201d (Mayor Lurie appeared Thursday night at the Pride House World Cup Watch Party and spoke at the Pride Human Rights Summit.)\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to Boof, \u201cthe Bureau [of Boof] is not impressed.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Boof, which was started in 2024, organizes parties and late-night events, describing itself as a \u201cqueer-led underground brand.\u201d This year will be its first-ever Pride Weekend party, headlined by queer artists like Brooke Candy and NENE H. Promotional videos show dark, crowded rooms of dancers punctuated by lasers and overlaid with thumping music.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Matt Greenwald, one of the event\u2019s co-creators, said that corporate sponsors \u201csupport in a way that feels sanitized and palatable for a straight audience.\u201d Greenwald has mixed feelings about the main event, calling it \u201ccapitalistic,\u201d and cited the selection of several non-queer artists and performers at this upcoming event. \u201cReally, it\u2019s more of a feeling than anything else,\u201d he said about his view.\u00a0<\/p>\n

S.F. Pride is aware of criticisms about the \u201ccorporatization of Pride\u201d and the transformation of Pride and LGBTQ+ marches into marketing events, according to Pham. Corporate sponsors run themed floats in the parade, and massive banners above the main stage at the parade display the main sponsor\u2019s logo during all performances.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some of this, Pham says, is inevitable. \u201cCorporatization of Pride is a perennial conversation. To put on a very expensive free event requires a lot of capital, but we do want to make sure we center our community.\u201d (Boof tickets are listed<\/a> at $92.95, though the site says that financial assistance is available.)<\/p>\n

S.F. Pride is making some effort to expand beyond its corporate sources of funding \u2014 last year, the organization launched a philanthropy program to accept donations for individuals and foundations, though it currently accounts for less than 10 percent of the event\u2019s budget. Pham says this helps to \u201cdiversify the funding streams\u201d and keep the event responsive to the community.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And sponsoring Pride is not a no-strings-attached advertising opportunity. \u201cWe do require a clause that requires [sponsors to] endorse our mission, and we have commitments in writing that [they] will protect the community with things like equal benefits [for their own employees],\u201d Pham said.<\/p>\n

Still, smaller, independent events like Boof provide an alternative. The main event, Greenwald said, is \u201cthe socially acceptable version of Pride.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

At Boof, he said, \u201cWe are going to push the envelope and do things that make straight people uncomfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOurs is for the queer underground. It\u2019s for the locals, it\u2019s for the community, it\u2019s not a tourist event,\u201d Greenwald added. \u201cWe will never get the same level of recognition, but you have to fight for your own recognition.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

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When a San Francisco neighborhood has a Mission Local reporter, it means someone is there. We’re following new housing projects proposed on your block, keeping tabs on what your district supervisor is up to at City Hall, and letting you know when longtime businesses close (and new ones open). When big news breaks, we already know the context.<\/p>\n

Most neighborhoods don’t have that. Yours could.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That’s what Mission Local is building. Our reporters don’t parachute in — they write consistently on San Francisco, so you’re never reading about your neighborhood from someone who just looked it up.<\/p>\n

So far we are in five of San Francisco’s neighborhoods. But we know all San Franciscans deserve our kind of coverage. Will you join us?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After losing several major sponsors and struggling with funding in 2025, S.F. Pride\u2019s finances are back on track…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":376536,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[3145,141770,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-376535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-pride","tag-pride-2026","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=376535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}