{"id":161428,"date":"2026-04-09T13:50:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T13:50:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/161428\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T13:50:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T13:50:16","slug":"corporate-sponsors-pull-back-on-pittsburgh-pride","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/161428\/","title":{"rendered":"Corporate Sponsors Pull Back on Pittsburgh Pride"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Sickler\"<\/a><\/p>\n

LYNDSEY SICKLER, BOARD MEMBER FOR PITTSBURGH PRIDE | PHOTO BY HANNAH FRANCES JOHANSSON \/ PMP NEWSROOM<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh\u2019s annual parade and festival celebrating LGBTQ+ pride is less than three months away, but miles from its funding goal as corporations step back from donating. Without enough money, organizers warn they will have to make big cuts.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh Pride is scheduled for\u00a0June 5-7<\/a>\u00a0in Allegheny Commons Park West,\u00a0located\u00a0on the city\u2019s North Side. The parade will take place on\u00a0June 7<\/a>, starting in Pittsburgh\u2019s Strip District neighborhood.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In past years, organizers raised at least half the funds for the event by early spring, says Dena Stanley, director of Pittsburgh Pride, which organizes the parade and festival each year. Stanley also is the executive director of the Pittsburgh-based, Black- and trans-led nonprofit\u00a0TransYOUniting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But this year, organizers say the group has raised only $80,000 as of April 2\u00a0\u2014\u00a0a far cry from\u00a0their goal of $500,000.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Many corporate donors have not responded\u00a0or said they lack the funds to donate, according to board member Lyndsey Sickler, who also serves as the executive director of Proud Haven, a nonprofit focused on transgender and queer youth struggling with housing insecurity.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile some of that is possible, the sheer volume of corporations that haven\u2019t stepped up or continue to make it difficult to connect with them is staggering,\u201d they say.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh Pride will make decisions about what to cut if they\u00a0haven\u2019t\u00a0raised enough funds by May, Stanley adds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The parade will continue to staff security and medics, Stanley says. But stages for paid performers, including the community stage and the children\u2019s stage, are on the chopping block. Paid cleanup crews could also be scrapped.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Six corporate sponsors have signed on this year \u2014 Sheetz, Macy\u2019s,\u00a0Trulieve, American Eagle Outfitters Inc.,\u00a0ConnectiveRx\u00a0and Covestro, totaling about $33,000, according to Stanley. The rest of the money raised so far comes from contracts with vendors, she says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Past sponsors like Walmart and Tito\u2019s Handmade Vodka have yet to offer any financial support for the 2026 parade. A Walmart\u00a0spokesperson\u00a0says the company\u00a0remains\u00a0focused on creating an environment where associates and customers feel like they belong.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tito\u2019s Handmade Vodka donates to more than 10,000 nonprofit events each year, according to a spokesperson for that company. In a statement, the company says they work to support as many organizations as possible and cannot continue to sponsor\u00a0the same events into perpetuity.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Stanley says she hopes to receive support from the state again this year and to work with the city to alleviate costs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe still have a little bit of time, so I\u2019m very optimistic that we will be able to make this happen,\u201d Stanley says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The exodus of corporate sponsors began last year,\u00a0Axios reported<\/a>. Organizers patched the gap with $197,000 in grant money from the state Department of Community and Economic Development and the state Tourism Office, which is housed within DCED.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year, we were able to get to a point where we were able to pay everything that we needed to pay,\u201d Stanley says. \u201cWe didn\u2019t have anything over or extra, but this year, I don\u2019t know what we\u2019re going to do.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

This year, Pittsburgh Pride hired one part-time seasonal employee to help organize. Stanley, Sickler and everyone else on the 14-member board are volunteers.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hannah Frances Johansson is a reporter for the Pittsburgh Media Partnership newsroom. She holds a master\u2019s degree from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. Reach her at\u00a0hannah.johansson@pointpark.edu.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u200dThe PMP Newsroom is a regional news service that focuses on government and enterprise reporting in southwestern Pennsylvania. Find out more information on foundation and corporate funders\u00a0here<\/a>.\u00a0\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LYNDSEY SICKLER, BOARD MEMBER FOR PITTSBURGH PRIDE | PHOTO BY HANNAH FRANCES JOHANSSON \/ PMP NEWSROOM Pittsburgh\u2019s annual…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161429,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[524,8987,73,75,74,72785],"class_list":{"0":"post-161428","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh","8":"tag-community","9":"tag-lgbtq","10":"tag-pittsburgh","11":"tag-pittsburgh-headlines","12":"tag-pittsburgh-news","13":"tag-pittsburgh-pride"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}