Amid DEI rollbacks, Pride events globally face a scale-back in corporate funding. The Drum asked marketing experts how brands can meaningfully support the cause.
Brands that treat Pride as an aesthetic might come to regret it (Tristan B/Unsplash)
Last year was a difficult one for Pride events. In October, Manchester Pride - one of the UK’s most high-profile and well-attended LGBT+ events – filed for bankruptcy. Organizers cited rising costs and a reduction in ticket sales for the decision. Elsewhere, Prides large and small have suffered financial woes, with many pointing to reductions in corporate sponsorship.
At the same time, LGBT+ communities face rising incidences of hate crimes and find themselves, in some countries, the increasing focus of authorities. To cite recent examples from the US, the Supreme Court declined an appeal to overturn gay marriage in November. The following month, a leaked memo from Attorney General Pam Bondi directed the FBI to consider ‘radical gender ideology’ as a factor when investigating ‘domestic terrorism.’ Meanwhile, President Trump issued a series of executive orders in 2025 to roll back DEI initiatives.
Against this backdrop, New York City Pride reported a $750,000 fall in sponsorship revenue, a reduction of around 20%. San Francisco Pride saw funders including Anheuser‑Busch, Comcast, Diageo, and Nissan pull sponsorship, amounting to a loss of $200-300k from a festival budget of c.$3.2m. Meanwhile, 39% of Fortune-1000 companies surveyed said they intended to reduce external Pride Month engagement - up from 9% in 2024.
The picture in the UK is similarly challenging. Some 75% of Pride events reported reduced corporate sponsorship last year, according to the Pride Organisers Network. On both sides of the Atlantic, smaller Prides have particularly suffered. In the US, one investigation found that smaller events lost 70-90% of corporate funding in 2025. In the UK, both Southampton and Plymouth Pride events were cancelled due to huge drops in funding. In the case of the former, organisers had previously used £20,000 of their own money to keep the event afloat.
While Pride events may be typically associated with summer months, organizers will tell you that the hard work of putting on parades, rallies, and community events often begins once the party is over. Away from the tentpole events, campaigning and community initiatives – and the fundraising that supports them – go on. For brands sincere about allyship, support now could be more welcome than ever. So, as we look to the year ahead, the question begs: how can brands meaningfully support Pride?
Ross Crump, founder and CEO of Ardent, explains that given the current climate, it’s understandable brands might hesitate in backing LGBT+ causes.
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”Brands that want to stay politically neutral or not upset the majority have found themselves in a particularly challenging position where mention, or indeed celebration of Pride, risks alienating large portions of their consumer base,” he explains. “Not to mention, they have also previously risked backlash from the LGBT+ community for rainbow-washing. Paired with challenging economic circumstances, brands are likely realizing it might be easier to say nothing at all.”
This corporate caution has contributed to the difficult climate for Pride events the world over. Tim Noblett, head of data at TMW, says that London Pride, for which he’s head of marketing, experienced a marked decline in sponsorship last year. He says this pressure is being felt at a time when the LGBT+ community needs these events more than ever.
“The UK is not a particularly welcoming place, and conditions are worsening,” he warns. “Pride and visibility and all the elements that are the reasons Pride exists are becoming more important. At the same time, they are becoming more difficult to put on at the level they have been previously.”
Noblett points to the recent Supreme Court ruling clarifying that terms such as ‘woman’ and ‘sex’ regard biological sex, a decision with broad implications for trans rights and the use of single-sex spaces. He also highlights last year’s ILGA-Europe Rainbow Map, in which the UK dropped six places to 22nd in terms of the safest EU countries for LGBT+ people, and received its lowest score (45.65%) ever.
Jamie Jefferson, co-founder and chief creative officer at independent agency Equator, and organizing committee member for Glasgow Pride, says there are no easy answers. “The optimist in me hopes for at least the Scottish government to take a firmer stand in support of DEI and, by extension, LGBT+ rights. But until that, or an economic turnaround, I fear we’ll continue to be under attack for quite some time – and we can do little more than fight as hard as possible to hold our ground.”
Jefferson concurs with Noblett on Pride’s resilience, saying: “Pride will go on regardless of the level of sponsorship, and is really more important than ever.”
Meanwhile, Anthony Leeds, head of global accounts at Propeller and co-director of communications at Outvertising, also emphasizes the current importance of the event – and stresses that corporate allyship is important internally too.
“This is no longer about getting Pride ‘right’, it’s about showing up at all,” he explains. “Your silence isn’t neutral. It has become very clear that there are corporate brands that place inclusivity and safety of their employees and customers at the heart of their business, and those that want to make a quick buck and look good doing it.”
The solution? “We need brands to get loud with us,” he says. “It’s time to really focus on creating business cultures, marketing, and community spaces that can remedy the harm we’re facing. A logo on your LinkedIn is fine, but have you invested in queer-supporting policies that make your employees’ lives and jobs safer? Have you thought about how you can financially support queer communities in and around your business?”
Leeds points to the Outvertising Advocacy Playbook, which he helped to create, for examples of how to get support right.
For Bryan Goodpastor, VP of foresight and cultural strategy at global brand design agency Marks, Nike and Patagonia provide sterling examples of brands doing purpose correctly. “There are brands that certainly have stood firm in their support of progress,” he says. “Nike and Kaepernick being the classic example. Brands like Patagonia have also been standouts. I think these brands have been successful not because they’re performative or because they’re glomming on the issue of the hour. They made a deep commitment that is not just purpose-led branding, but is part of their brand’s purpose.”
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There has long been hostility and skepticism towards brand involvement in Pride that seems self-serving. According to Pew Research, some 68% of LGBTQ+ adults say they believe brands only show support to further their interests, while only 16% believe brands do it because of a “genuine desire to celebrate LGBT+ people.” Younger LGBT+ individuals under 30 are the most skeptical, with 51% saying only a few or no companies support Pride for this reason.
Noblett sees a potential reduction in pinkwashing, as companies insincere in their support retract involvement with Pride, as a good thing. “Those that were looking for the looser, lighter touch approach of ‘I will put some money for my name or logo to be on Pride’ stepping away, if they don’t really believe in that necessarily, if there’s any doubt, then that’s not such a problem. Whereas those that do believe in the community, that want to support the community, are happy to stick around and are getting more involved.”
However, brands should think carefully before winding down support. One survey found that 80% of LGBT+ community members would be willing to boycott a brand that withdrew sponsorship for a Pride event. In the US, Target is perhaps the most high-profile example of a brand facing a customer boycott after rolling back its DEI efforts, through a period in which it lost around $20bn in market value.
Moreover, Goodpaster points out that companies that support Pride merely as a pinkwashing exercise, without adequate thought or planning, may not even enjoy an increase in sales or a reputation bump. So, mishandling the issue of allyship, or doing it flippantly, amounts to a lose-lose.
Goodpastor charts a shift from the ‘performative allyship’ of the early 2010s to hopefully something more sincere emerging today. “I think Pride globally has been treated almost like a seasonal activation,” he explains. “Whether that’s applying the rainbow aesthetic, sponsoring events, or even retail activations, it’s been seen as a capitalist opportunity.”
“Broadly, the notion of this performative identity that we gave birth to in the early 2000s is pretty hollow. And I think people are shifting strongly from that. And so where that’s going, I don’t know. I think it could be a lot more meaningful, a lot more deeply connected to the human condition.”
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He adds: “Certainly younger audiences have looked to brands to be representative of their own stance on social issues, and so what has been kind of the norm has now fallen into question under political pressure.”
So, how can brands ensure authenticity in their support for Pride? Like the writing in a stick of rock, the commitment should run all the way through an organization.
Noe Marti, VP marketing strategy and operations at GumGum, says that having LGBT+ internal voices is essential to successful outward messaging. “Don’t show up for Pride just when it’s convenient or trending, show up because you genuinely care about the community,” he says. “If your brand doesn’t have the right internal voices that are part of the queer community and who can provide the right feedback and advice, it’s better to pause and learn rather than do something superficial.”
Goodpastor points out that having these voices is also beneficial for creative output. “You can’t develop anything new or remarkable in an echo chamber,” he explains. “So while it’s easy to make a capitalist argument for diversity, the reality is that sameness doesn’t generate anything worthwhile.”
“Breakthrough ideas, truly culture-shifting thinking, only come out of isolation and marginalization. So, if you think of the Harlem Renaissance or ball culture, both of which are now very much mainstream, these things did not come out of the mainstream. They came out of resistance. So, if anything, maybe this friction will give birth to some more declarative, more meaningful commitment.”
To make the point, Goodpastor points to a quote from Gertrude Stein: “There may be no peace where there is calm”. Here’s hoping for a little more peace in 2026.