SF Pride Retires Debt

With the finances of the organization that produces the San Francisco Pride parade improving over the last couple years, officials said recently that the organization has completed retiring nearly $300,000 of outstanding debt ahead of next weekend's festivities.

The nonprofit San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee said in a June 13 news release that it has "made major progress toward financial stability, retiring a three-year debt burden, while simultaneously achieving record-breaking increases in key sponsorship contributions."

As of May 31, SF Pride completed a two-year strategic plan that allowed it to retire all its debt and repay a $65,000 loan from the Dorian Fund. That loan was made in 2011 as Pride was reeling in almost $200,000 of debt. In December 2010 a city controller's report put the debt at $225,000.

The Pride board has been working on the financial issues the past several years.

Board Treasurer David Currie said in the release that SF Pride is focused on its fiscal health, as well as allocating grants to community-based services and upcoming events such as the Dyke March, Trans March, and Pink Saturday.

Pride CEO Earl Plante, who was hired last December, is overseeing his first parade and festival, set for June 29-30. He has spent much of the year rebuilding relations with corporate sponsors and the release noted that sponsorships have increased.

"Sponsorship fundraising broke SF Pride's 2012 record with a 20 percent increase in total corporate cash donations to $782,199, and $1,615,550 in secured in-kind donations - a 44 percent increase over the previously highest rate secured in 2008," the release noted.

Some grassroots activists have taken issue with Pride's reliance on corporate sponsors. In letters and at public meetings, people have bemoaned the necessity of corporate sponsors even as the Pride parade and festival remain free events. (A $5 donation is suggested for the festival.)

"It's time to consider alternatives to such an expensive celebration, and return the commemoration of the Stonewall uprising to its political grassroots," local resident Charlie Hinton said in an email to the Bay Area Reporter. "The Pride Board has focused too much on corporate sponsors ... rather than listen to the community it supposedly represents."

Hinton also cited gay journalist Glenn Greenwald, who broke the Edward Snowden whistle-blower story. Earlier this year, Greenwald singled out several Pride sponsors in an article he posted after the Bradley Manning controversy erupted. (Manning, the WikiLeaks whistle-blower, was named a Pride grand marshal but the Pride board rescinded the honor.)

Plante noted that in its mission statement, SF Pride "prides itself on inclusion and openness to all social economic backgrounds."

He said that while the gate donations are funneled back to nonprofits through Pride's community partner program, the event remains free to the public.

"We also recognize that we are one of the few major Prides in the world that does not charge and since it costs over $4 million to produce the parade and celebration, it is essential to our bottom line that we engage corporate sponsors to pull off an event of our size and scale," Plante said in an email to the B.A.R.

Several of Pride's sponsors issued statements of support for the event, which is one of San Francisco's largest and brings in millions of dollars from tourists and the LGBT community.

"Our participation in SF Pride is more than an annual event for us," stated Valerie Klein, director of marketing and promotions for Clear Channel Media and Entertainment, "Our support of SF Pride and the LGBT community represents a value we implement on a day-to-day basis for our community, our listeners and viewers, and our employees."

Frances Fiorillo, senior vice president of people and in-flight service for Virgin America, another sponsor, said the company looked forward to welcoming aboard "the thousands of paradegoers from all over the nation who are kicking off their journeys in fabulous style ..."