Bay Area Reporter - March 19, 2009
Seth Hemmelgarn, s.hemmelgarn@ebar.com

However, outgoing Executive Director Lindsey Jones said that Pride is committed to keeping the event open to all with voluntary gate fees rather than charge admission.

"This economic climate has forced us to ask ourselves some very difficult questions," Jones said in a statement. "Do we cut subsidies for our community-run stages and venues or do we institute a mandatory fee to enter Pride and risk turning away youth and those who cannot afford to pay to attend?"

"Charging a mandatory fee at the entrance gates could easily bring in $500,000, but we believe doing so would fly in the face of our San Francisco values, which are to ensure that all people, regardless of economic status, have access to their Pride. No one will be turned away," added Jones, who also stated that Pride will soon launch its first online giving campaign.

Cuts are being made with the idea of safeguarding the financial viability of the event and maintaining Pride's annual grants to Bay Area nonprofits at or near 2008 levels, according to Jones, who is leaving Pride after this year's event.

The operations portion of Pride's budget has had only minor cuts in order to ensure people going to the event are safe and have a good experience. Administrative, education, and outreach costs are experiencing the largest cuts, Jones said in an e-mail.

For example, in education and outreach, the Threat Level Lavender quarterly speaker series has been cut.

In an e-mail, Jones wrote that the $300,000 cut wasn't made because of "huge reductions from sponsors" - there's only been a 7 percent drop in commitments to date over 2008 - but because future income levels from sources such as donations at the gate and advertising aren't determined until close to the June festivities.

Pride board and staff are also looking at additional budget cuts that would total $100,000. "These cuts are being taken from existing expenses that Pride anticipates we will be able to get donated from the community," such as T-shirts and meals for volunteers, which respectively account for $10,000 and $15,000 a year, wrote Jones.

With all cuts, this year's budget will be $1.35 million. Jones wrote that, "the board wil HomoHipHop producer Lamont Young said his stage has received less funding this year. l revisit the budget every two to four weeks and if income benchmarks have been met, some funds will be put back into expense categories."

Community grants

Last year, approximately $194,374 in grants were distributed to the community through Pride's parntership program.

Asked if there's a chance that the grants will be smaller, or if fewer community partners will receive grants this year, Jones responded, "Probably, and hopefully not."

"We are doing everything we can to keep grants at 100 percent of last year's total granted. ... However, grants are based on gate donations and beverage sales. If these go down, there will be a reduction in grants," wrote Jones.

This year, the Pride Committee has asked stages and venues, such as Leather Alley and HomoHipHop, to take over a greater share of the cost of running each of their stages.

The current budget for stages and venues that the Pride committee provides, not including the main stage, is $37,995.25.

"As it becomes clear how other income sources are fairing in the lead-up to the event, this budget category may change accordingly," Jones said in a statement.

Lamont Young, who produces the HomoHipHop stage, said the total amount they're getting from Pride this year is about $2,100, which is 30 percent less than what they received last year.

He said HomoHipHop is teaming up with the Soul of Pride - "the African American stage and village" - to create fundraisers. Ideas so far include having an event in an Oakland night club, or a jazz performance in the city.

Whatever he does, Young said he "would rather not go for corporate sponsorship." He said the logos on display at Pride are "a bit exhausting sometimes," and he wants to keep the stage "for the people, by the people."

Lisa Williams, venue manager for Soul of Pride and the secretary for Pride's board, said although they're working together on raising money, the stages will remain separate.

There have been discussions about cuts since November 2008 among Pride's various committees. Meetings were also arranged to address individual venue concerns and fundraising strategies, and Jones set up two fundraising and sponsorship trainings last month.

Jones said in a statement that the Pride Committee is pursuing new sponsors, "as is done every year while also exploring additional grant opportunities related to the organization's education and outreach programming."

Other news

The state Supreme Court is set to decide by June 3 whether to uphold Prop 8. Pride is exploring opportunities to either celebrate or decry the court's decision at this year's parade and celebration, according to Jones.

Pride is looking for volunteer graphic designers interested in generating artwork for the "Form a Perfect Union" outreach campaign, which will be a visual display of the LGBT community's response to Prop 8.

The campaign title refers to the theme for this year's Pride, which is "In Order to Form a More Perfect Union ..."

The campaign will include downloadable fliers that can be posted in the community or included on social networking site profiles.

Volunteers can also join an e-action list to receive updates about Prop 8 and participate in the fliering campaign. To sign up, e-mail hope@sfpride.org.

In other news, proposals are being accepted for the eighth annual float resource program design contest. The winners will receive logistical support, including use of one of the Pride Committee's float trailers.

Nonprofit organizations that want to participate must submit a design proposal to the Pride committee, who will look at all proposals and select organizations on the basis of originality, artistic merit, relevance to LGBT communities, diversity, and other criteria as determined by the committee.

Eligible organizations must have a mission that involves service to LGBT communities, people living with HIV/AIDS or breast cancer, or positive outreach to the general public about those issues within the nine-county Bay Area.

Organizations that would like to participate in the float resource program must commit at least five volunteers to work on the construction of the float and train a minimum of six contingent monitors for the parade route. Contingent monitors must attend one of the Pride Committee contingent monitor training sessions in June.

All proposals must be received in the Pride office no later than 5 p.m. Friday, April 10. Send proposals to SF Pride, attention: Float Design Competition,1800 Market Street, PMB #5, San Francisco, CA 94102.

The 39th annual Pride festivities are set for June 27-28. For more information, visit http://www.sfpride.org.

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