Faced with 'catastrophic' shortfalls, Calgary Pride to restructure funding model

Calgary Pride is rethinking how its funding structure will look like going forward, after experiencing major funding shortages this year.

On Friday, the non-profit announced it was looking to raise $250,000 to strengthen its financial position and organize future Calgary Pride events.

The drop was very noticeable last year, with adjustments made to address the declining funding, said Calgary Pride director-at-large Andrea Scheelar.

“We adjusted how we deliver Pride to reduce our expenses and really understood that we were going to see a decline in funding for this year, but the drop has just been catastrophic,” Scheelar said. “I think the best word to use for it is ‘catastrophic.’ We expected a decrease, we braced for a decrease, but this has just been devastating.”

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A majority of the group’s funding comes around June and July when sponsorships open for their parade and events, Scheelar said.

Grants also generally come in within that time frame, but this drop was unprecedented.

“We get grants year after year, and this year we got maybe 20 per cent of the grants that we applied for that we usually get, and our corporate sponsorship is way down, and again we expected a drop. We didn’t expect this kind of a drop,” she said.

This year, Calgary Pride took a $10,000 hit through all the organizations that have pulled out this year.

“Regardless of the financial loss, we stand behind our decision to deny certain folks’ participation, certain organizations’ participation in the parade simply because it doesn’t align with our ethics or ethical sponsorship model,” she said.

There’s been a notable shift of companies that are partnering or sponsoring Pride, while also moving away from comprehensive DEI programs, Scheelar said.

Scheelar believes the shift is possibly attributed through to the political rhetoric that is coming from the United States and creeping into Canada, demonstrated through increased hate speech online, she said.

“We’re seeing companies drop their DEI programs and we’re seeing if we’ve got organizations that have business in the States, but are headquartered here or have divisions here, we’re seeing that drop because they have to comply with the laws in the States,” Scheelar said. “We’re seeing that kind of translate into a number of different areas where a lot of organizations are reticent to really be as overt in their sponsoring of Pride in Alberta.”