Calgary Pride says it won’t be able to host its parade next year without additional help from the community.<\/p>\n
The non-profit is trying to raise $250,000 from the city’s residents within a few weeks to strengthen its financial position and organize the 2026 Calgary Pride Festival.<\/p>\n
“Like many queer-serving organizations, Calgary Pride is operating in an increasingly difficult funding environment,” the organization wrote in a statement. “Grant funding has become more limited and competitive.”<\/p>\n
Securing corporate sponsorship has also become harder as companies have rolled back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. These challenges left the non-profit with a $300,000 funding shortfall after its parade last year.<\/p>\n
Calgary Pride, which is poised to host its parade on Sept. 6, said despite adjusting its budget, it hasn’t been able to even out the imbalance.<\/p>\n
“While many circumstances have been outside our control, we must also own the decisions we made as an organization, learn from them and make changes where necessary,” the organization wrote.<\/p>\n
Riley Sogge, co-chair of Calgary Pride’s board of directors, added that the non-profit tried to budget for the decline in financial support, but the actual decline in funding has been “catastrophic.”<\/p>\n
The non-profit’s board is reviewing how to reduce costs further and making “difficult decisions” about future programming and events. “Nothing is off the table,” it stated, including its funding model and organizational structure.<\/p>\n
Calgary Pride has cancelled Indigo Nights and its inaugural gala, which had been previously postponed. It is also not planning any other programs, except Pride Week, until it secures additional funding.<\/p>\n
The organization also encouraged Calgarians to donate, talk to their employer about contributions and buy its 50\/50 raffle tickets to win a vacation and tickets to Pride on the Island featuring Trixie Mattel on Sept. 5.<\/p>\n
The news comes a month after the organization banned the University of Calgary from participating in this year’s Pride Parade due to its treatment of protesters in 2024.<\/p>\n
“The decision reflects community concerns about the university’s response to the pro-Palestinian encampment that was forcibly removed from campus in 2024, and the broader impact of these events on the community after a court case was filed in 2026,” read its statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Calgary Pride says it won’t be able to host its parade next year without additional help from the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177732,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[51,44381,5837,23793],"class_list":["post-177731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-calgary","tag-calgary","tag-calgary-pride","tag-parade","tag-pride-week"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}