COLUMBIA — Despite a national downward trend in corporate engagement in Pride Month, Columbia's largest Pride event says a lack of funding is not an issue.
Mid-Missouri PrideFest is a two-day event in Columbia in the fall that celebrates the LGBTQ+ community.
Vendors line the downtown Columbia streets, and musical artists perform. The event is pushed to later in the year to ensure University of Missouri students can attend.
Joe Jefferies, the fundraising director of the organization, said PrideFest's vendor sponsor fundraising launched Sunday and is already at 20% of its goal.
"We also had one of our great corporate sponsors already come back," Jefferies said. "So we're feeling good on that."
Jefferies added that one area where Pride groups may see a lack of funding is at the federal level, and PrideFest has never received funding from that level.
"Those types of things are things we expected we might see a drop off, but we are anticipating not having those dollars this year," Jefferies said. "We do have some built-in resiliency and flexibility because we are a smaller program. We have such amazing, loyal, wonderful sponsors, who really do step up to the plate."
According to a survey by Gravity Research, taken by more than 200 corporate executives across the country, 39% of respondents said they plan to scale back public Pride Month engagements this year, according to CNN.
Due to the number of local sponsors and donations, PrideFest can continue supporting the LGBTQ+ community throughout the entire year, Jefferies said.
Jefferies added that although having large funding is a huge benefit, it is not everything for the cause.
"We feel very strongly that we're going to put on Pride no matter what. Pride is something that can happen with $1 or with $100,000," Jefferies said. "Whatever we bring in, we are going to put on the absolute best party we can."
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