Nashville’s Pride festival has come a long way since the city’s first Pride March in June 1988. Back then, around 125 congregated at Fannie Mae Dees (Dragon) Park for a march through Vanderbilt University and then across West End Avenue to Centennial Park. Bearing signs and facing protests, that group of activists made a statement about LGBT visibility and built the foundations for the climate of greater social acceptance we now enjoy. By 1995, Nashville Pride was seeing attendance numbers as high as 8,000.
As Pride continued to become more acceptable to, and in some cases even embraced by, the mainstream culture, Nashville Pride, like festivals around the country, became an even more elaborate affair, requiring a large body of volunteers, a sizeable budget, and a full year of planning to pull off.
According to the Pride Executive Board, “It costs well over $100,000 to put on Pride every year.” That six-figure budget has allowed the event to thrive, but there have been significant challenges. In 2009, times were bleak for Nashville Pride. The organization was, by then, tens of thousands of dollars in debt and was in desperate need of financial restructuring and support in order to ensure its longevity.
It took four long years and incredibly hard work by its all-volunteer board for Nashville Pride to emerge debt free in 2013. This was accomplished by cutting costs and vigorous fundraising. According to Phil Cobucci, PR & Marketing Director for Nashville Pride, “Funds are raised through a variety of sources. Most notably is our signature Friends with Benefits program, which anyone can join. For a tax deductible donation of either $150 or $200, you will get access to our annual events like Chefs for Pride and Martinis and Jazz, as well as VIP access to the festival. You can learn more about this program at www.nashvillepride.org/donate. In addition to this program, we have great corporate sponsors, private donations, and event partners who help put our events on.”
In 2013, Joseph Woodson was elected President of Nashville Pride. Rather than rest on their success, Woodson immediately charged the board with the task of continuing to operate in a lean and fiscally responsible manner, as well as to develop a rainy day fund to cover costs of putting the annual Pride event. This fund is literally a rainy day fund, as it was established in case a festival was a complete washout due to weather.
According to Cobucci, “We are proud to say our all-volunteer board has worked very hard over the last six years. Nashville Pride is now officially 100 percent out of debt. We are also happy to say that after just one year, we are about half way to having the money necessary for a full year rainy day fund.” Nashville's LGBT community need no longer worry: Pride is healthier than it has ever been in Nashville!