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LGBTQ+
Nicole Ki

Twin Cities Pride raises over $70K in less than two days after cutting Target sponsorship

Large flags are carried down a street.
Thousands march and line the streets during the annual Twin Cities Pride march.
Nicole Neri for MPR News | 2024

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After Twin Cities Pride announced it would remove Target as a sponsor of its LGBTQ+ festival, the organization shared a fundraiser with a goal of $50,000 to cover the funding gap.

The link for the fundraiser went up on Sunday evening and by Monday evening — less than 24 hours later — Twin Cities Pride executive director Andi Otto said they reached their goal, which matched the $50,000 that Target donated to Twin Cities Pride last year.

The nonprofit, which claims to run the largest LGBTQ+ festival in Minnesota, decided to remove Target from its events this year because of the Minneapolis-based retailer’s announcement to end diversity, equity and inclusion goals last Friday.

“For people to realize how important the mission is and the support is, to take that time to do that is an absolutely incredible feeling. We know our community and our allies are strong and they're fierce, but this was just — we just did not expect it,” he said.

They have now raised a more than $72,000 as of late Tuesday afternoon from 1,173 donations. The funds mostly came from individual donations.

“This is by far the biggest individual donor campaign we’ve ever done,” said Otto.

According to Otto, the nonprofit decided to post a fundraising link after seeing the outpouring of support on Facebook from a previous story by MPR News on Twin Cities Pride’s decision to remove Target as a sponsor.

“It was actually a comment in the MPR story. There was someone who said if we set up a crowdfunding, watch how fast it would be raised. Our thing was, well we can certainly throw it out there. And so we put out our link to donation, and the response has been incredible. This was, this has truly, touch the hearts of us here at Twin Cities Pride and will make such a significant impact on the community this year,” said Otto.

The nonprofit also broke off a sponsorship with Sam’s Club this year because it dropped DEI efforts. Last year, the company donated $2,500 to Twin Cities Pride.

Otto said the donated funds will go toward paying performers and security and purchasing gender-affirming garments in their Rainbow Wardrobe, among other programming in June.