Executive Director KishaLynn Elliott, hired less than a year ago with the explicit goal of restoring stability to the embattled organization, will resign in November. Her departure comes as San Diego Pride prepares to lay off full-time employees, reduce other positions to part-time and potentially overhaul its signature parade and festival, which annually attract hundreds of thousands of people to San Diego.
"San Diego Pride is navigating significant financial challenges that require difficult decisions about our organizational structure and operations," board co-chairs Martha Henderson and Paris Quion said in a statement announcing Elliott's departure.
The announcement represents another extraordinary setback for a nonprofit that has spent more than five decades serving San Diego's LGBTQ community. But a SanDiegoVille examination of financial disclosures, organizational announcements and board records reveals a more complicated picture than an organization simply running out of money.
San Diego Pride's last publicly available federal tax return, covering 2024, reported approximately $5.36 million in revenue, $5.33 million in expenses and a modest $32,369 surplus. The organization ended that year with approximately $3.68 million in net assets, hardly the balance sheet of an organization that had already exhausted its resources.
Those figures, however, also reveal a nonprofit operating with virtually no financial cushion between annual revenue and spending. Its 2023 audited financial statements showed a roughly $120,000 deficit, while annual revenue declined by approximately $400,000 between 2023 and 2024.
More importantly, the organization's complete financial results for 2025, the year when a controversial festival headliner triggered a wave of sponsor withdrawals and community boycotts, have not yet been publicly released. Its 2026 financial performance is similarly unavailable, leaving the full extent of its current financial deterioration unknown.
According to reporting by ABC 10News, Pride has acknowledged a significant current-year deficit, citing declining sponsorships, reduced grants and rising security and event-production expenses. The organization told the station earlier this month that its latest tax returns were still being prepared.
The next federal filing, expected by mid-November if the organization received the customary extension, could provide the clearest picture yet of whether Pride's financial troubles represent a temporary revenue shock or a more serious structural problem.
Yet the organization's financial difficulties are only part of the story.
Since November 2023, San Diego Pride has cycled through seven executive leaders, including several interim appointments, in a remarkable period of instability for an organization responsible for one of the region's largest annual events.
The upheaval began with the abrupt departure of longtime executive director Fernando Zweifach López in November 2023. López, who had led the organization since 2018 and previously served as its director of operations, left without a publicly disclosed explanation.
Deputy Executive Director Sarafina Scapicchio and Director of Education and Advocacy Jen LaBarbera subsequently assumed leadership as interim co-executive directors. In August 2024, the organization appointed Leane Marchese as its permanent executive director, but she departed approximately eight months later, with Pride stating that she was pursuing another opportunity.
Consultant Kristin Flickinger then assumed interim leadership, followed by Madonna Cacciatore, a former Los Angeles Pride executive director, in September 2025. Elliott was announced as the next permanent executive director that December, becoming the first Black lesbian to hold the position permanently.
At the time, Pride celebrated the appointment as a historic turning point and an opportunity to rebuild relationships following a particularly contentious year.
Now Elliott is leaving after approximately nine months in the role, with no publicly announced successor.
The turnover has extended to the board itself, where co-chair positions have changed repeatedly since 2023. The succession of leadership changes has fueled longstanding criticism that the organization's underlying problems extend beyond any individual executive director.
Those concerns became public in June 2025, when more than two dozen former employees, board members and volunteers signed a letter expressing alarm about the nonprofit's direction. The letter raised questions about unexplained executive departures, transparency, organizational governance and what critics perceived as an excessive emphasis on the annual parade and festival at the expense of year-round community advocacy.
The signatories reportedly sought governance reforms and greater independent oversight. Pride responded publicly by acknowledging their concerns and pledging continued engagement, but the organization's own board minutes reveal additional details about how leadership handled the controversy.
Minutes from a June 17, 2025 meeting reference the involvement of Lucky Break PR in preparing the board's response to the community letter. During that same meeting, the board approved increasing the threshold requiring two signatures for expenditures from $5,000 to $20,000.
The minutes do not establish that the financial-control change was improper or connected to the complaints. Nevertheless, the decision raises questions about oversight during a period when former insiders were already demanding greater accountability.
Another source of friction has been the organization's decision to remove board and staff names and photographs from its website. Pride attributes that decision to threats and targeting directed at people involved in LGBTQ advocacy, while critics argue that withholding leadership identities makes it more difficult for community members to hold the nonprofit accountable.
The governance controversy intensified alongside one of the most divisive episodes in San Diego Pride's recent history: its decision to retain singer Kehlani as a headliner for the July 2025 festival.
The artist's outspoken support for Palestinians and criticism of Israel prompted objections from Jewish community organizations and elected officials, some of whom characterized Kehlani's statements and imagery as antisemitic. Kehlani has framed their advocacy as opposition to violence against Palestinians rather than hostility toward Jewish people.
The controversy produced tangible consequences for Pride. UC San Diego and UC San Diego Health withdrew their sponsorship and participation, explicitly citing concerns surrounding the booking. Eight Jewish organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League's San Diego office and the Jewish Federation of San Diego, also withdrew from Pride events.
Mayor Todd Gloria announced that he would participate in the parade but skip the festival, while two members of the festival's medical leadership resigned.
Pride nevertheless proceeded with the performance, maintaining that booking an artist did not constitute an endorsement of every political position that artist held.
The organization faced criticism from the opposite direction as well. Earlier in 2025, She Fest announced its separation from San Diego Pride following the cancellation of a pro-Palestinian workshop during the previous year's celebration, a decision that organizers viewed as censorship.
The result was an increasingly fractured relationship with portions of the very community Pride was established to serve.
The financial consequences of the Kehlani controversy are now receiving renewed attention. Elliott recently acknowledged that although departing sponsors had cited economic reasons, she believed the controversy may also have influenced their decisions.
"I will be honest to say I can't imagine that is not some of the factor," Elliott told The San Diego Union-Tribune.
While the withdrawal of UC San Diego and UC San Diego Health is documented, the financial impact of other departures remains unclear. Pride has not publicly released a comprehensive accounting of sponsorship losses attributable to the controversy.
The organization is also confronting a broader national retreat from corporate support for LGBTQ events, as companies reassess diversity initiatives, marketing expenditures and public-facing sponsorships. Pride organizations in New York, San Francisco and other major cities have reported similar funding pressures, although San Diego's extraordinary leadership turnover adds a distinct local dimension.
Public funding has created another source of uncertainty.
San Diego Pride received approximately $376,564 in city arts and culture funding for fiscal year 2026, money that was threatened when Mayor Gloria proposed cutting the city's arts funding programs by approximately 85% in his initial fiscal year 2027 budget.
Following an extensive public campaign, the City Council restored much of the funding in June, approving approximately $10.35 million in arts and culture support. That restoration included a one-time $3 million contribution from the Conrad Prebys Foundation, meaning some of the underlying budget pressures could resurface in future years.
Pride's individual allocation for fiscal year 2027 has not been established in the records reviewed for this report.
The organization's workforce has already contracted substantially. Its 2024 federal tax filing reported 25 employees, compared with just 14 staff members identified earlier this month, before the newly announced November layoffs.
Pride has not disclosed how many additional positions will be eliminated, which employees will have their hours reduced or what specific programs will be affected.
That uncertainty extends to the organization's extensive year-round programming, which includes youth initiatives, cultural events, advocacy efforts and community grants. Although the annual parade and festival attract the greatest public attention, Pride has historically directed resources toward numerous smaller organizations and community programs.
The nonprofit reported distributing $135,500 in grants during 2024, according to its federal tax return. Whether similar funding will remain available under the restructuring has not been announced.
Elliott has insisted that San Diego Pride's 2027 celebration will proceed, although she warned that it could look substantially different.
"We can no longer afford to operate in the same way San Diego Pride has done," she told the Union-Tribune. "We have to be willing for any and everything to change."
The organization has also appealed directly to supporters for financial assistance, seeking an additional $300,000 in sustained annual donations to help stabilize its operations.
But fundraising alone may not address the deeper questions surrounding Pride's governance, leadership succession and long-term financial strategy.
Why has the organization struggled to retain permanent executive directors? What prompted the departure of its longtime leader in 2023? How much sponsorship revenue disappeared following the 2025 controversy? What do the still-unreleased financial results reveal about the current deficit? And how will the board rebuild confidence among employees, volunteers, donors and community members who have repeatedly questioned its transparency?
Those questions are particularly pressing because the nonprofit's last publicly available financial statements do not establish insolvency. They show an organization with substantial reported net assets but increasingly limited operating margins, followed by a period of financial deterioration that has yet to be fully documented.
Net assets, of course, are not equivalent to unrestricted cash available for immediate expenses. Property, restricted funds and other assets may not be readily available to cover payroll or festival costs. Without more recent financial disclosures, it is impossible to determine precisely how much flexibility Pride currently has.
The board is scheduled to hold a public community conversation Tuesday, October 27, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral, located at 2728 Sixth Avenue in Bankers Hill. The gathering presents an opportunity for leadership to address the resignation, pending layoffs and questions about the organization's future.
For an institution that has helped define San Diego's LGBTQ identity for more than half a century, the stakes extend far beyond the future of a summer festival.
San Diego Pride has survived political battles, changing cultural attitudes and repeated internal disputes. What remains unclear is whether its current leadership can resolve a crisis in which financial pressures, institutional instability and eroding community trust have converged.
With another executive director departing, additional employees facing layoffs and the organization's most revealing financial records still unavailable, the question is no longer simply whether San Diego Pride can afford to continue operating as it has.
It is whether the people entrusted with leading it can convince the community that they have a credible plan for what comes next.
Originally published on October 27, 2026.
