San Diego Pride executive director KishaLynn Elliott is resigning in November as the organization deals with what she called “a pretty significant deficit.”
Pride announced it in a statement Oct. 26. The group cited “significant financial challenges that require difficult decisions about our organizational structure and operations,” ABC 10News reported.
“In recognition of these financial realities, Executive Director KishaLynn Elliott has made the decision to resign from her position in November,” the statement said. “We are grateful for KishaLynn’s leadership during an extraordinarily challenging period and for her commitment to supporting the organization’s stabilization.”
The board is working out a new leadership structure. It scheduled a community listening session for Oct. 27 at St. Paul’s Cathedral.
Elliott Described the Deficit Before Announcing Her Departure
On Oct. 21, Elliott told CBS 8 the shortfall runs to six figures. She pointed to fewer corporate sponsorships, security costs that went up with threats against LGBTQ+ people, and less grant money from local and federal sources.
“We’re experiencing a pretty significant deficit in this fiscal year, and that, along with everything that we do, creates an opportunity for us to restructure with an eye towards what is a sustainable model for us to deliver in fiscal year 27 and beyond,” she said.
“We’ve seen grant funding become less reliable. We’ve seen instability with government funding and a lot of that is associated with today’s economy,” she said.
Staff cuts will be significant, she told the station, and will likely hit in November. She said the review would cover staffing, the festival and parade, and programming throughout the year.
The parade has run for more than 50 years. It’ll go on in 2027, she said, but it may look “a lot different.” Pride has started a fundraising drive and is asking for more volunteers.
San Diego Pride took in about $5.36 million and spent about $5.33 million in 2024, according to its 2024 IRS filing on ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer.
She Took Over After San Diego Pride’s 2025 Leadership Crisis
Pride announced Elliott’s hire on Dec. 18, 2025. She had been chief operating officer of the Monarch School Project. “It is the honor of a lifetime to be called on to lead this legacy organization,” she said then.
She told KPBS in July that she’s the first Black lesbian to run the group in its 50-year history.
In June 2025, current and former staff, board members and volunteers sent the board a letter alleging “systemic dysfunction,” Axios San Diego reported. The letter said full-time staff had fallen from more than 30 to fewer than 10, and that Pride had gone through five executive or interim directors in under two years.
“I knew it was going to be hard, and I said I was willing to do it anyway, because I care,” Elliott told Times of San Diego in July. Grants Pride hands out to other LGBTQ+ groups had dropped to $70,000 total in 2025, that outlet reported.
San Diego LGBT Community Center Says Pride Runs Separately
The San Diego LGBT Community Center called Elliott’s exit “a loss for our San Diego LGBTQ+ community” in a statement to CBS 8. It said some people had come to the Center with questions about Pride.
“Questions regarding Pride’s leadership transition and future direction should be directed to its Board of Directors,” the Center said. It added that “many organizations are confronting increasing financial pressures, uncertainty in government funding, shifts in philanthropy, and growing demand for services.”
Pride’s statement to CBS 8 said Elliott “remains committed to San Diego Pride’s mission and to supporting its future in other ways.”
