Dear PFLAG Supporter,

As we continue the conversation about Pride planning, we’ve prepared some ideas, tips, and tricks for your consideration. As we all know, Pride is one of the busiest times of the year for PFLAG chapters! There are strategies you can use ahead of time to ensure a smooth, productive, and positive experience throughout the month. Most of all, it’s important to ensure you have plans in place to protect, manage, and build capacity to make the most out of your Pride month engagements. 

In this edition of Leadership Learnings you’ll find:

• Deciding Pride: So much to do, so little time!
• Rural Think Tank Alert
• Join PFLAG at World Pride! 
• In Case You Missed It (ICYMI): Pride Packs!
• Regional Roundup: Self Care and Safety for Pride Season

Deciding Pride: So much to do, so little time!

There are so many events during Pride season - protests, picnics, parades, festivals, fundraising events, coalition building activities, and more. It’s all important, but as chapter leaders, there’s only so much time in our lives to try to attend everything. It’s okay to choose what Pride events make the most impact for the chapter to attend, so that you can show up with full energy where you need to. 

But how do we choose what’s best? Here are a couple things to keep in mind as you navigate this year’s calendar.

First, consider what your chapter’s goals are. What you’re hoping to accomplish by attending these events can help you choose what events are most impactful.

• Are you trying to grow attendance at chapter meetings? A large event with a wide audience might be a good event to promote upcoming programming.
• Are you trying to find volunteers or board members? Look for events with community partners you may want to meet or events with a service/volunteer angle.
• Are you looking to expand your chapter’s advocacy efforts? Events focused on community organizing like protest or rallies can get the chapter in front of advocacy minded individuals looking to get involved or other organizations the chapter can partner with. 
• Are you looking to raise funds for the chapter or chapter programs? Look for events that may have a more exclusive audience or access, like events put on by the local Chamber of Commerce, etc. 

Then, consider your chapter’s capacity. Although you may be limited by things like volunteer power, time, and energy, you can still attend the events you find impactful while balancing your needs.

• If you have limited volunteer power: A common struggle for chapters is there just aren’t enough people to attend everything. That’s okay! After you’ve considered the goals of your chapter, think about what you can attend realistically with the amount of support you have. Instead of one or two chapter leaders attending 6 events, is it a better use of your time and energy to team up and have 2-4 leaders at 3 events? Make sure that everyone feels like they are supported and won’t burn out.
• If you have limited time: It’s very likely that there will be multiple events overlapping each other. Instead of stretching the chapter thin to attend everything, look at the chapter goals and decide if there’s one important event to attend. Use that as an opportunity to connect with the organizers of the events you can’t attend to see how you could partner in the future!
• If you have limited energy: Pride events are often full day events that can run anywhere from 4-8 hours or more. That’s a long day! When putting together your Pride schedule, consider if there are events where you can attend partially. It may be that the vendor section between 11am-3pm is where you’ll have the most conversations, and it may be best to conserve your energy by skipping the morning parade or afternoon drag show.

Join PFLAG at World Pride!

World Pride is in Washington D.C. this year and you’re invited! PFLAG Metro D.C. is inviting folks who are planning to attend World Pride to join their marching contingent or support tabling during the weekend of June 7th and 8th. If you’d like to sign up to attend, please sign up directly with the chapter at forms.gle/bKm2wpoMtUiGyrkB7. The signup deadline is May 14th and spots are limited, so sign up today!

Rural Think Tank Alert

Rural PFLAG chapters often struggle to know how to keep their board, members, and community safe in the face of hostile sentiments. May's Rural Think Tank topic is safety and security. It will feature a scenario-based facilitated discussion on safety tips and tricks. Have you wondered how best to keep your chapter meetings safe? Have you implemented strategies to enhance security? Join the Rural Think Tank TONIGHT at 5pm-6:30pm PT/8pm-9:30pm ET to discuss and learn.

In Case You Missed It (ICYMI)

Pride Packs 2025

So many chapters are taking advantage of this great opportunity, but roughly ⅔ of our chapters still haven't ordered swag. Don’t forget to visit the PFLAG Chapter Leader-Only Swag Shop at chapterswag.pflag.org, where you'll get a larger discount than in our public-facing shop, and $200 to spend on the items of your choice; use your chapter ID without dashes as the code at checkout. It is very important that you enter your discount code during checkout to receive the $200 off. If you fail to use that code to place your order, we will need to work with our providers to get you a refund; however, we will deduct from that refund the charges incurred from having to re-add the code—which are 2.9% of the order total, plus $0.30. 

After the $200 code, you’ll get an additional 50% off further orders between now and June 30, 2025 using code Pride2025. Check out this email for more details. 

Items are flying off the shelves, and we are restocking as fast as we can. We will always note when an item is in “pre-order”—which means orders can be placed, but haven’t yet been stocked—and will update those notices as soon as the item is available again.

Have questions? Reach out to the team at branding@pflag.org!

Resilience Roundup: Self Care and Safety for Pride Season

Pride celebrations are rooted in the resilience of LGBTQ+ communities and their allies and centering self care and safety through Pride and beyond is a great way to celebrate. Whether it’s ensuring that attendees at your march are bringing sun protection, water bottles, and snacks (or your chapter is planning to provide them); ensuring volunteers at events know how and when they’ll be provided breaks, or even encouraging rest time during periods that include multiple or sustained events. It’s important to think of ways your board can support mutual resilience and community care while looking out for the safety of all participants and attendees. 

To help you out, we have safety and self-care resources available to you on the chapter leader portal. 

• Safety Guidance for Chapters
• Safety Considerations for PFLAG Chapters
• Taking a Step Back: Prioritizing Self Care as a PFLAG Chapter Leader 
• Safety Planning for PFLAG Chapter Members 
• Safety Tips for PFLAG Chapters: Protecting Our Communities from Direct and Indirect Threats of Violence Recording & Training Toolkit

Stay safe,

Eddy Funkhouser (they/he)

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