Milwaukee Pride Inc, who puts on Milwaukee’s PrideFest, made some big changes this year that went into effect on October 1, 2022. The event, the largest LGBTQ+ event in Wisconsin, has been entirely volunteer based, even with attendance of 46,000 over four days in 2019, and 38,731 in 2022, according to the Milwaukee Business Journal, a model that was not sustainable going forward. The new organization structure will include three new leadership positions, a new pay strategy, and a five-year plan. “Wes Shaver, who previously held the role of Milwaukee Pride president, becomes the new president and CEO. Luke Olson will be vice president of festival productions and Ryan Manning will be vice president of operations,” Margaret Naczek of the Milwaukee Business Journal explained. “Milwaukee Pride will now offer part-time roles to progress its strategic plan and benchmarks. Milwaukee Pride’s board of directors also approved a stipend model for festival management, which will include director, manager, and coordinator positions,” she continues, Wes Shaver stated in an interview that “It was evident to me that in order for this event and the team to have any longevity, creating roles and responsibilities that were truly defined with set expectations is crucial to the future sustainability. In order for the event to move on, we need to have succession planning, and we need to start thinking about how this organization looks if any one of us on the team decides to move onto do something different.”

Luke Olson said in a press release, “Most people don’t understand how many folks it takes to put on this world-class event, and just how much of their personal time they dedicate to presenting Milwaukee with one of its legendary lakefront festivals. Our new stipend model—tied to the annual success of PrideFest—will finally let those folks be recognized and rewarded for their efforts.”

Practically speaking, this change means that while in the past, some of Milwaukee Pride’s income went back to the community in the form of supporting organizations, the organization will now “dedicate some of its funding to instead go back into reinvestment in Milwaukee Pride, specifically in the form of providing stipends to key roles.”