Culture & Community | LGBTQ | Arts & Culture | New Haven Pride Center
The Pride Center when it closed to the public in late February. Lucy Gellman File Photo.
Just three weeks after the New Haven Pride Center (NHPC) publicly launched an emergency fundraising campaign—and two months after it closed its Orange Street doors—board members have announced that it will reopen at least partially in May, thanks to a community that rallied to raise half a million dollars. Whether, how, and for how long staff will return at that time is still unclear.
That news came from NHPC Board Members Hope Chávez, Nick Bussett, Chloe Lasky, and Christopher Freimuth in an email Monday morning, with a commitment to “soft” reopen the Center’s doors by May, and formally host a reopening celebration in June, in time for National Pride Month.
For the four, who are currently the organization’s only board members, it marks the end of one dizzying financial chapter, and the beginning of another. The Center is still without an executive director, after the departure of Juancarlos Soto last April, and the five-day tenure and sudden resignation of Dr. Edward Summers in December. Interim Director Lou Perno, a nonprofit consultant in New Haven, ended his tenure in September 2025.
Board members would not disclose the names of 43 individual donors, but said that significant support—sometimes financial, and sometimes in the form of space, resources, and networking—came from the NewAlliance Foundation, Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, City of New Haven, and the office of U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro.
The final key to reopening, meanwhile, was a new board member, a happenstance conversation at the gym, and an angel donor. More on that below.
“We have built out a budget that supports a couple different programs and staff, and we are in conversations to see who would be willing to come in as an interim [director],” Bussett said in a phone call Monday morning, adding that the board’s priority is to address an outstanding debt of over $200,000 to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and bring back staff. “We need to be strategic about how we’re bringing people back on and we need to be really financially cautious.”
He added that the $500,000 the Center has been able to raise in just a month is a testament to both New Haven’s vibrant LGBTQ+ community and the NHPC staff, in whom people have put such trust and confidence. In its three decades, and particularly since 2017, the Pride Center has worked to build out a robust roster of programs including weekly support and affinity groups, food and hygiene pantries, a clothing closet, case management services and monthly programming.
It follows several months of intense financial transition, in a years-long stretch that has been turbulent for the organization. Four years ago, the Pride Center announced that it had lost its nonprofit status and voted to terminate its first paid executive director on the cusp of a major fundraiser for youth programs. In the months after, board and staff members worked feverishly to right the ship, with a round of 2023 staff furloughs that lasted for only a month.
From February to September of 2023, Soto stepped in as acting director, a position that became permanent in the fall of that year. Under his leadership, staff grew programming and collaboration, maintained vital services like clothing and hygiene closets and emergency food pantry, and moved offices to a more accessible space on Orange Street. In 2024, for the first time in its history, Soto secured a $30,000 line item in the city's general fund budget, which passed for a second time last year.
But the debt, paired with Summers’ resignation and annual expenses like rent, which runs the Center between $60,000 and $65,000, was insurmountable, Bussett said back in February. When board members made the call to furlough staff and “cease normal operations” two months ago, they didn’t know if or how the Center would come back from such a blow. Staff bid each other farewell with bittersweet and heartfelt goodbyes. The future of the organization seemed totally uncertain.
Then people started reaching out. Staff at the Community Foundation offered to host a gathering at which Bussett and Chávez made a pitch to right the ship, including that $500,000 figure, and more transparency around the existing IRS debt. In late March, board members announced Project Phoenix, a campaign to raise the dollars needed to not just to survive, but also to sustain staff and operations. By last week, the board had fielded roughly $250,000 in pledged commitments. Bussett lauded NewAlliance as an early supporter.
Then a week ago, Freimuth—the newest member of the board—was talking to an acquaintance at the gym about a conversation he’d had with the Yale LGBTQ Center, in which he learned that trans students seemed more afraid to be visible on campus this year. Freimuth was livid. Growing up in Litchfield County, “it took me forever to come out,” he said in a phone call Monday morning. “I said, ‘We’re not going backwards. Absolutely not.’”
Back at the gym, the acquaintance listened intently, moved by the story. He told Freimuth that he had “a family connection to trans issues,” and then asked how he could help. And Freimuth, who was still very new to the board, started talking about the work that the Pride Center does to protect, amplify, and sustain LGBTQ+ voices in the community. None of that work can happen if the doors are closed, he explained.
“He said, ‘Exactly how much do you need?’” Freimuth remembered. Freimuth, a master gardener who just graduated from the Yale Divinity School, gave him a number around $245,000. “And he said, ‘You got it.’ And then I lost my mind.”
“And then he called us and we lost our minds,” Bussett chimed in, the smile audible at the edges of his voice as he referred to the donor as “our hero” (he has asked to remain anonymous for the time being). It was the missing piece that the Center would need to come back online.
One week later, the Center’s board members are still figuring out exactly what that will look like. In the next year, Bussett said that the city has made “a verbal commitment” to support the Center, which would help offset the cost of operations. Currently, the Center is two and a half years into a 10-year lease with Beacon Communities, for which it pays over $60,000 in rent, and needs funds for everything from PRIDE New Haven to programming to staff salaries. In addition, meeting the $500,000 goal gives the organization a financial “runway” of about a year, Bussett said.
In a phone call Monday afternoon, Mayor Justin Elicker confirmed that he is interested in reintroducing a potential line item for the Center in the next annual city budget (FY 2027-28), which he funded at $30,000 for the first time in 2024, and for a second time in 2025. He added that just as in every budget year, a proposed item does not automatically translate into a done deal: the New Haven Board of Alders still has to approve the budget.
“Having run a small nonprofit, it’s not easy work, and to raise that money in a short period of time is a testament to how very, very, very much community members care” for the space, Elicker said. This year, the Center does not receive any municipal funds in his proposed $733.3 million general fund budget—but is excited that those dollars may return as soon as next year.
“We need as much support as possible for the community and we need a new leadership team,” Bussett said. Per Monday’s email, the Center is seeking new board recruits, as well as volunteers and community members who wish to sit on a transition team designed to find a new executive director. The ultimate short-term goal, he added, is a ribbon cutting by early June that will feel like a bonafide party.
When asked about the specific plan to bring staff back, Bussett added that “to be quite honest and transparent, that’s really unclear at this moment.” He added that “the intention is to support the staff as much as we can.”
As for the 43 donors who helped Project Phoenix take flight, Bussett said that they will remain anonymous for the time being, but may one day live on a tribute wall at the Center. Sunday night, he remembered, Chávez had proposed paying a local artist to paint a mural of a phoenix, its wings outstretched and adorned with the names of donors. He liked it.
Read Monday’s email from the New Haven Pride Center in full below.
Dear Friends of the New Haven Pride Center,
On March 17th, we launched Project Phoenix: a $500,000 campaign to restore and reimagine the New Haven Pride Center.
Exactly one month later, on April 15th, we reached our goal! Thirty years ago, the Center’s founders recognized the need for a home in New Haven for the LGBTQI+ community. You ensured that it will have thirty more.
Because of forty-three courageous community members and institutional funders, we can finally say: the New Haven Pride Center is coming back!
Now we must do the joyful and diligent work of putting our Project Phoenix strategy into place. This includes a soft re-opening in May so staff can get everything back in order, followed by an official re-opening to the public in June – just in time to celebrate our 30th anniversary and Pride Month!
Re-opening the Center wouldn't be possible without the extraordinary generosity and conviction of our many partners. Namely, the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, the New Alliance Foundation, the City of New Haven, and Representative Rosa DeLauro's office. And to the community leaders who gave us counsel, stepped up to support our neighbors during the pause, and helped us keep the faith: thank you. You know who you are, and so do we.
To our dedicated staff: this is a testament to your exceptionalism. You’ve done the work to build relationships, feed our neighbors, help young people find themselves, and so much more. You made this a place that people want to save! Your steadfastness has meant everything to us, and to this community.
———
So what’s next? We are not simply returning to what we were. You put your trust in us, and we intend to honor that. Our first order of business is to re-open the Center with interim executive leadership, pay off the IRS debt in full, and begin the process of finding our next permanent Executive Director. With new leadership and vision in place, we will begin a thorough strategic planning process to rebuild a more sustainable New Haven Pride Center that will be here another thirty years and beyond.
Project Phoenix was funded by this community. Now we need this community to help run it. We're looking for people to join our board, serve on our transition committee (a focused, six-month commitment to help us rebuild the right way), and volunteer at the Center. If you have skills, bandwidth, and a stake in this place, we want to work with you!
We are also delighted to announce that we will once again participate in The Great Give(May 6-7). This event provides an opportunity for us to reconnect with you, our neighbors, and build a stronger, more vibrant future together for the queer community in Greater New Haven. You’ll be hearing from us in the coming days about opportunities to give!
In the meantime: keep telling this story. To your friends, your networks, anyone who will listen. The momentum that got us here doesn't stop with this good news. It starts now.
If you’re interested in joining the board, transition committee, or our amazing team of volunteers, please reach out to us at president@newhavenpridecenter.org.
With profound gratitude,
New Haven Pride Center Board of Directors,
Hope Chávez, Nick Bussett, Chloe Lasky, and Christopher Freimuth