Advertising Age reported DEIBA+ events in Adland are struggling to secure sponsors, especially in the current anti-DEI political climate.
Not sure why anyone is surprised. After all, once products and services gain DEIBA+ designation, expect performative enthusiasm bankrolled by crumbs.
As DEI-focused industry events struggle to get sponsors, here’s how they’re strategizing
By Lindsay Rittenhouse and Brian Bonilla
Inkwell Beach, the space dedicated to inclusivity at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, has been around since 2019. While the popular beach has become a staple at the festival, this year posed challenges for the Cannes Can: Diversity Collective that organizes it.
The organization was half a million dollars shy of its fundraising goal leading up to the festival this year, said Adrianne Smith, founder of the Cannes Can: Diversity Collective and chief inclusion impact officer at FleishmanHillard, forcing her to ask for donations on social platforms for the first time in Inkwell’s history.
“We had never asked for donations in such a public way,” said Smith, who added that the CC:DC was also selling merch this year. “Honestly, it feels odd … for me to have to ask when I’m not good at asking for support like that.”
“As I tell people, a closed mouth doesn’t get fed,” Smith added. “So we have to be able to continue to just remind people of the benefits and why it exists.”
Smith is not alone.
There are other industry events with a focus on diversity, equity and inclusion that are struggling to find sponsorship, with some seeing their event space and attendance numbers significantly decline. Several people who spoke to Ad Age for this story, including leaders of these events, said this is due to the Trump administration’s ongoing attack on DEI. This has included a ban on government entities from using a list of 250 words, which have been compiled by Pen America, such as Black, minority, DEI, women, LGBTQ, immigrants, inequality, Hispanic and even peanut allergies.
A growing number of brand marketers are now avoiding events that could be tied to DEI, several people said, leaving some event founders to consider fundraising options to supplement the lack of support from brands. This is especially hurting nonprofits, such as the organization behind Inkwell Beach, that rely on sponsorships to run conferences.
“Sponsorships are for sure waning in different areas,” said Darren Martin, founder and chairman of integrated marketing firm Streamlined Media & Communications and founder and CEO of its subsidiary, Bold Culture, an inclusive marketing and workplace development consultancy. “Brands are in this waiting period. [They’re] silent, [choosing to] wait and see what’s happening with this administration.”
Martin pointed to a recent decision by the Supreme Court, which sided with a straight, white woman who sued her employer, an Ohio state agency, over what she claimed was workplace discrimination after she was passed up for a position that went to a gay colleague. That ruling may make way for more people in majority groups to sue over job discrimination, and it is a significant decision that will further impact how companies invest in DEI, Martin said.
“I can see that Supreme Court decision digging deeper into this fear companies already have,” he said. “[Some leaders] are scared of getting some of their government contracts taken away. They are putting capital over people, over equity, as they have historically been doing anyway. That’s the fear—‘I may get sued by employees, which is going to impact my money. I may get sued by a federal contractor.’”
Feeling the impact
The One Club for Creativity’s Where Are All the Black People? conference is feeling this wait-and-see period.
The One Club, a nonprofit that promotes advertising excellence, established Where Are All the Black People? in 2011. The annual diversity conference and career fair saw a surge in interest from both a sponsorship and attendance perspective in 2020, amid the racial justice movement sparked by the murder of George Floyd by a white police officer.
In 2020, the event was done virtually and drew 3,000 attendees, according to Adrienne Lucas, the One Club’s global head of strategic partnerships and DEI. In 2023, Where Are All the Black People? drew its largest in-person crowd of 850 attendees and dozens of sponsors.
Since the event started in 2011, more than 60 companies have been involved through sponsorship, mentoring or hosting career fair tables, Lucas said, adding that universities such as Temple and Michigan State still send busloads of students to attend.
However, beginning in 2023, interest from sponsors started to taper off.
It has signed a couple of sponsors, which it didn’t name, for its 2025 in-person event set to take place Oct. 17, and received interest from several others while at the Cannes Lions, according to a spokesperson. This year’s event will be held in a smaller space. A spokesperson for The One Club said it can host multiple sessions to accommodate a larger number of attendees as needed, but that will depend on how many sponsors it ends up signing.
“There’s the reduction in DEI spending and then also there are a lot of bigger [agency] networks downsizing and shedding jobs,” said Yash Egami, The One Club’s chief operating officer. “If the DEI spending is down, then we need to be creative about how we figure out how to make [the event] work. That’s just the reality of what we’re seeing.”
Tickets for Where Are All the Black People? for students and people who are unemployed are free, while those who are employed pay $60. “The revenue that we generate through our award shows and other activities, we put back in the industry,” Egami said.
To be sure, Where Are All the Black People? could be experiencing some lack of participation from brands and agencies because of the tough economy that’s forced many to cut costs and undergo layoffs. However, the economy was in a similar situation during the height of the COVID pandemic, when Lucas said the event started to see an uptick in sponsors—that was also a time when many ad leaders committed to improving the industry’s longstanding diversity issues; commitments they’ve seemed to have since walked back a bit.
Lucas said the current environment only underscores the need for such events. “Our industry is in an unpredictable place right now,” Lucas said. “There are waves of layoffs, agency mergers, budgets getting cut. So when people ask if events like Where Are All the Black People? still matter, I say—they matter more than ever.”
As a result of its lack of funding, Inkwell Beach was held in a smaller space at this year’s Cannes than in 2024. That meant it didn’t include certain offerings as in previous years, such as the “CC:DC House,” which was a private space that hosted dinners and other gatherings.
“We had to downsize the beach and what it looks like in terms of … real estate on the beach,” Smith said.
Smith described multiple headwinds. “It’s been an issue of the economy and what’s happening politically in our country,” she said. “There are tariff issues, there are immigration issues … And just kind of like the financial state of business in general.”
Smith also pointed to a broader industry-wide retreat from public DEI commitments.
“Everyone’s head is on a swivel,” she said. “That’s why people have gone through their websites and taken diversity out. That’s why titles have been changed.”
Although Smith said commitments around DEI often fluctuate, she added that it’s important for companies to stay the course. She called this year’s event the “most essential,” especially as AI becomes a growing topic, and she wants to ensure diverse groups don’t get left out of the conversation.
DEI vs. multicultural marketing
Events that may be rooted in DEI but have more of a business focus seem to be faring better.
The Hispanic Marketing Council saw an increase in sponsorship dollars for its annual New York summit in April, according to José Villa, the organization’s chair, who is also the founder, president and chief strategy officer of data-driven marketing agency Sensis.
Villa attributed that to HMC, a trade organization for Hispanic marketing, being focused on marketing to Hispanic consumers rather than DEI.
There is still some confusion in the marketplace over DEI (a largely human resources function aimed at improving diversity internally) versus multicultural marketing (efforts to reach and connect with diverse consumer segments). Although there is some crossover—for example, DEI efforts lead to more diverse hires, helping to create a diverse team that is then making diverse marketing that resonates with the right audiences—the pullbacks that have been happening are largely focused within the DEI function and not in multicultural marketing investments.
“There’s a 100% pushback on anything that’s got those three letters: DEI,” Villa said. “We’re not seeing that pullback on marketing investments as it relates to Hispanics. Diversity is part of what we do but we’ve been laser-focused on market opportunity, on growth, and that’s helped us.”
MainKore, a self-serve AI media buying platform, was a first-time sponsor of HMC’s summit this year. Borja Perez, MainKore’s chief of AI strategic partnerships, said it sponsored the summit because of the continued importance of Hispanic marketing.
“Because of politics, people are going to stop their DEI strategies, but they cannot stop their multicultural marketing,” Perez said.
Blackweek is another example of an event that seems to be doing relatively well despite the political climate. The for-profit organization held its inaugural conference, devoted to the issue of diversity and inclusion in advertising, last October in New York.
The event sold out, with 1,400 attendees. But it cost around $3 million to produce and the conference lost approximately $500,000 overall, according to Joe Anthony, founder of Hero Media and co-founder of Blackweek, who added that was to be expected.
This year’s conference is scheduled for Oct. 6-9.
Andre Gray, a Blackweek cofounder and the chief creative and activation officer of Havas Lynx New York, acknowledged that there has been some hesitancy or “waiting” on the part of brands to sign on as sponsors. “There’s obviously the people we’ve reached out to, and we know a lot of people, and they’re like ‘Yeah, I have to wait this out,’” he said.
Even so, this year’s conference is expected to reel in more funding and reach profitability. “We anticipate doing better than last year given our success, but given the current climate and economic situation it’s hard to predict with certainty,” Anthony said.
Gray said what he believes to be the key to Blackweek’s success is its positioning—that it’s about making a business case for diversity. Panel discussion topics at last year’s event included the lack of diversity on pitch teams and the headwinds founders face in raising capital.
“I don’t think you can make moral arguments in this moment,” Gray said. “Why we are seeing our conversations continue is because of our positioning. Our positioning is based on the hole we saw in the market. I’m here because … let’s do business.”
Mike Valdes-Fauli, chief operating officer of Chemistry, president of Chemistry Cultura and co-founder of Latinos in Sports, said companies should focus on the overall impact.
“If you can defend that it makes sense for your company to have a more diverse workforce because our customer base is more diverse and we’re going to make more money for … ourselves, our employees and … the broader economy,” it makes a viable argument, he said. “You’re still doing the same tangible things, but you’re not framing it in, ‘I’m doing this for more social and political issues.’”
Ways to stay afloat
Crowdfunding is one option for events that are struggling with sponsorships. Where Are All the Black People? will be looking to crowdfund to supplement waning commitment from brand sponsors, as Inkwell was forced to do, according to its leaders.
“We’re exploring ways to let individuals contribute—whether through donation add-ons during registration or direct crowdfunding,” Lucas said. “People want to help, and we want to make it easy for them to do so … The time to show up is now. Because if we don’t protect programs like this, we lose the pipeline. We lose the progress.”
Villa said the industry could see certain complementary events merge to survive.
“You can make an argument that there are too many events,” he said. “A lot of them compete with each other and it’s a challenging environment to try to convince brands and organizations to send people to all these different events … Look at potentially possibilities to merge or have your event be part of another event.”
Bold Culture is helping several nonprofits focused on DEI fundraise right now, Martin said. One tip he gave was to raise money for the organization itself, versus specific events.
“It’s a longer tail,” Martin said. “Fundraising in the name of a larger mission might be more advantageous for sponsors. You fundraise for the organization with unrestricted fees; so [the organization can say] ‘Anything we fundraise will be used for anything we do.’ We’re working with quite a few nonprofits in that way.”
Martin said Bold Culture is also helping target individual executives within companies versus the entire organization.
The future of DEI events
Despite the challenges, hope remains even among event organizers who are facing setbacks.
Inkwell’s theme this year was “Aya,” which is a term often associated with resilience. And although it faced sponsorship issues, Inkwell’s attendance increased significantly this year, a CC:DC spokeswoman said.
Over 10,000 people registered for the beach this year. In its first year, Inkwell sessions drew an average of 40 to 50 attendees per session; this year, that increased to an average of 100 to 150 attendees at each of its seven or eight sessions per day.
Lucas said the industry is in a critical period where it needs to decide whether it will continue to support certain programs such as Where Are All the Black People? As annual budgets on expenses such as event sponsorships are typically figured out one year in advance, Lucas urged everyone to be thinking about how to support next year’s programs now.
“If you like these programs, then help us keep them around,” she said. “We’re in this very transitional period where budgets were created last year for this year. We’re seeing changes [this year] but they’re not as drastic as what we’re going to see coming. The time is now to support these programs, and to speak up.”
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