Manchester’s LGBTQ+ community raises record £183,500 for local charities following historic Village Pride weekend

Manchester Village Pride CIC is immensely proud to announce that through the overwhelming support of pride attendees, the community has raised a record-breaking £183,500 for five core charity partners. This milestone ensures that vital financial support will flow directly back to LGBTQ+ people and community groups across Greater Manchester.

In addition to this historic central total raised by attendees, the George House Trust successfully collected a further £12,500 as part of the Candlelit Vigil bringing the total community fundraising impact to £196,000.

These record-breaking funds will be shared among five vital organisations that provide life-saving support, advocacy, and care to the region’s LGBTQ+ community: akt, Sparkle, The Proud Trust, LGBT Foundation, and George House Trust. £30,000 will also support grassroot LGBTQ+ community groups too.

This unprecedented distribution is a testament to what can be achieved when a city comes together. The success of the August bank holiday weekend was built on immense collaboration, and Manchester Village Pride extends its deepest gratitude to its attendees, sponsors, Manchester City Council, Greater Manchester Police, Marketing Manchester, CityCo, the Greater Manchester Combined Authority Transport for Greater Manchester, Bruntwood and our hotel partners who helped ensure the event’s success and safe delivery. Most importantly, this achievement belongs to the incredible community volunteers and local Gay Village businesses who stepped up to bring the event back to its roots.

This year was all about getting back to what really matters. Because Manchester Village Pride is now run entirely by a dedicated, unpaid team we were able to keep running costs to an absolute minimum. People gave their time, skills, and energy for free behind the scenes to keep the event safe and spectacular.

This meant we could protect the incredible amount of money raised by the community, ensuring every possible penny went exactly where it belongs: straight to the charities making a difference every day.

Carl Austin-Behan, Co-Director of Manchester Village Pride CIC, said: “This isn’t just a donation from MVP; this is a massive achievement by the community, for the community. By supporting the event and coming together in such huge numbers over the August bank holiday, the people of Manchester and across the country have directly raised these funds. We are so incredibly grateful to everyone, from our dedicated volunteers and local businesses to our civic partners, who stepped up to make this happen. Together, we’ve ensured these vital charities can continue their life-changing work.”

Adam Pemberton-Wickham, CEO of akt, said: “akt are deeply honoured to be one of Manchester Village Pride’s charity partners. The money raised through the Village Pride weekend for akt could fund 73 young people with practical support packages, 681 nights of emergency accommodation, nearly 14 Rainbow Starter Packs to help a young person thrive in their first home or pay for 3 months of a frontline caseworker. All of these are critical for fulfilling akt’s mission to support LGBTQ+ young people aged 16–25 who are homeless; at risk of homelessness or living in a hostile environment to find a safe place to live and thrive.”

Darren Knight, CEO, George House Trust, said: “George House Trust wants to thank everyone who bought a ticket and made Manchester Village Pride 2026 such a phenomenal success, supporting our work for a world where HIV holds no one back. This money will enable us to continue to our crisis support for people who are living with HIV, delivery of our LGBTQ+ and Trans groups and ensure people have what they need to live well, whilst challenging HIV stigma”

Rachel Bottomley, Managing Director, LGBT Foundation, said: “Manchester Village Pride not only organised a show-stopping community Pride weekend this year, bur also raised an incredible amount for LGBTQ+ charities. LGBT Foundation are incredibly grateful for this donation which will fund wellbeing support services for the community, helping us to spread more queer hope and joy!”

Josh Houghton, Co-Chair of Sparkle – The National Transgender Charity, said: “We are beyond grateful to Manchester Village Pride for this incredible donation. For a trans charity, support like this means so much more than money. In a climate where trans people are too often talked about rather than listened to, this is a community-led pride organisation saying clearly and publicly that trans joy, visibility and belonging matter. Thank you from all of us at Sparkle.”

Liam Swanston, Director of Development and Partnerships, The Proud Trust, said: “The donation from Manchester Village Pride will make a massive difference to the LGBTQ+ young people we support. At a time when only 5p in every £100 goes to an LGBTQ+ charity large donations like this help keep our services running so LGBTQ+ can access our support regardless of where they are.

“The Proud Trust has enjoyed the collaboration with Manchester Village Pride and the other chosen charities and are excited to build on this year’s success.

“One of our young people told us “Celebrating Pride is so important, I’m glad I get to be part of something like this in my city”

“Another said “Youth Pride is great, celebrating Pride at an event for young people and their friends, make us feel like we belong at pride”.”

Looking ahead, the community is invited to save the date as Manchester Village Pride will return to the heart of the Gay Village for the August bank holiday weekend in 2027.

To receive further information about next year’s event, and to hear exactly how these record-breaking funds are actively being used to support Greater Manchester’s LGBTQ+ community, please sign up to our mailing list at manchestervillagepride.org