The century-old Portland Rose Festival begins the New Year facing a slew of problems. The organization lost $1.1 million last year, trimmed $1.2 million in operating expenses and is looking for a new CEO, the Portland Business Journal reports.
Founded in 1907, the Rose Festival Foundation manages several annual events intended to connect people with Portland’s urban core. It hosts annual festivals including dragon boat races, the Grand Floral Parade and the Starlight Parade, which last year attracted around a quarter-million people to downtown.
But Marilyn Clint, who took over as CEO in 2022 and intends to retire after this year’s festival, has said the festival might end if its financial struggles continue much longer. The Rose Festival Foundation now has eight employees after trimming from 12 before the pandemic. Clint says layoffs aren’t planned but could occur.
The nonprofit organization was hit hard by COVID and the subsequent protests that roiled downtown, where it’s headquartered on the Willamette River waterfront. In 2021, the festival’s computer system was attacked by Russian hackers, according to Willamette Week. The next year, heavy rain on festival weekends dampened revenues. The Rose Festival was able to limp through the pandemic with the help of nearly $4 million in relief funds, a sum representing 40% of its 2022 budget. But in 2023, the nonprofit organization posted losses of $600,000 against $4.3 in expenses.
To contend with another planned budget shortfall, the Rose Festival will trim $800,000 from the budget this year. The organization will also jettison a float-building business it acquired in 2022 and which hasn’t proven profitable.
Clint told the Business Journal the losses are tied to increased labor and event costs and a decline in corporate sponsorship. A big hit came in 2023 when Spirit Mountain Casino discontinued its longtime partnership due to a change in marketing strategy. The festival has other sponsors including Fred Meyer and Alaska Airlines and is looking for more despite an economic climate of cutbacks on charitable giving An internal cost-cutting task force has identified cost increases totaling 30% to 40%.
Clint took over following the retirement of Jeff Curtis, who ran the festival for nearly two decades. Both Clint and Curtis took substantial pay cuts to trim costs.
The organization also recently lost its chief operating officer, Nick Brodnicki, who’d been recently hired and was seen as a potential replacement for Clint, who has been with the Rose Festival for five decades.
The 2025 Rose Festival will take place from May 23 to June 7.
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