A single source for every NC Courage event already approved for the 2026 season, the first-pass influencer roster inside the $1,500 budget, the open decisions we need from your team, and the items we’re holding for 2027. Reply with your answers and we’ll start on whatever you sign off.
Nine decisions, all in one place. Detail for each one lives in the section that follows. Send your answers by email or grab time on the calendar — whichever works.
Each item below is something your team already approved or that’s already on the calendar. The detail under each one is what we’d do next once the open decision in Section 01 is answered.
Two route options below so you can pick how much your team wants to take on for year one. We recommend Option 1.
The existing XC course loops around the soccer fields inside the WakeMed complex. Start and finish are both inside the park. Match-day fans watch the whole race. Finish line drops runners right into the stadium plaza for kickoff.
Start in downtown Cary (Academy Street / Town Hall area). Finish inside the stadium. About the right distance once we map a final route, and you get a real “running into the Courage’s home” finish.
With enough lead time, the 5K becomes a fundraiser for an LGBTQ+ charitable organization in the Raleigh-Durham area. Runners create personal fundraising pages tied to the race, and donations flow to whichever partner we pick. Option 2’s longer timeline is the more comfortable runway for this; Option 1 still works if we move quickly on it.
Recommended platform: RunSignUp. Purpose-built for race registration with native peer-to-peer fundraising. Free for race organizers, takes a small percentage on fundraising. Already familiar to Triangle runners since most local races use it.
Natural beneficiaries to consider: LGBT Center of Raleigh (already in the Aug 26 partner mix), Crape Myrtle Festival (already a community partner for Aug 26 and a registered LGBTQ+/HIV nonprofit), or Equality NC.
Option 1 for 2026. Right size for year one. The easiest yes from every person involved. The photos still tell the story. And it gives us a library of content we can build on next year. Use 2026 to prove the concept and the audience; build Option 2 into the 2027 calendar as the upgrade.
We’re not putting numbers in front of you yet because the answer to question 3 (your team vs. a race-day production partner) changes the cost a lot. Once you pick the route, the match, and who’s running production, we’ll come back with a real budget and a charity partner recommendation.
Four low-cost ideas. Pick one or two and we’ll write it up as a one-pager for Diana to sign off.
Portable goal, target net, prize ladder. Top score wins a season ticket. Everyone who tries gets a Specialty Section discount code. Pulls fans in, captures their info through the leaderboard signup, and the video content shoots itself.
Fabric backdrop with the campaign line. On-the-spot prints. Fans walk away with something physical from the booth, and you get a stream of user posts from the same thing.
Marsha Mellows or Naomi Dix for a 60-minute booth slot. They draw the crowd, you collect the emails. Connects directly to the influencer roster in Section 03.
Booth signage points straight to the LGBTQ+ Email Signup lead form we’re setting up in your Meta account (Section 06). The booth becomes a feeder for the ad campaign instead of a one-day thing.
Here’s what we’d want to nail down in the next 30 to 45 days so the night goes well.
Tell us which of these you want us to come back on first and we’ll prioritize accordingly.
Approved for Sept Durham Pride week. What we’d do: a short mini-match exhibition or skills clinic, plus a queer-soccer community fair on the plaza, with Specialty Section ticket offers built in.
Once you confirm the date window, we’ll start outreach to both partners this week and come back with a production plan and a budget for your sign-off.
Recommended roster inside the $1,500 budget. Club ERA is built into the anchor, so it’s already part of the plan instead of a separate line. We’re not putting per-creator rates here yet because we haven’t priced anyone. Once you approve the roster, we’ll get real numbers from each creator and come back with a single budget recommendation.
Naomi Dix
House of Coxx founder. Founder of Club ERA. Booking her gets us the Club ERA venue partnership in the same deal: pre-game pitch host plus the Durham Fruit / Club ERA partnership. The single most useful booking we can make.
Legends Nightclub
An event space, not a person. 34-year Raleigh LGBTQ+ institution at 316 W Cabarrus St in the Warehouse District. Their TikTok is the largest LGBTQ+ NC account by volume, so the venue + social reach come together.
Marsha Mellows
Raleigh Pride co-host. Strong on-camera energy. Knows Flip Phone Events well. One shoot day gives us weeks of content.
Vivica C. Coxx
Durham drag matriarch. House of Coxx co-founder. Created the Music Bingo format with a built-in audience.
Community partners we’d bring into the program alongside the paid creators. Compensation gets confirmed during outreach — could be game tickets and suite access, could include a small line if needed. They add credibility and reach that a paid creator alone can’t.
Joy Wilkerson
Raleigh-based LGBTQ+ creator with a real, fan-first voice that fits the season. Adds credibility to the partner-of-the-week posts.
LGBT Center of Raleigh
Existing Pride Night partner. We’d renew the relationship this year with a real content collaboration, not just logo placement.
Triangle Queer Artist Collective
Small follower count, but one deal opens up dozens of artist creators in their network. A vendor booth and a halftime live-painted mural are the easiest ways to start.
Onya Nurve
Headlined Raleigh Pride 2025 and 2026 GAG. The only big-name Triangle creator with verified Raleigh Pride history. She’d be a separate, bigger line item outside the $1,500 budget. Drives the main social posts and the on-air moment during the Aug 26 broadcast.
Full roster (orgs, venues, drag performers, creators) is still live for the team at courage-partnerships.thegaygency.com.
04 · Crape Myrtle FestivalWe’d recommend treating Crape Myrtle Festival as their own thing alongside the paid influencer roster. They’re the strongest community-led partner we have for the Aug 26 night.
CMF is the Triangle’s longest-running LGBTQ+ / HIV nonprofit, founded as an AIDS-services fundraiser. Today they run the local drag-brunch circuit at Level 7 and Clouds Brewcade in Raleigh. The cast includes Miss Gay NC America title-holders and other established Triangle drag names. They line up with what NWSL Pride programming is supposed to be — community-rooted, queer-led, been around forever. Not a corporate booking agency.
The event we’d propose for them: a CMF Co-Presented Drag Brunch + Match Day. Pre-match drag brunch at Level 7 or Clouds Brewcade. Brunch guests walk straight into the Specialty Section. The single biggest example of purposeful, not performative, we can put on this season.
A real community institution co-presenting Aug 26 with the club carries credibility that a paid creator placement can’t match. Keep the team’s outreach going and we’ll layer them in as their own headline moment alongside the influencer roster.
Where we are with creative templates and what the next pack covers.
The visual system: the navy + six-color pastel palette, the gradient, the NC shield (white-on-navy and navy-on-light), the pride strip divider, Inter and Georgia type stacks, and three “first look” campaign cards (Season Launch, Aug 26 Pride Night, First 250 Members). This is the foundation. Everything below builds on it.
We’d deliver this as a working Figma file your team can edit directly. Tell us which of these four matters most and we’ll come back with a delivery date. Cut anything you don’t need.
Social — Match Day
Result graphics, lineup graphics, goal graphics, half-time and full-time templates, Instagram carousel master.
Social — Campaign
One Crest. Every Color. quote cards, partner-of-the-week template, Specialty Section ticket reminder, Aug 26 countdown set.
Header banner template, body card template, ticket-buyer welcome, partner spotlight.
In-Stadium Signage
Specialty Section seat sign, plaza welcome A-frame, partner thank-you banner.
Your team already approved this one. We’re building the campaign in Meta. While we’re in there, we’re also adding more NC Courage-centric images to the ad creative so it looks and feels even more like the club.
Full brief is still live for reference at courage-reports.thegaygency.com/briefs/2026-05-26-lgbtq-email-signup/.
Noted. We’ll hold this in the 2027 strategy doc and revisit when the Pride game is back on a weekend and the fan base is bigger. No action needed from your team.
We know you’re driving these on your side. We’re available to help however’s useful: creative templates (Section 05), social copy, partner-language for the briefs you send out, vendor referrals. Just tell us what you need.
Send us your answers by email or grab time on the calendar — whichever works. The sooner we get answers to the nine decisions in Section 01, the sooner we can move on the back half of the season.