Revealing our 2019 Annual Report

Burning Man is so much more than a week in the dust. Our nonprofit organization spends the other 51 weeks sharing the 10 Principles, supporting community initiatives, funding artists, and elevating Burning Man culture. Each year we produce an Annual Report to share the highlights of what we learned and achieved. Here is a collection of some of the most meaningful stories from around the Burning world in 2019. In a year without our beloved city in the desert, it feels like a treasured opportunity to look back on everything we collectively accomplished last year.

Read on as our CEO Marian Goodell introduces Burning Man Project’s 2019 Annual Report.


Welcome!

2019 was a year of metamorphoses for Burning Man Project and Burning Man’s global community of dreamers and doers. A few highlights:

• Today there are more than 100 annual Burning Man events and 40 Burners Without Borders chapters on six continents.

• In 2019 we granted more than $1.4 million through our Honoraria, Global Art Grant, and Community Grant programs.

• The 3,800-acre Fly Ranch now serves as a year-round incubator for Burning Man culture; more than 2,000 visitors from around the world attended 20 camping events and 70 nature walks on the property this year.

We’ve also taken initial steps to transform our environmental impact. Informed by our stewardship of the land and waters at Fly Ranch and the global climate crisis, we created an environmental sustainability roadmap that sets ambitious goals around waste management, ecological impact, and carbon sequestration.

This year the desert once again gave rise to a thriving, transformative, and playful Black Rock City. Buoyed by support from participants, our global community, and our board of directors, we doubled down on our efforts to strengthen Burning Man culture by recommitting to our Principles and resisting commodification. In a major win for our entire community, our playa restoration efforts in 2019 excelled beyond all measure. We left the playa in what Bureau of Land Management inspectors called “immaculate” condition.

Looking ahead to 2020, we are inspired by what’s on the horizon. We are committed to widening and deepening our network of partnerships and collaborations, laying down new pathways for connections to take root, new ideas to surface, and social impact projects to succeed. Convenings, like Esalen and others, contribute to fulfilling these objectives, and we plan to place new focus on growing this aspect of our annual program.

As we move into the future, we are inspired by our dear founder Larry Harvey’s legacy and vision, including his ambition to see Burning Man culture flourish “on every street corner.”

Thank you for your curiosity, your engagement, and your contributions that fuel Burning Man. In the following pages you will meet a few of the people and programs made possible through your participation and support. Together, we are creating a more generous, creative, and collaborative world. We couldn’t do this important work without you.

In Gratitude,

Marian Goodell

CEO, Burning Man Project


Header design by Tanner Boeger

About the author: Burning Man Project

Burning Man Project

The official voice of the Burning Man organization, managed by Burning Man Project's Communications Team.

22 Comments on “Revealing our 2019 Annual Report

  • SK says:

    my kingdom for a plain-text PDF …

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  • Jake says:

    I didn’t know that my participation was tacit approval of spreading the culture around the world. And this culture, the meaning of which has been decided by the employees of the company, seems now firmly rooted in progressive politics. What about the participants who are not on the progressive steam train? There are many who are simply libertarian and even some conservatives who look at the new meaning of Burning Man and think, ‘That doesn’t include me.’.

    So by assigning specific meaning to the nebulous and diverse culture, the company has yet again divided the community. And then it wonders why its having trouble collecting donations. Progressive culture is very good at collecting and redistributing other people’s money, but when you ask them to open their wallets – they’re broke, every time.

    Go ahead, though, for the lulz. Keep thinking Burning Man is something more than the event itself. Spend every last dollar on that thought.

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    • Steve says:

      Other than the mention of global warming, my impression is that the culture is about the ten principles. What aspects seem to be the “progressive steam train?”

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      • grossepieuvre says:

        The Brown Supremacist article of Yodessa is an example

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      • Java says:

        @grossepieuvre, you are welcome to leave at any time. In fact, please do.

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      • Jazmine says:

        @Java
        There’s that famous leftist tolerance rearing its ugly head again.

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      • Java says:

        grossepieuvre seems to believe that anything promoting POCs is an attack. So, no, I am not particularly inclined to tolerate that kind of thinking.

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      • Jazmine says:

        @Java
        Radical Inclusion, of people like you.

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      • Java says:

        Perhaps he can speak to them, but his comments on various articles look to be racially motivated and purposefully inflammatory. Is your stance that we should tolerate that? Radical inclusion does not and cannot extend to hateful, harmful, or derogatory speech.

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      • Jazmine says:

        @Java
        I like safe spaces, too. Let’s keep all the bad men out with their bad words. We can be safe and I can braid your hair and agree that you’re smarter than everyone at your work.

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      • Java says:

        That sounds delightful! I think my hair might just be long enough to braid by the time quarantine is over.

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      • goumba says:

        Java: great, so next time you have an opinion anti-White Supremacy, then we will consider that you are hateful, harmful, and that you are expressing derogatory speech.

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      • Java says:

        @goumba, why do you feel so threatened by even the discussion of racial equality?

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      • goumba says:

        @Java because you do not want equality, you want revenge against white people. Put some love for white people into your heart, it will help you

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      • Java says:

        Dude, that’s amazing. I _am_ a white male.

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      • Toto says:

        @Java
        White guilt is a liberal progressive trait. It results in contempt for your own race, even hatred. The only solace is that you are a member of an enlightened group of whites that feels it has transcended the white race though repentance, guilt, sympathy and empathy toward blacks (particularly, because of slavery). It’s this feeling of enlightenment that fosters a sense of superiority intellectually, spiritually and morally. Superiority over other whites and certainly over the POC who you feel needs your sympathy; needs you to save them from their oppression and all bad things. This guilt and sympathy excuses and permits much bad behavior – they did it because of racist whites (the bad whites, not me).

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      • goumba says:

        @Java Toto explained it, also know as “self-hating whites”

        Do you see much black leaders telling blacks to stop hating whites? NONE

        or black people with “white lives matter” sign when a white is killed by a black? NONE

        Because they are not self-hating blacks like you are a self-hating white

        No personal offense intended,
        Peace

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      • Java says:

        You continue to attribute a lot of things to me that simply aren’t correct. You may say “no personal offense,” but you’re still making a lot of assumptions.

        I don’t expect that I’ll change your mind–in fact, I doubt that I could–but I encourage you to seek out and research some of what is being said by the black community. I cannot speak for them, but nothing that I have heard recently has even come close to hatred for whites or a call for revenge. Please, go out and listen to black voices, hear their struggles, consider their requests. It will sound angry, it may sound like criticism, but that is how we grow.

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  • XPTom says:

    Small irony the 2nd item in my inbox this morning was for a 20% discount on T-shirts from the ill fated Woodstock 50. A timely reminder of when I thought I was going to both the thing in New York and the thing in the desert. Stuff happens. Our problems aren’t fatal…….. unless we rationalize that we need to reinvent the culture and print T-shirts.

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  • OREO TV says:

    Made me delighted with your work best wishes OREO TV

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  • Simba says:

    Does anyone know why we haven´t seen a 2019 Moop Map yet? I find this very weird, considering it´s been a very important document in previews years. When are we going to see it?

    Would love some comments on this.

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