Black Rock City is a living manifestation of Burning Man culture, and the act of collaboratively building the city renews our hope, connection, and excitement. With nearly 70,000 participants this year, wow, did Black Rock City deliver! The way we gather offers a great reminder of why more Burning Man is needed.
Fostering interactions, innovation, and community based on shared experiences, Burning Man is the antidote to the division, hostility, isolation and conformity we see too often in the world.
Burning Man is more relevant than ever and global participation is at a record high, but 2024 Black Rock City tickets in the higher price tiers did not sell as planned. The resulting revenue shortfall means everything is now at risk. In fact, when compared to 2023, the revenue shortfall from the higher price tiers was approximately $5.7 million. This is only representative of a portion of what we must raise in 2024. More than an event, Burning Man is a global cultural movement, and the nonprofit in service to that culture requires year-round support — year after year.
Every dollar helps! Just like other cultural and arts nonprofits, including your local symphony or theater company, Burning Man Project depends on the generosity and support of its community members to accomplish its mission. Ticket revenue alone does not fund all that Burning Man Project does to bring Burning Man to the world, including the production of Black Rock City, and in fact has not since 2014. This is why whether you went to BRC this year or not, you are a member of our community, and a monthly contribution of $20 will help to keep Burning Man programs alive. Without corporate sponsorships — which we’ve never had and will never have — to underwrite our operations, we are increasingly reliant on philanthropy (including your generous purchases of those higher-priced Black Rock City tickets).
We are taking steps to focus our operations for the future, and need the community’s help to raise the funds needed to preserve Black Rock City as the vibrant heart of Burning Man, and protect the culture with which the event is inextricably intertwined.
The power of the Burning Man community is incredible — we come together, do hard things and overcome challenges head-on. We got through a rain event, we’ve battened down through dust storms, and we’ve even navigated a pandemic together.
With your help, we will accomplish what is good for the world, save the future of Black Rock City and continue to get more Burning Man out there. Consistent with our 10 Principles, your generous participation and gifting is what sparks the Burning Man flame.
My hope is for you to be the spark for more Burning Man, and I invite you to be a part of co-creating the future. I look forward to your involvement.
If your friendships, community, family or personal life have benefited or could benefit from the magic, creativity and inspiration of Burning Man, I urge you to please support us with a gift today.
Your Support of Burning Man Project creates a thriving world:
- It enables connection: Makes Black Rock City a reality for tens of thousands of participants to find their voices and creativity, including through initiatives such as the Ticket Aid Program and ticket pricing that keeps the city financially accessible and ensures the cultural diversity of the movement.
- It stokes Burning Man culture: Enables the next generation of leaders to connect and create the future of communities and Burning Man at global and Regional leadership gatherings, and funds resources and tools to adapt and bring Burning Man to life in locally relevant ways, in every corner of the globe.
- It inspires creativity and innovation: Makes prototyping the community and regenerative practices of tomorrow a reality and fuels the creative vision of artists receiving grants to build incredible, inspirational pieces of participatory art for BRC and beyond.
Set up a recurring payment today or reach out to giving@burningman.org if you would like to speak with us about how you can make a difference!
Cover image of “METAHEART” by Johnny Crash (Photo by Gurps Chawla)
I imagine this years experience will knock another $5M off the FOMO revenue, will you be planning for that?
I’d say spend less and make the culture accessible for more people with less wealth- consider dropping ticket prices!
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I concur, consider downsizing and lowering ticket prices.
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Have you tried pulling yourself up by your bootstraps?
Maybe its time to:
A) Move the office out of the expensive AF bay area
B) Examine exactly how much we are paying executives, and not artists….
C) Find ways to charge the mega rich who use BRC as a personal playground and contribute next to nothing a much more propositional fee.
Why TF do some Big camps with cherry placement and next to no interactions get hundreds of feet for fleets of class A motorhomes – Meanwhile other camps with near 24/7 interactions get IDK 50 feet?
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My suggestion would be to trim back the wide variety of efforts BMP is supporting outside of the event to more fully support the event and its operations. It’s where it all began, it will continue into the future and its where most of the money comes from to support BMP. Make that financially sustainable instead of a cash cow to divert funds to other focuses of BMP. Take a look at all the activities and funds being spent outside of the event first.
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Thank you for asking the community for help. I signed up for the monthly giving plan and am asking my campers to consider donating as well.
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The koolaid is good
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How about a membership scheme? You would need to do the numbers, but as an example..
$100 pcm gets a ticket and access to a vehicle pass guaranteed and a small thank you gifty art thing.
$50 pcm gets a guaranteed ticket and vp at half price.
$200 pcm gets a ticket and paid for vehicle pass and a big gift art thing with limited edition numbering and access to an artist’s web cam so you can see progress, or something.
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This is so wrong, it boggles the mind!
The org does NOT need to offer little privieges and trinkets to get more money. It needs to fire half the staff, move to inexpensive office space, and re-focus on simply running the event. No more trips to Nantes and Barcelona! Just do what 99.9% of burners care about: Run the event!
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And theyan ask the artists to make it for free.
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Wishing recovery for the artist of Metaheart in the image at the top of the article, Johnny Crash has lost Metaheart, his shop, and everything he owns in the wake of Helene. His home town of Marshall, NC has been completely destroyed, and it is worth a moment of pause. . Our hearts go out to all affected, but seeing his work featured here I felt it important to share.
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Thank you for making us aware of this.
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Thank you for sharing this- there are so many who have been effected by Helene it’s just so heartbreaking.
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https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-johnny-crash-resurrect-metaheart
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Charge more for RVs like every other event! That should cover a good amount of the gap and encourage folks to green their Burn
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This! And the people staying in them are laying down serious cash for them. So add a camper pass, charge 500 for the people who don’t want to stay in tents, and it will barely be a blip in the costs for the people choosing that option, anyway, but make up a heck of a lot more than charging for higher tiers.
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Burning Man already has a reputation of being for “rich white folks” in less affluent circles. I suggest cutting costs and lowering the ticket price to increase diversity (the Ticket Aid process isn’t practical for some demographics) because asking for $20/month like some disaster relief or “feed the children” charity might not have the response you think it will.
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Change is the only constant and the BMORG has made great strides in faster decision-making in response to change.
In the pandemic, burners with resources donated. Broadening and making the donations routine can give us more resiliency.
What we can all do at no cost is bring more burners into our community of participants to get the population back to 80,000.
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I don’t feel that anyone should be “paid” on playa. Everyone should be volunteering their time, volunteering enough hours to pay for their ticket. A similar number of hours volunteering as in the DMV or Artery. The BRC Rangers can do most of the mediation needed on playa. BLM rangers could volunteer their time to earn their ticket into the event. You don’t need the Pershing County sheriff on site, and you don’t need the Washoe County sheriff o site. Most of the medical can volunteer their time, my personal doctor has been out there volunteering his time.
If some of those “professionals” don’t wish to volunteer to be there, you don’t need them. At least make them purchase their own ticket and bring their own camp.
Then take the volunteering effort beyond, to the staff in the city and anyone else involved with Burning Man.
Soon you won’t need all those millions of dollars to put on Burning Man.
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As someone who worked for DPW, I have to tell you that building a city for 70K attendees is no easy feat. There is storage, heavy machinery, fuel, plumbing, electrical, infrastructure, transportation and MORE. It requires skilled craftspersons to build the man and center camp, the commissary to feed hundreds of staff and volunteers, etc. And it takes months to build the city as the city is not a theme camp or art installation that can go up in a few days. Some staff is there for a month others for 5 months. Imagine taking off a month from your paid JOB to volunteer your time to build the city. Perhaps you’re independently wealthy and can do that but MOST people can not. And by the way, the pay is shit. People do it for the love of the man, the community and magic.
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Securing the permit to hold the event requires the law enforcement, medical, etc. There is no choice about that kind of overhead.
Most volunteers are not paid. They often get meals only while working.
I’ve volunteered for years and do not get paid for the 21 days I’m there.
I do support charging more for the large motorhomes. It goes against being green.
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Start rightsizing the Org and refocus on Black Rock City, which is the only part of what you do that most of us care about.
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This is so much the 100% correct response, and it’s so simple!
Stop all the international outreach efforts. End the staff retreats in exotic locales. Get back to SIMPLY running the event we all love so much
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Staff retreats in Gerlach!!:).
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Decommodify BMP. Ticket prices are outrageous. This fundraising ask feels so tone deaf in the wake of Hurricane Helene. Communities need support. I am grateful for the wonder-filled and connective experiences I’ve had on playa, but I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to afford to go back. Look for ways to convert paid positions to volunteer positions. Reduce your overhead. Think like a theme camp and follow the 10 principles. If you still need fundraising, then tell us how you’ve cut costs and what you need the money for, then come talk to the community. That, or send a more targeted ask to your wealthier attendees.
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seconded
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Wow. What’s it going to take for you to realize your priorities and budget are out of wack? The gravy train is over. It’s time to adapt to the new reality and demonstrate some actual leadership. Running everything by committee has just led to mission creep and wasteful spending.
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An interesting statement in the setting of the Love Burn leadership being asked to change to nonprofit and run the event via board members. Committee leadership isn’t always what one thinks it should be, and doesn’t always have the desired goal.
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To me, it is quite clear that the lesson being spoken by bman 2024 is: “Re-focus the essentials. Quit funding worldwide outreach. Let go of half the assistants in the office. Move the office to a city with far cheaper rent. Simply run the event that everyone loves! It will all work out if you let go of things that are philosophically compelling but non-essential.”
I can sympathize and understand how being on the INSIDE of the org can make it hard to perceive or believe this lesson, so with affection I plead with those on the inside: Do not ignore or refute it. Grow with it :-)
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While I’m a supporter of Burning Man and deeply believe in its mission, I feel obligated to raise some concerns regarding your approach in asking for financial contributions. A simple little graph doesn’t cut it.
To be clear, I am more than willing to support the organization during challenging times. However, before considering a commitment to regular donations, I believe it is critical to have greater transparency on the following points:
1. Financial Accountability: It is unclear how this financial shortfall has come to pass. In the for-profit world, a CEO who does not meet financial targets would be expected to account for the specific decisions and external factors that contributed to such an outcome. In this case, a much clearer explanation of what has led to this deficit is necessary. Were there unexpected expenses? Reduced funding streams? Operational inefficiencies?
2. Absence of Reserves: I am also concerned that the organization lacks sufficient financial reserves to cushion against shortfalls. What steps were taken previously to ensure financial stability, and how can we be assured that future operations will avoid the same pitfalls? Effective nonprofits typically have a reserve in place for moments like this, and it would be helpful to understand why this wasn’t available.
3. Concrete Plan for the Future: While your request seeks to resolve the current issue, it does not provide details on how you plan to prevent a similar shortfall in the future. What changes are being implemented to ensure financial sustainability moving forward? A well-structured plan that addresses fundraising, expense management, and reserves would go a long way in reassuring supporters like myself that our donations will be wisely managed.
4. Financial Framework and Transparency: I would also like to see a financial framework or report outlining the nonprofit’s income, expenses, and the specific amount needed to close the deficit. Providing this transparency would help donors better understand the scope of the challenge and feel more confident in contributing.
As an organization that relies on the trust and support of its patrons, I believe it is imperative to address these concerns openly. Without this level of transparency and a strategic plan to move forward, I worry that asking for regular donations may seem premature and may not resolve underlying issues that contributed to this situation in the first place.
I hope you take this feedback in the spirit in which it is intended—to strengthen the organization and foster long-term support from the community. I look forward to learning more about the financial outlook and what corrective actions are being taken to ensure Burning Man’s success.
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As a 35 year banker, commercial lender and a 13 year burner, I appreciate Naked Yoga’s approach to transparency and accountability regarding the BMORG’s financial reporting. Given the weather challenges in 2023 coupled with the economic environment, it seems overly optimistic for the Org to assume full subscription in FOMO sales. Is this truly the sole reason for the shortfall? Additionally, many theme camps were asked to “take the year off” with an implication for preferential ticket allocation in 2025 adding to reduced ticket sales this year. If BRC is to continue, we need to think beyond this year and the next. What’s the base line sustainability gross revenue requirement to make BRC happen? Once we have a handle on that number and the math behind it, we can ask the community to pull together and make a contribution. I would be all in .
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A very thoughtful and articulate response. Transparency and fiscal maturity are my expectations of our organization also.
Well done
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PERFECTLY COMMUNICATED. TY!
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Focus on the event only. Do not fund anything else. There is no reason for the organization to engage in any other activities. Other causes should be separated out into a different entity (or entities) and people can donate to those if they wish.
Create a laser like focus on the event only. If you do that. I’ll donate. But I have no desire to see my dollars go to other causes.
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Someone help me understand why the numbers don’t add up.
Per the burning man website 1000 tickets at $2500 and 3000 tickets at $1500 were available, totaling $7 million. https://help.burningman.org/hc/en-us/articles/360024903992-What-is-the-price-of-tickets-in-the-FOMO-Sale-and-how-many-can-I-buy
Where did the additional $2.7 million million in expected FOMO revenue come from?
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Stop doing outreach. Stop funding anything other than the event. Use all ticket sales and event proceeds only for the event. Have two organizations structured like this:
1. Event only. Receives ticket proceeds and uses all funding for the event. (I would personally donate to this).
2. Outreach organization. Receives all funding from donations. No money from the event should be directed to this organization.
If people want to donate to #2 they will. If they do, great, keep running the outreach. If no one does, that means you are running an unpopular organization that will disappear due to lack of funding. This way you can tailor the outreach directly to the amount of funding received.
Don’t force people to donate to your outreach program through ticket purchases or donations to the org in general. Outreach and the event are totally separate and should be kept totally separate.
If there is still a funding shortfall for the event after this separation, you could likely easily finding funding for the event. Because many people want the event to happen and would donate if they knew their money was going directly to the event and only to the event.
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This is spot on! Thank you.
Now, will the BMOrg actually listen, stop making excuses, defending staunchly all the non-BRC event activities as part of the mission they themselves wrote but the community broadly doesn’t want, act boldly and promptly stop moving in the wrong direction??…
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I take this seriously. First, thank you to all of the hard work it takes year round to make BM happen.
I think… no one can hold all the details of this in their heads at once. Given that.
I think it’s time to DRAMATICALLY reduce the services/ staff/ employees/ groups/ executives/ plans etc. The trough is over. There are so many groups on and off playa that struggle to work with each other. And there is so much overlap. I worked with Honoraria this year and I don’t think we should be paying most artists to Bring their art to the playa. (Radical self reliance). Millions of dollars of heavy equipment, thousands of people standing around doubled and tripled up. Artery can’t talk to ASS, Commissary can’t talk to Hell. It goes on and on. Massive amounts of standing around, very expensive standing around and what do ya know we’re out of money.
I’m very happy for the reduced price tickets for more and more to get involved. The cost of BM is not the tickets, it’s the time off and all the preparation and the travel. There’s not much BM can do about that.
Burning Man can clean its own house up. Instead of asking for more.
Burning man can be radically transparent about finances. Instead of a shitty chart.
Burning man can cut the fat, just as all of us have to survive.
Burning Man can focus on the event, and not getting the participants to fund their global endeavors.
Burning man can start a process of eliminating group, teams, plans, rules and goals we have outgrown. Every great organization eventually becomes overgrown, the best ones figure that out before it’s too late.
In ’21 we had no roads- no Porto’s and it was beautiful! If the official burning man goes belly up tens of thousand of lovely people will flood the Nevada desert late August and have an absolutely wonderful time with none of the Org or Borg there.
We do not need Org. Org needs us.
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I hate to be the one to tell you this, but someone filed a freedom of information request to get the BLM’s after-action report for the 21 non-burn, and if the Org goes away, you are completely at their mercy and they’ve got some big plans. They suggested everything from shutting the playa down entirely, putting in speed limits, bringing in law enforcement from all over the country so they can hand out all the citations they want, tons of other things.
And what are you talking about they’re being no portals. There was a famous Porta potty 150 event, and the Nevada department of environment protection apparently sent someone around and a map of all the spots what they found human spot was released. It was definitely incredibly unsanitary and if people wanted to be responsible, they either had to bring their own individual buckets and hope they were near them when they needed it, or someone else will let them use their porta potties, which wasn’t all that common. You think you’re saving money, but if you have to transport a porta potty out there and bring it back after renting it, that was definitely a huge extra expense for a lot of people.
Every Burn, tragically, seems like maybe one or two people die. But during the 21 Burn, I think they put in rules saying that the responsible parties potentially owed something like a quarter million dollars in fines, after a desk, never mind anything else. Nudity in Nevada is just not even legal unless it’s at a private event or in a private space. A permit at least gives limits that have been bargained beforehand, has various things you can sue over. Without that, they can just make changes, put it in the federal register, and if you haven’t read that and you’ll arrive and the laws are suddenly different than what you thought they were going to be, tough luck, and bring your wallet. Nevada has asset-forfeiture laws, so maybe not too much.
The Org actually WAS there, and even sent around a digital sign-up sheet so that volunteers could coordinate their efforts, Danger Ranger was there giving out ice, but the people who had to be transported off Playa to Reno for medical care got a terrible and expensive awakening as to how costly it can be if you get hurt and the Org isn’t there to have your back. Reports say 12 people were sent by ambulance to Reno, with the population of only 17K to 20K, during a very short period of about 3-4 days, in an environment where you can’t ride on a moving art car and there wasn’t giant art to climb on and fall off. Serious car accidents, and if you spin fire in Nevada that time of year without a special permission granted by a permit, it was 500 bucks and people had their equipment seized also.
I also don’t understand how you can look at what happened during the pandemic, going two years without an event and burning through all their savings, and think they didn’t cut a lot of fat then, and how anybody could have lived through the last 4 years, the greatest period of U.S. inflation in living memory for most people, see all the costs for everything THEY buy and use go up, and think the Org didn’t have that happen to them, also.
I don’t even know what you guys are talking about with all this global outreach stuff, but there’s no way that that’s even a noticeable amount of the amount they’re short. I have personally been poor as a church mouse and able to travel to other countries, so unless they are suddenly spending millions of the orgs money on this stuff, it seems like you’re trying to fix your budgeting problems in living in San Francisco by buying a slightly cheaper brand of soda.
And, of course, these worldwide outreach efforts not only speak to the mission, which is more important than a balance sheet, but actually might bring in money and talent and alliances. Which is something that people who deal with nonprofits recognize, but if you only have experience with the for-profit world, that’s like talking about trying to run a food bank by talking about your experience running a 7-Eleven.
I’m not a huge Reddit fan, but the Reddit thread about this was much more illuminating and the org should definitely check it out. A lot more rational points than are often presented in some of these comments.
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Spot on; 2021 “ROUGE” Burn proved that our dynamic community can thrive on its own.
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I donated during the pandemic, but will not donate again without seeing much greater transparency, honesty, and accountability.
We saw plenty of evidence of a drop in demand for tickets in the lead up to the 2023 event – as shown by all the “someone broke into my car and left Burning Man tickets” jokes, and theme camps that wound up with extra tickets. That *should* have been enough to make planners realize that demand for 2024 tickets might be soft, that FOMO sales might be most affected, and that costs needed to be scaled back in advance.
Instead, it seems management was caught flat footed, to the point where enough panic ensued that you willingly undercut all of the efforts dedicated volunteers have made in cultural course correction by encouraging camps to advertise DJ lineups in advance. You owe every volunteer and every participant an apology for that. You owe them an acknowledgement that it wasn’t about transparency or inclusion, but rather about finances. And you owe them a guarantee that sacrificing the culture for the sake of generating more revenue will never happen again. Otherwise, some of us are going to stop donating our time and effort, not just withhold our money.
Very few of us really care about the pet projects you have going, whether that be Fly Ranch, the various attempts to “bring Burning Man to the outside world”, the international trips and Esalen retreats, etcetera. We care most about the experimental community we create in the desert each year, which the project is in charge of shepherding.
If the organization cannot run the event on ticket revenues alone, then it is being poorly managed. Unrelated expenses need to be cut, and given how poorly things were managed this year, some high-level salary cuts seem in order as well.
If the powers that be want to continue funding projects beyond the event, then they should be out making the case and fundraising for those projects specifically, not siphoning revenue from ticket sales needed to run the event itself.
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Maybe put someone in charge of Alumni relations. I’ve gone for 25 years and am 68. I suspect the time will come sooner than later that I will age out of this. I don’t think it is too crass to give people an opportunity to put something for BM in their will. People might also be more likely to contribute if they could create a named scholarship. “the Dennis scholarship for small art” or “Dennis scholarship for Utahns” It is sort of like when I go to the animal shelter: I can’t adopt all the dogs but I Sponsor a few that seem to be most in need. Just an idea.
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This is a great idea. I am an estate planning attorney and I would be happy to volunteer some time toward the legal side of a project encouraging people to leave bequests to burning man.
Of course, that is assuming that the burning man event funding can be separated from the orgs outreach programs. I’m, not interested in volunteering my time if any ticket proceeds are being used for purposes other than the event (and event related expenses such as supporting artists bringing art to the event). Not trying to be harsh, but I only support the burning man event, not the other efforts of the org.
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Thanks for the support. I’ve always considered the possibility that the event would either go away or just become regionals. If I endowed money I’d be OK if it went to support the arts foundation… I’m sure there is a way to do check-offs on the contract.
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Like many others have said, you need to restructure the org and focus on just BRC. I don’t know a single person who cares or even knows about everything else the org does. We go to BRC, build camps, bring art, volunteer at departments, etc. You need to cut whatever financial ties your other projects have to BRC and do them as a separately funded and operated projects. The cynical part of me thinks all this other stuff is just so you can justify your $350k salary and all the other six figure salaried folks at the org. You guys really need to come back to the principals and focus on the DECOMMODIFIED art and magic of BRC, not private ranches, not staff retreats, not pet projects, none of that.
If you were to refocus, while also being completely transparent financially, I would happily donate, but until then I don’t have any trust or assurance that my money would go to the thing I care about or be used responsibly.
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The easiest way for any organization to cut costs is to lay off a bunch of lower level staff, and hope that those left will pick up the work. However, Burning Man prides itself at thinking outside the box.
Skimming off the cream at the top would be an excellent idea. Having the executives all take a pay cut to show their devotion to this event would engender a lot of goodwill in the community, many of whom already think those execs are paid too much.
Google gives me the number $115/hour for the BM execs. That certainly seems like a lot of avocado toast and $5 lattes that could be cut and rolled back into the budget.
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I will say that this comment is exactly why the person who just got a Nobel prize for his work in AI thinks that people will be too dumb to know how to control it. They’ll just blindly trust it and it will be smarter than us and by the time that we realize that we should have retained our brain cells, it’ll be too late.
You could have looked up the individual salaries, how many hours they worked, and divided one number by the others, did the math yourself, and realize that that $115 an hour seems to be some number your AI just made up, and absolutely doesn’t apply to even more than one person. And I’m not saying the top people there should be poor and living under a bridge or should be throwing extra gold bars out of windows to appease the masses, but you seem to have no idea how taxes work: that when you make more, you can actually pay more as a percentage in taxes and take home far less than your gross salary is. I make quite a bit less than my roommate, I did his taxes for him this year, and our take home pay was within a couple thousand of each other, even though he made nearly $8,000 more than I did overall. His tax burden is just that much higher being in a slightly different income bracket. Mine used to be a lot higher, and I barely had more take-home than he does now.
And I have no idea what kind of pay cut you think will engender goodwill “in the community.” There was a pay cut during the covid year and the post I saw, the person who posted it still seem to sneeringly think that “still had a pretty good year.” “Took a pay cut? I’m still going to rag on you!” I’m guessing that those things are set by the board and bylays and proceed along a cost of living increase timeline and not entirely within the CEOs control, but it doesn’t seem to be that ANY sacrifice will satisfy some of the haters.
And I did the math once. If you’re talking about a budget over $50 million, and something like 60 or 70,000 tickets, how much is saving a couple hundred k going to reduce the price of anything or increase the ability to deal with a $4 million shortfall?
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Thats a really neat and clever reply but not one offer of an idea or even the beginning of a solution. Maybe next time? a $4 mil shortfall can not be remedied with pay cuts to execs. But maybe the gesture would help in instilling confidence that this thing is being managed responsibly. Over the course of the last 23 years of BM for myself, it’s not the perception I’m left with.
Offer an idea bud.
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I’m sorry but the author of this article, Marion Goodell is making a declared yearly salary of $346,747 before bonuses or undeclared perks. As BMORG is a non-profit, all of their salaries are easily searched and found. Try Nonprofit explorer to back up my number here, and to see the other Officers salaries: none are less than 198K. Taking a lot for yourself while running a nonprofit is one kind of nonsense, writing this article and asking folks who make far less than you to donate, absolutely ABSURD.
BMORG be the example and adhere to the principals – y’all should be pretty embarrassed by this post, and financial handling of your community’s monies.
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I don’t think this $20 a month proposal is going to get much traction. And I don’t really have a strong opinion about whether $300+K is a reasonable CEO salary for a $50M per year company that is doing lots of complex things. But I do think that much more transparency about the budget, and what the ideas are going forward, would be good.
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Thank you for the thoughtful feedback and questions shared on this post! We’re reading them all.
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My camp has about 150 people. Some are wealthy, some are quite poor, and most are mid-range. We’ve had two meetings since this year’s burn. The consensus seemed to be that they now hope ticket prices will come down, because all didn’t sell in 2024. People are struggling to come, because on top of the high ticket prices, everything else it takes to get there has gone up. I think there will be very, very few people at my camp who’d consider a donation.
It sounds like there are some great ideas on here: Reduce salaries of executives, reduce international presence, reduce art grants, reduce overhead, be transparent, increase volunteers, cut those not pulling their weight, create sponsorship of certain projects, create scholarships…
I think if ticket prices are not lowered for 2025, there will be resistance that hurts sales even further. It’s been a hard 3 years, and I get that, but I think there will be another. I think if you find a way to cut ticket prices and cut spending, we’ll be back to a 100% sale. I’ll keep doing my part by volunteering.
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I support suggestions to split BRC from any outreach ORG, and make BRC a non-profit. If you hide any financial details behind a LLC then it’s impossible to build the trust in the community.
It looks like the ORG has a money problem, not BRC!
Reduce cost on Playa to bring ticket prices down.
Review and reduce number of jobs or amenities (other than Gate!). Radical inclusion aside, do we really need an airport?
Incentivize volunteer shifts instead of asking for money!
Why do art cars, or fire installations run through slow on-playa inspections, if they didn’t change from the year before? It seems there is a bubble of bureaucracy and administrative red tape to create job security.
Safety Third !
Best quote from another comment:
“You don’t need the ORG, the ORG needs you!”
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How do you volunteer?
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Supply, demand, pricing. Like the graphs in those Econ courses we once took. Demand had increased steadily over many years, the city grew, tix sold out. That’s no longer the trend. In the more recent years, demand has fallen; the city peaked at ~79k in 2019 then shrank: 75k in ‘22, 77k in ‘23, and I’m seeing estimates of 68k-70k in 2024.
The market forces are exerting downward pressure on ticket pricing. Tix didn’t sell out in 2024, which was newsworthy. I saw innumerable posts on social media in the last two years, offering tix for *way under* face value. A savvy burner could reasonably gamble that in 2025, they could save hundreds $$ by *waiting* to get their tickets until just a couple weeks before, and get a killer deal. Rather than paying full price early on. I would expect continued steep dropoffs in OMG sales. Ticket Prices logically must come way down. It would be illogical to increase the ticket price, faced with this information.
All of which is to say: better scramble to get ahead of the bleeding, because it’s likely to worsen next year!
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It seems to me, BMorg has their hand out, more often than not. Frankly, it’s become tiresome. Like so many others have stated–take a very, hard look at cutting your costs. It sounds like Office Rent and Staffing are 2 huge expenditures which need to be reduced. We’ve donated, in the past, individually, and as a camp. No more! The organization needs to be far more transparent than it currently is. It’s frustrating, seeing the organization asking for monthly donations. Really?!
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When I see “Management and Administrative costs include information technology (IT), accounting, and people operations (HR). These costs are more than 80% related to Black Rock City.” I cant help but wonder how much the CEO salary is.How much is the COO salary? Self reliance dictates we buckle down in hard times. For festivals all over across the board, “buckle down” is the phrase that is relevant. BM is heading in the wrong direction imo. It has been for a while now. With a fixed population cap such as our fair city has, and ticket prices going up exponentially, something is consuming more and more resources and the charts provided aren’t revealing what it is. I’m not sure if its published so dont bite me (actually, bite me baby) but I’d love to see the top tier administrative costs and how they have grown over the last decade or so. I would bet that would help make sense of this. Do you think you deserve your salary in light of begging for money? It’s tight out here. What’s more important? Your salary or our community? Not attacking so save it, but something doesn’t make sense.
Live self reliance.
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