We are at an inflection point as a nonprofit. On the one hand, global interest is at an all-time high, and the world needs Burning Man more than ever. On the other hand, we are well past the point where ticket revenues from Black Rock City are able to support our year-round cultural work.
A call for your support, this post shares more about our finances, and builds on my prior communications about what’s happening in the world with Burning Man (8/18) and our current financial situation (10/3). The financial information I reference throughout this post is available in full detail here. As I previously shared, the big revenue shortfall causing today’s cash crunch is primarily from 2024 Black Rock City higher-priced tickets not selling as planned. This $5.7M shortfall, combined with a $3M dip in receipts from main-sale tickets and vehicle passes, means that our year-end charitable donation target has essentially doubled to nearly $20M. This needs to happen before 2025 ticket sales and our annual revenue cycle begins in January.
We are working behind the scenes to raise money from dedicated major donors, but this moment will work better if we look to the long term and engage everyone. Translation: We need your help to keep Burning Man accessible for the next generation! Gifting is a core value to our culture, and we need your support now and into the future. Your steadfast generosity and ongoing donations are needed to help secure the long-term of Burning Man.
Before we get into where we are going, it is important to review how we arrived at this moment.
HOW DID WE GET HERE?
Core to Burning Man is our practice of the 10 Principles, which enable the conditions for authentic moments of awe and joy. That being said, to operate in alignment with the 10 Principles, including without corporate sponsorship or merchandise revenue (while other events and festivals rely on it for nearly 25-30% of their revenue), generous philanthropy is required to grow and keep Burning Man economically accessible.
Many are surprised to learn that 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 has not for years. Specific to BRC, in 2023, the cost to produce the event was an estimated $749 per participant while the main sale ticket price was $575 per ticket. Further, since 2014, the Black Rock City production cost per participant has been greater than the main sale ticket price and the event has had to be subsidized.
This gap is why we have sold higher-priced Black Rock City tickets. A concept we talked about back in 2016, these higher-priced tickets not only kept main sale tickets reasonably priced, they also enabled us to provide lower-priced tickets to participants with financial need. And through 2023 the higher-priced tier helped to subsidize some, but not all of the cost increases.
Over the years, we also increased our annual goal for our contributed donations to address this gap and support the global mission. The community rose to the occasion, helping us raise $2M in 2019 up to $8M in 2023. With this increased philanthropic support, we felt confident in our financial outlook despite increased costs following the COVID-19 pandemic. We have been working since 2020 to increase the relative importance of philanthropy to achieve our mission. This year’s ticket revenue shortfall is accelerating our plans and has underscored the importance of year-round philanthropic support.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, and thanks to a lot of hard work by our staff, we had more than $16M in cash. Then, in the face of the pandemic and without BRC, the incredible response from the community and beyond in 2020 and 2021 resulted in more than $39M in contributed revenue. Like many other organizations, during this time we reorganized our staff, including layoffs, and tightened our belt.
Without Black Rock City in those years, but because of the community’s generous support, we were able to “Save the Man” and retain many full-time employees for a post-pandemic return to BRC and continuation of the cultural movement. Staff were deployed to do work that needed to happen to amplify the global culture. We fostered creative connection through Art Speaks, launched the Burning Man LIVE podcast, provided resources to bring Burning Man to life 365-days a year, celebrated micro burns and promoted local events through Kindling.
Between 2020 and 2022, we also invested in maintenance of Northern Nevada properties such as the 360, and other assets that directly support Black Rock City production (to go deeper on how we invested in those assets during those years, see Summary Financial Information).
Through 2023, the reliable revenue from higher-priced tickets and charitable contributions enabled the nonprofit to produce incredible programming, including Black Rock City, and support other low-budget, high-impact primarily community-driven efforts that stoke the Burning Man global culture and benefit the vibrancy of Black Rock City.
The combination of these efforts is working — there is more Burning Man out in the world and the movement has momentum!
For example, campouts at Fly Ranch have produced and fueled participant efforts, including: Burner Leadership Achieving Sustainable Theme Camps (BLAST), Renewables for Artists Team (RAT), and the Green Theme Camp Community, which then bring their forward-thinking solutions to life in Black Rock City. Participants from around the world (including From the Windy City to Romania) attend Black Rock City to learn and they then bring Burning Man back to their local community members. For nearly 20 years, Burners Without Borders local groups have utilized the skills and can-do attitude refined and realized by so many in Black Rock City to respond to catastrophe and provide humanitarian and community support after events such as Hurricane Helene. The combined budgets to support these efforts can be seen in the Summary Financial Information, under “Civic Engagement” and “Other Programs.”
The result is that global participation is now at a record high. In 2023, 95,000 people participated in official Burning Man Regional Events (check out the map!) around the world — on top of the more than 74,000 people who came together in Black Rock City. This means 170,000 people experienced Burning Man events directly in just one year — this is mind-bending!
TODAY
We started 2024 with approximately $9M cash in the bank. As noted above, even with our initial $10M fundraising goal for 2024, we face a cash crunch and need to raise $20M this year.
Fundamentally, we must balance the budget for 2024 now, and then readjust the revenue objectives and cost objectives for 2025 and beyond to secure Burning Man’s future.
Starting to sell tickets now just kicks the can down the road, and increasing Black Rock City ticket prices to cover the nonprofit costs to get more Burning Man in the world is another untenable option. This would price out diverse community participation and is inconsistent with our principles.
With everything at risk, we continue to focus ourselves on the future. This includes examining and restructuring our operations and reducing our expected 2025 (and beyond) costs by several millions of dollars. This has already included reductions in payroll and vendor costs. As you may have heard, we had to lay off talented and brilliant people who make Burning Man happen year-round.
At this inflection point, it’s important to remember why we are a nonprofit and why we must sustain the culture and make it accessible to all through impactful programming.
First, we became a nonprofit in 2011 to better scale the values born of the playa. The first Regional Event, Burning Flipside in Texas, started in 1998, and there were countless untold stories like Flipside, about how our desert city’s culture was spreading its wings far and wide. Being a nonprofit enables those stories to be told, and for resources to be developed to meet the growing demand for tools that enable anyone, anywhere to manifest Burning Man’s 10 Principles.
Second, all nonprofit programs, and the personnel supporting those programs, are part of the vision to bring more of this culture to the planet. As I shared in several examples above, these programs provide value to our culture in two directions — they enrich and support communities around the world and additionally are key to the vibrancy, evolution and innovation of Black Rock City. They are vitally important as we go forward.
The bottom line: We can’t cut our way to securing the long term future of Burning Man.
We must maintain the ability and caliber of our workforce and the diversity of our programs to bring the culture to life. Further, rather than in a vacuum, this work must be done in partnership with the community to ensure the culture remains relevant and accessible for future generations. We seek and appreciate your input!
Specific to the moment we are now in, our need for philanthropic support is extremely urgent.
So, what’s our path forward?
When I say we are at a new moment as a global nonprofit, I invite you to embrace and advocate what we are: A global force for good! The world needs what we offer now more than ever. For us to continue to be this force for good, convening people in person, inspiring creativity and innovation, and storytelling in ways that spark change, we need your help to raise the funds needed to preserve Black Rock City as the vibrant heart of Burning Man, and to protect the culture with which the event is intertwined.
Philanthropy has always been part of the long term plan for Black Rock City and the Burning Man culture. Just like other nonprofits, Burning Man Project depends on financial support to accomplish its mission. The moment to step into this future framework is now.
Give $20 a month to keep Burning Man going year-round!
If your life has been positively affected by Burning Man, you understand the personal growth and wellbeing that results from this cultural movement. Whether you’ve been to Black Rock City, or still attend, or not, you are a member of the community. We are committed to a future where Burning Man continues to be available to more people in the world.
Now, if you are interested, the deep details are available on our Summary Financial Information.
Together we are a community that’s excited and motivated to bridge the gap between people, reduce the loneliness of our time, and lean into “yes we need more connection, creativity and engagement, and we need it now!”
Thank you for all that you do to bring the values of our culture into the world!
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 “Dream Slide” by William Nemitoff, 2024 (Photo by Gurpreet Chawla)
i’d gladly pay a one time fee of $666 for a lifetime ticket.
it’s the 1997 solution.
just a thought.
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10k “lifers” would raise 1/3 of the shortfall.
and we’ll probably all die…eventually…
so…win-win.
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So, your response to requests for more transparency than the 990s is to make charts out of the 990s? Nothing here explains what the heck your expenses are. For example, your table shows you spent $18.2 on BRC during covid when the event didn’t take place?!? What is included there? Either your CFO is clueless, or you are being deliberately vague and misleading.
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Please stop trying to be everything to everybody Hire a consultant if you can’t find a volunteer among the thousands and thousands of people who are Burners, which I doubt. Use the core values of Burning Man (the Ten Principles) and write a (new) (short) mission statement that tracks those values.
Create an organizational chart setting out every current function of the Burning Man organization, together with a line-item estimate of the cost for each.
Recognize that the organization is in a tailspin and that everything must be on the table. Move items from the organizational chart to a new one in order of which programs most closely satisfy the mission statement. Put BRC at the top. Next put the regional Burns, removing ones, if any, that have historically lost money. Continue in this fashion until you have reached a total budgetary amount that reflects what the organization can reasonably expect to raise in a year from ticket sales (lowered to something reasonable), major donors, and other reliable sources of income. Stop.
Create a new (conservative) administrative budget.(office space, staff, etc.) appropriate to serve the new organizational chart, removing programs from the bottom of your list in order until the administrative budget is satisfied. Get rid of all remaining programs. Stop trying to raise money from attendees, many of whom sacrifice all or nearly all of their disposable income to attend as it is.
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Couldn’t agree more. The fact that this isn’t their starting point is really concerning. It suggests a level of mismanagement and lack of understanding of how to run a business effectively that is quite frankly staggering
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BRC is not a business. It’s a non-profit.
For a business, its reason for existing is to make a profit.
For a non-profit, its reason for existing is to realize its mission.
It’s very typical that non-profits are not profitable. It’s right there in the name.
It’s also very typical that non-profits look to donations to cover shortfalls. Think of PBS, ballet companies, etc.
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@Kiran
“It’s very typical that non-profits are not profitable. It’s right there in the name.”
You’re conflating profitability with *sustainability*.
We’re dealing with a crisis of the latter.
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Non-profits are corporations. That is their legal form. Being a non-profit doesn’t mean an organization cannot make money; it means the organization cannot distribute the money it makes to shareholders.
There are many non-profits who run at a financial surplus each year. That surplus is used to build up a reserve account for unexpected shortfalls (e.g. COVID) or for extraordinary expenditures that support the mission/operations. That surplus can also be used to fund other non-profits.
Yes, non-profits do have shortfalls from time-to-time, and yes, it is completely normal and expected for them to look to philanthropic giving to close those gaps. It is another thing entirely for a non-profit to actively plan to spend more than it takes in every year for a decade and to ignore warning signs that demand may be cooling.
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Again, there is a really easy solution to this. Split off the burning man event from everything else so that you have two separate organizations with distinct purposes. Promise that all ticket sales will go directly back into the event and not to other work of the burning man org. Then, see where people donate money.
If people donate to keep the event alive then you know that people value the event. If people donate to keep the other stuff you do (which you are totally unclear about) then that will survive.
I suspect that if you separated these things out you would quickly find plenty of donors to keep the event going. And, the funding for your other work would be minimal But, I could be wrong so test it. Create these two separate pots of money for donations (and promise to use ticket sales only for the event) and see what happens.
I understand you have your own personal things you think are important, but don’t ask us to donate to those things by being opaque about how much of our donations are going to your personal pet projects. I donated to Burning Man in 2020 and would do so again if I knew all of my money was dedicated solely to the event and that ticket sales would only be used for the event. The way to save burning man is by splitting off your other charitable work from the event.
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Really well stated. You’ve summarized every essential organizational change more succinctly than I’ve ever seen before. Thank you for your lucidity :)
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This is exactly it. Start with the event at the top and tree line your budget down until you don’t have money. Get rid of all of the extraneous top-heavy programs that the organization has invested in over time that May have been feasible before Covid, but now stretch the resource system. It’s time to regroup and return to the core of why the ORG exists, which is the core event. If the fees to use the public land are too great, maybe we need to look at other locations. Maybe we need to look at other countries to have the court event where land fees are not so massive. Maybe we need to downscale the event so that we are not trying to host so many people in the land fees aren’t so high. Out of the box thinking is definitely needed, but I don’t think we’re seeing it from the org right now, we are just seeing corporation trying to struggle to stay alive.
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“On the other hand, we are well past the point where ticket revenues from Black Rock City are able to support our year-round cultural work.”
Perhaps we should ask whether ‘year-round cultural work’ should remain a goal for the organization given that they are not supported by ticket revenue
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I hear you. But I think it’s worth pointing out that Burning Man doesn’t get to be a non-profit just by being Burning Man. If all they did was produce the event at break even, that would not entitle them to have nonprofit status. Even giving the art grants for Burning Man is not sufficient, because Burning Man is a ticketed private event. They have to do some sort of mission driven outreach to the public or pay taxes, it’s just that simple.
Now, if paying taxes is cheaper? I’d be open to the idea that maybe they should do that… but that’s a different conversation, and I could be convinced otherwise. Either way they’d have a budget shortfall, though.
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I don’t think it’s a pay taxes/not pay taxes situation. I think it’s an accept donations/can’t accept donations issue.
They’re operating at a loss. Their corporate taxes would be low. But that $10m – $20m they’re looking for from donations wouldn’t be a possibility.
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THIS!
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Ms. Goodell,
You have one of the most powerful (and coolest) brands in the world, but when I go to the BM site I see no merch or cool products tied to current and past burns that could be very popular (and profitable, even for a non-profit).
I suggest you crowdsource our creative burner family to create some BM sponsored (and curated) merch that can spread our culture and earn new revenue.
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Yeah, let’s commercialize our culture and not cut all the unnecessary expenses out of the budget. Go look at the 990 filing for 2022. I see $20m that can easily be cut just by fully working from home and stopping compensation for “select” board members.
Sale of SF office building – $12,000,000
“office expenses” – $(1,500,000)
“Select” officer salaries – $(3,500,000)
“Other expenses” (line 11g) – $(2,500,000)
Bearcom radio rentals – $0.5 million (buy radios, volunteers operate)
TOTAL – $20,000,000
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Decommodification stands against this suggestion.
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I mean there’s a marketplace…
You can for instance buy posters:
https://marketplace.burningman.org/product-category/posters/
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Eh, I’m wearing a t-shirt with “Burning Man” printed on it. Distributed to those who donated CASH MONEY to an art project. Swag is just merch with extra steps.
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If that is true, then decommodification stands against charging admission to the burn.
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Decommodification is not a general principle of life. It’s part of the 10P that is the recipe for creating an environment that fosters connection between strangers (a vital facet of life that has been eroding for years, see technology and politics). Decommodification doesn’t work in the default world (just in those spaces we carve out from it).
As a business in the default world (yes a nonprofit is a business) BMP shouldn’t be tying one hand behind its back. Go ahead and merchandise (tastefully) in the default world, just not at BRC or any other event (no we will not be exudusing through the gift shop).
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Burning Man and Burners have always stood (quite proudly) against the sale of Burning Man products. Plug n Play camps have been almost eliminated.
This is part of the Burner ethos.
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Look…it’s high time to get back to basics. Inflation has impacted everyone, so expensive desert vacations aren’t as high on the list for a lot of folks. The BORG has to adjust. It’s all possible by 1) dramatically cutting costs and 2) hitting up Elon, Eric, and other Silicon Valley types for big donations.
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Simping for Elon is NOT a solution nor a good look. He would RUIN the burn.
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He’s been burning for years and hasn’t ruined it yet!
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…financial troubles quietly vanish, and for some mysterious reason, the name of the event is suddenly changed to Burning X-Man…
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He had a Twitter account for years before ruining that site.
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You guys can start fixing the problem by admitting that you are the problem. And quit acting like you deserve Some special treatment for being a nonprofit. Being a long time, Burner, this constant Panhandling to us is ridiculous. I’d rather have you come out and say that you are a for-profit organization and come at us with integrity. The way you’re doing it right now It feels cheap and completely Erodes the equity that you have with us. Sell Some of your assets that you bought with our $. It sounds like it’s time for the organization to have some radical accountability and responsibility.
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Any other organization when faced with financial difficulty would scale back everything to the most basic of needs, ie produce the event that brings you in the most money and scale everything else back.
Instead we see “up your donations so we can keep doing 999 other things that don’t bring in money”. It doesn’t take a genius to see that repeating the same mistakes over and over again isn’t going to give a different result because we hope it will.
I would rather see the ORG up the ticket price to what the event costs to produce or perphaps scale back the event to make the costs to produce it less than the tickets. What kind of accountant would tell you to keep producing an event that you are constantly losing money doing but can scrape producing by asking for donations every single year.
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You have lost your focus and are trying to be too much, too diluted, too commercial. Your job is to run BRC every year, not to be some ‘international force of good’. Don’t let it get in your head. Strip out everything that is unnecessary to your primary job: to get the BM event running well every year. Anything surplus of that is unessential and only serves to feed some egoistical goals that the community does not care for.
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Why isn’t the end goal here reducing the scope of this ‘vision’ to effectively running the event the ticket sales are meant to fund. Cut all the other surplus activity and get your basics running right. Any decent non-profit financial director will be giving you the same advice.
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“ all nonprofit programs, and the personnel supporting those programs, are part of the vision to bring more of this culture to the planet.”
This is the issue. The community wants the event to happen. Period. This mission to bring more. Urning Man to the planet is not necessary to the event, and feels like an egoic ideal that the founders have become attached to.
Event production is what we want. Anything not directly contributing to the event should be cut at this point. Yes, that will likely mean a dramatic restructuring of the org. If you showed the community transparently that all the excess has been cut, then people may be willing to donate, but I don’t think this letter comes even close to inspiring what you’re requesting.
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Marian.
At other companies, such huge mistakes that happens under your watch would cause you to step down from leadership or be fired.
Step down.
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How much does it cost to hang out at Fly Ranch?
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Personally, my priorities are the main Burn in August then the regionals , then the other work and projects you support. As a former co leader of a regional I was sorely disappointed in the complete lack of support from the Org. Maybe step in with help in the form of regional event insurance, support the alcohol sales/permits process to raise money and also help find venues for regionals. Then you can truly be a partner and get a cut of ticket sales instead of just demanding support of the 10 principles and other demands. UnScruz sells out quickly and brings in good money. Others could do the same with the right support. Just my 2 cents.
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Don’t hold your breath. Regionals have been asking for support with those items since the 1990s.
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“ all nonprofit programs, and the personnel supporting those programs, are part of the vision to bring more of this culture to the planet.”
Whose vision? Your vision as CEO? Or the vision of the majority of people who consistently go to the Burn? I don’t like paying for all this stuff that I don’t want. I don’t think anyone in my camp does either.
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Many of us go to the Burn because we believe in the values and community of Burners. We want this community to expand world wide. If you are going for a vacation you are doing it wrong.
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Many of the events that they state they are funding are not building the culture. There also is a lot of confusion as to what is being supported at a regional level. Cancel regionals that show a loss. Yet there is two Canadian regionals that operate with lost commitments from the artists. Example the temple for the freezer burn regional the artist bails at the last moment. The land it is hosted at 5 people don’t come through with their commitments. Then we have the prior month ahead of big burn be ruined by an additional month after the event returning the land back to a useable state because people refuse to follow the idea not just the principal of leave no trace.
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This is all well and good and I fully support the expansion of an inclusive community which serves to promote its 10 principles along with the progressive nature and scale of art which is shared at the events. But first and foremost a non-profit or any organization for that matter must live within its own means in order to survive. The BORG is violating many of its very own principles. Let’s start with radical self-reliance. One could argue that asking its participants for donations is a form of self reliance but this principle should work in the direction of inner-most to outer-most. Where-as BORG makes every single internal consolidation possible before moving to the next options. It is inherently failing on relying on self, in a very un-radical manner. This leads into the civic responsibility of BORG. Assuming the responsibility of public welfare, in my opinion, includes taking every step possible to avoid financially straining its less well off participants. Yes they do have low income tickets, but BORG is operating outside of its own means. To such they are being irresponsible, civically, in asking for donations when they have failed to take the steps first to correct their own personal behavior. They are passing the burden because they know they can. They need a good reality check to which they make their own sacrifices to promote the existence of their duty as leaders of BORG. There is much nuance and many interpretations can tie the actions of BORG to violations of principles but the last one I will point out is immediacy. As a duty of many of the given positions within BORG, the steps to fix the inherent issues being addressed should include an IMMEDIATE response to where this discussion should not even be taking place. The inability to enact resolution from the top down implies the unwillingness to sacrifice from its primary leaders. This perpetuates and prolongs the inaction which has been evolving into and issue resembling those in a community facing issues of financial polarization. It is slowly creating an environment where it is unfeasible for those whom are financially less fortunate. A space where the continued participation is just not possible. I would argue that one of the MOST IMPORTANT facets of a well functioning and progressive society would diversification. But hey thats just my two cents, which is all many of these long time supporters has to give for a chance to participate.
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Lmao! The feedback to your Oct 3rd blog post was overwhelmingly calling for cutting the excess global projects, and narrowing to a simpler laser-narrow focus on only BRC/the event itself.
And yet, here you’re doubling down on the opposite of everyone’s advice: You invite us to “embrace and advocate for what we are: A global force for good!”
Altruism is admirable, but this stinks of “mission creep” and endless expansion of scope. Which means endless need for more money. Aren’t you also explaining in the same breath, that you’ve already bitten off more than you can chew?? It seems like burners are pleading with you to chew the current bite fully. Lest someone choke.
Global force for good?? Heady stuff! Now we’re all saving the world for $20 a month? Sounds like Delusions of grandeur.
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The right way to bring Burning Man’s culture to the world is for Burner’s to bring that culture back to their hometowns, their communities, and work to make those better places to live. Trying to drive those initiatives with a top-down mindset just isn’t going to work. And, if you really wat to help folx bring Burning Man into the world and spread out from Black Rock City, shouldn’t the budget for civic engagement be higher than the budget for management and administration?
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This!
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Marian, you know I’m a true believer. I made a large stock gift to the org in 1999. I led the Playa Resto line sweeps in 2000. I have brought art to the playa 21 of my 25 years there.
So I’m very sad to read this response from you. Rather than saying, “We overspent. We hear you. We’ve already cut all non-event expenditures! We’ve already cut salaries and staff. We’re looking for cheaper office space now!” you again ask for the community to finance the current, unsustainable business model. We all saw the responses to your 10/3/24 request for funds. How could you possibly think that asking again, without first showing evidence of serious belt-tightening would work?
Like many others, I WANT to help, but I can’t possibly stomach doing so until I have seen serious changes at the org. Take some action to slash the budget NOW, before it’s too late. Please.
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Thank you so much Chris for speaking out! You are such a respected member of the BM community, and bring so much to the playa, I hope your voice floats above all the noise and is heeded.
I don’t understand how Marian can be so tone deaf to the cries of the community. She is making something so simple into something nobody wants, and drowning it along the way. I think the org needs a complete revamp, starting with her resignation. Nobody wants this version of philanthropy. We just want the event. Don’t hold the event hostage to get us to pay for lofty ideas that nobody cares about except Marian and her gang. You are destroying everything.
All we want is a place to go every year, this magical place, for a couple of days, keep it safe, keep it honest, keep it special. Nothing more beyond that.
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BAM BOOM YES!
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Thank you for this response <3 #industwetrust
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This is the kind of real talk I appreciate hearing. Thanks Christopher.
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Bingo!
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Boosting this comment!
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I’ve only been burning half as long as you. Agree with everything you’ve said. And you said it well!
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Nice job Christopher and thanks for your input and service!
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THIS !
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Stop with the year-round work.
Reduce your scope and costs ASAP. Sell some of that Ranch land, for start. Downsize, downsize, downsize.
Extremely audacious to have such an optimistic budget that can’t cope at all with big changes and then try to solve the problem via donations.
Bridge the gap with cost cuts, asset sales and downsizing..
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In Australia we have a hippy festival that has been going for almost 50 years. I always describe it as “like Burning Man without all the big money”.
Tickets are US$92 plus 2hrs of volunteering for a 4 day festival.
We don’t have all the big art sculptures etc, but there is a profound magical spirit of synchronicity, spontaneity and symbiosis that happens.
We don’t need all the bells and whistles. In fact they can become a distraction.
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Yes! Second this! Confest has been going for decades without huge inputs of cash from participants. It inspires people who attend. It isn’t an event with widespread, highly visible global impact. But it has changed every person who has attended and most of us bring that energy into the rest of our life.
Impacting the lives of the participants of BRC could be enough. An annual event of 70k plus people is huge! All the other projects should be considered bonus and there’s no shame in focusing on what has brought us together to begin with–responsibly expressing the principles at BRC.
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https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/452638273#compensation
These are 2022 numbers, and Ms. Goodall got 20k more than 2021, which got 40k more than 2020 (years where we didn’t have an event).
Where did you tighten your belt again?
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Cut everything in the budget not related to the event and regionals. The mission of bringing burning man culture around the globe with a million different spin off projects is something the org wants to fuel its never ending requests for donations. Just produce BRC sustainably. That’s it. I have personally been the president of a nonprofit that had to go through a similar transition after getting too inflated with programming. You have to get back to the core of what you do and leave out the rest.
Also many many thousands of us already donate to the event yearly in the form of spending our own money creating art installations and camp interactivity for participants in addition to purchasing tickets and vehicle passes annually. Your long winded request that we make additional monthly donations to you so you can fulfill a vision we don’t agree with is like a slap in the face given all the work and money we already put in.
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“global interest is at an all-time high”
actually, look at the data in google trends. Outside of the very obvious Mudpocalypse attention of 2023, interest has been steadily on the decline (really, since Larry passed, if you look at the charts).
The buck stops with you Marian. You can’t have catered lunches year round in a big beautiful SF office while passing a hat around to people who are out here struggling. well, you can, I guess, but you really look pretty out of touch.
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Thank you for sharing, Marian. I appreciate the level-setting and road mapping to the future. The last thing any of us want is for Burning Man to disappear — I donated to Burning Man Project in 2020 and I plan to again. We’re all in this together.
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Where is your contrition? Where is your apology for letting the global, year-round mission grow too big? A non-profit should be able to weather a down year in ticket sales. Perhaps several. Sounds like you got way out over your skis and you need to pull back considerably. Focus on Black Rock City and shut everything else down if you have to. Regrow to the point you can support a wider mission because right now you can’t. Asking for $20M, doing layoffs and reducing some expenses are not going to solve your problem. You need to thoroughly re-evaluate where your money is going and then redirect. Can you sell Fly Ranch? If so, do it. And if that sounds insane to you, I don’t think you fully grasp the emergency you’ve created. Long story short, this sounds like a you problem.
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Perhaps if the org is not profitable, those who are reaponsible should not receive compensation increases.
Perhaps they should avoid superfluous land purchases. Perhaps they shouldn’t stray to projects that compromise the integrity of the event that made them who they are.
Perhaps they should even move offices from one of the most expensive cities in the US to some of that aforementioned purchased land in nevada.
Perhaps if the org is bleeding money, they should seek to fix the leak internally, rather than seeking to drain the ocean – requesting even more from the people who wreck themselves physically and financially to actually make the city happen.
You’re pricing the event out of any form of radical inclusion, and making it seem like it is the responsibility of the community of volunteers, builders, international burners, and everyone in between, rather than the leadership.
This is a failure of leadership. Plain and simple. Not a failure of $$$ participation by the community you claim to serve.
Please consider engaging in some radical accountability, or the ticket sales and community will suffer even more in the years to come.
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Correcting the inappropriate spending of the org is your job, not ours. Most of us have *other jobs* that we leave for several weeks a year to build, enrich, and participate in this city. We pay handsomely for this privilege, and cannot be expected to continue to fork over cash for y’all to spend on things that don’t actually improve the “global impact” of your vision.
Stop giving raises if you fail to meet your targets. This is a problem you have created, and have the capacity to solve. Please do it. Practice any form of accountability for your failures.
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All this to essentially tell us to pound sand and send you checks. I made a medium sized donation in 2020 and bought FOMO tickets consistently over the last few years to support BRC. I stopped making contributions last year. Until the org can show reasonable use of funds and refocus on the event only I will not resume.
Non-event related activities which have contractual obligations should be split into a new legal entity, everything else needs to go on the chopping block. Stop making BRC something which it is not.
It is an open secret that there is scarce accountability for a good portion of the long term staff. Donations just keep covering up the inefficiencies.
Don’t get me started on the Fly Ranch ‘project’, something of an Albatros which merely consists of a few good feel blog posts every year. 99.9% of BRC attendees and the regular public get no benefit from this private property.
So much waste…
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Dear Marian and the rest of the executive team: the content of this post is staggeringly tone deaf. Just read the comments!
Worse, the same feedback being expressed has already been ignored. This year round mission noise is old. We the people, just want a week-long get together in the desert. Please quit choking that out with all this other nonsense.
As it stands you and your team deserve nothing more than the price of the ticket.
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Three words: radical self reliance.
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Are none of you having an existential crisis around the possibility that Burning Man could never happen again? Am I the only one? Regardless of how imperfect or awkward the call for support may be, maybe we just need to pull together and make sure we can keep this thing alive?
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It will happen again. The question is whether the Burning Man Project will be at the helm or not.
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There was a journal entry about are regionals becoming more popular that brc and the response was fully charged showing that the financial responsibilty of going to brc as well as the increasing climate change that is for some making brc inaccessible. The burner community is aging and the new burners are showing a mindset that brm events are events which in itself is ruining the culture.
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Burning Man will continue, no matter what happens with the current org. We proved that in 2021. There will certainly be growing pains, but the culture and community are solid.
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Spare us the verbose rationalizations, Marian.
Beyond the ticket price, Burners already make massive personal and financial donations and sacrifices to make Black Rock City and the magic that is Burning Man.
Others above have pointed out the obvious path forward. That you continue to resist taking it is quite telling.
Come down out of the ether, or step aside.
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Marian, with all due respect, I think you are too close to the issue. With statements like this, “ When I say we are at a new moment as a global nonprofit, I invite you to embrace and advocate what we are: A global force for good! The world needs what we offer now more than ever.”, it is clear that you are grasping at straws. I don’t want burning man to die, because it truly provides me so much, but its value from my understanding has never been about being a global force for good. Yes, emotionally healthy people are more capable of helping others, but that starts with transformation. The transformative nature of the event is being diluted by an attempt to be too welcoming. Art that offends is being removed, in an attempt to make more diverse communities feel welcome we are compromising the rough edges that challenged people and gave them the opportunity to evolve. I’m not advocating being less welcoming, I’m advocating finding a way for these two ideas that you seem to think are mutually exclusive, to work together. We have lost so many long time burners and have gained some folks that participate, but a lot that do not. Burning man will have a hard time charging more or gaining donations in the long term, because the event has driven away those that are the roots of the community. Sure, it still feels like it’s burning man, but it does feel like the writing is on the wall, and I hope we can turn it around.
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I am saddened to read this tone deaf post in the light of the push back and consistent call from across the burner community since the previous 10/3 post to detangle the financials of the event from Civic Engagement, Other Programs and any other expenditures not directly tied into supporting the event. At this point it seems like an unwillingness to hear the feedback that is being given, which certainly will not inspire donations and support. Perhaps in the end these side projects of will be cut by necessity due to fiscal reality. They are bleeding the event and the organization that produces it dry and until that bleeding is stopped I suspect this fundraising effort will not gain traction.
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First, “non-profit” is just a common general term for “tax exempt”, which is the designation actually given to a corporation by the IRS and California franchise tax board.
After seeing Burning Man change over the past 20 years, it seems that there is a widening gap between top management’s view and we on the street who make much of the BRC happen. This trend needs to be reversed. Management needs to get back to its roots, and build up to what can be sustained from there.
Third, too much hubris at the top has infiltrated their view and what feeds their egos. Not a good trait for a strong leader of such an org.
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If Rainbow Gathering can host a 20k person event on public land for $0 per person, and Plan B can host a 30k person event on public land for $10 a person, you can host a 70k person event on public land for less than $749.
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To solve the deficit and overspending issues directly related to the org “mission”, how about an 11th BM principle – radical exclusion (of all non-BRC-related expenditures from the budget).
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Your math is misleading, probably deliberately so. Nobody pays $575 to attend burning man. They also pay the org vehicle, bus, plane, oss, and ticket fees. Of course, that’s in addition to the insane value of ten of thousands of hours of free labor and millions in donated art each year. To come begging without clear recognition of how much the community already contributes (while ignoring calls for genuine financial transparency) shows how out of touch leadership has become. Thank you for your service, but it’s time to pass the torch.
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Perhaps buying all that land, having those fancy offices and paying the people at the top 400k/year is not such a good idea when your organization is struggling for cash.
Most of us never got to use Fly Ranch (because it’s in the middle of nowhere) so MAAAYYYBEEE you should stop spending so much money that we give you stuff that only those with extra time and money can benefit from.
Perhaps look at your financials and trim a lot of fat, just like every other company struggling for cash does.
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While I appreciate the apparent transparency of the financials, the elephant in the room from my perspective is why were BRC expenses ~$27M for 2017, 2018 and 2019 and this year they were $45 million. That right there is your $18 million gap. Now, there might be valid reasons for part of the increase but without some detail and transparency on this specific topic, I cannot possibly think about contributing more.
Would strongly suggest someone on your finance team become educated on zero cost budgeting as a first step.
Please don’t misunderstand me. Decade long burner and BRC is so core to my soul. However, if we are not going to have an adult conversation about this problem, count me out.
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Inflation in the cost of producing events is very real. Many news agencies reporting on it. NPR recently deemed 2024 the year of the death of the festival. The economics of events are getting harder and harder across the US and Europe, this is not just a Burning Man problem.
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Marian, I’ve met you personally more than once. You seem like a lovely person, dedicated to the culture and the event, and I am grateful for all that you have done.
Burning Man and the community that surrounds it completely transformed my life after my first trip in 2009. I became an evangelist for the event, dragged many friends to it, had a wedding ceremony there, started a local edition of FIGMENT, attended the Regional leadership meeting in SF and visited your offices. I won a grant for an honorarium project, and that led to paid work. I’ve now been to 7 big burns, plus 7 trips to 4 different regional burns, and hardly a month goes by when I don’t get together with my burner community for some smaller unofficial event.
My wife has been to more than half of those with me, and we’ve now started bringing our children to smaller events. When you add in travel costs, camp dues, infrastructure, and tickets, we’ve poured tens of thousands of dollars into Burning Man and the wider Burner culture over the last 15 years. We happily donated the price of a ticket in the first pandemic year.
In different circumstances, I would gladly chip in $20/month to keep this thing that has been so special to me going. But those are not the circumstances you’re in.
It is clear that something drastic needs to change. Calling it an inflection point is accurate. But simply coming back to the community asking for more donations is not going to fix the structural problems you’re facing. What we as a community are asking for, here, on Reddit, and privately in conversations at weekly meet and greets and around campfires coast to coast, is for some sort of meaningful response.
I’m not going to sit here and tell you that you should resign. But there needs to be some drastic action or the event is going to collapse. People want to be part of something fun and exciting, not jump onto a sinking ship, and right now the event is projecting sinking ship vibes.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to get back to planning my trip to Love Burn. It’s a great event, fun and exciting and youthful and run by a small, scrappy team who do it for love, not money. Reminds me a lot of what Burning Man used to be.
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I have nothing to say about anything other than the part about Love Burn. You ARE aware that they’re not only under sanction, but this is after years of complaints? And, I mean, I’ve been hearing these complaints for most of a decade now. Someone posted their financials, and it looks like the way they keep afloat is to sell somebody tickets that people have to camp in the parking lots and financials they post look … Funny. Like the amount they post don’t add up to the ticket sales and the cost, And when somebody posted about it on FB, a couple of artists posted that they felt really loved and supported by LB. And a bunch more posted that they really got shafted by them.
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Go find a sit and spin.
Nonprofit boards shouldn’t make this kind of scratch.
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Thank you Marian for providing a more thoughtful response to your fundraising request as the first request lacked critical information this community needed to decide how to support the BMorg going forward.
We’re making progress…thanks for listening to Part I. However, your biggest fan base, donors and patrons are Burners and many are still not happy with your growth/solution strategy.
I recommend re-visiting the recommendations the community is sharing with you and come back with a more refined strategy that focuses on three things:
1. Scale back / Focus on the event
2. Reduce expenses
3. Provide more support to regionals
PS- I reviewed your teams’ salaries and you pay your employees as if they worked for a corporation – These salaries are super high for a nonprofit!!!
Marian Goodell (Director/Chief Executive Officer) $346,747
Steven Blumenfeld (Chief Technology Officer) $306,540
Heather White (Chief Operating Officer) $224,017
Harley K Dubois (Director) $223,396
Adam Belsky (General Counsel) $212,995
Daniel Kaufman (Director Of Philanthropic Engagement) $200,535
Doug Robertson (Director Of Finance) $198,431
Matthew Kwatinetz (Dir/Senior Dir, Nevada Operations) $197,563
Charlie Dolman (Director Of Event Operations)$195,262
Kim Cook (Director Of Creative Initiatives)$189,223
Pedro Vidal Flores (Director Of People And Learning) $184,544
Marnee Benson (Director Of Govt Affairs($174,273
Jonathan Rosen (Associate Dir Of Product And Design) $171,370
Stuart Mangrum (Director Of Philosophical Center) $171,370
Christopher Breedlove (Director Of Civic Activation) $157,339
Nanci O Peterson (Secretary) $153,578
Again, we’re making progress. This is a good thing. Looking forward to seeing part III of your refined strategy.
Your patron & donor.
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An inflection point indeed. Please hear this, because this really is everything: the actual inflection point you’re at right now is whether you’re going to listen to your community or not.
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Bring back center camp coffee
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Many of the comments in the discussion thread mirror my own opinion – the org needs to recognize that it’s in a downward trend for a variety of reasons, and adjust itself accordingly, before and in addition to asking the community for help.
The core of the organization’s mission is and should continue to be to create the event that birthed the movement. One of my frustrations with the org has been to try to act “above the event”, and actually kind of look down on the event. Yes, we’re “a global movement of artists and activists seeking to to change the world, and blah blah blah”, but the central core of that movement arose from and continues to be fostered by the event held at BRC. To downplay the importance of the event is, to me, entirely misdirected. Roots are crucially important, and expanding too far beyond those roots risks having the organization & the entire movement becoming untethered and losing its identity.
Aspirations of global culture leadership are laudable, but this is not the time for them.
During this time of crisis, the org needs to tighten its focus on making the event happen in a way that develops the core community and supports its principles. For the time being, cut everything else out. EVERYTHING. Ask regional organizations to stand largely on their own for a year or two. Scale back art grants, particularly for art not heading to the playa. Scale back near-term Fly Ranch aspirations. Reduce the services the org provides to the event participants, particularly those that coddle or ease the inherent misery that is BRC. Cut organizational operations to the bone. Put all initiatives towards developing the global movement on hiatus. Ramp up income streams that work within the framework of our principles.
Stop, for the moment, from trying to a global movement and protect your core.
Perhaps in a few years the situation will improve and dreams of fostering a global burner culture can be rekindled, but for now it’s superfluous and a drag on the org’s survival.
These last few years have been hard, for everyone. Covid + two years of difficult weather has killed a lot of people’s momentum. People caught other hobbies and interests during the pandemic, and are looking elsewhere for joy & fulfillment. The up and coming generation are less drawn to large scale events. And many of us have just sort of grown tired of the bigger, better, more treadmill of the event and everything else in our lives.
Maybe this is a time to get the event back to its roots of smaller, more intimate and more DIY. Maybe it’s time to rightsize for the moment, and see what direction the community takes the event. Maybe after things have stabilized, the org can reengage with those other initiatives, but now is the time to get back to basics.
But for now – protect the core.
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Get rid of your offices and let your staff work remotely. Cut excess costs and non-essential projects. Don’t put the burden on burners who like another commenter mentioned, already spend their expendable budgets to attend the event.
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Boiled down, your message is “Donate $20M in the next 60 days so we can continue doing all these random activities in my personal vision as Org CEO, or we won’t have the event next year.”
That’s not fundraising; it’s a shakedown. And it’s poor leadership that you as CEO have waited until October 3rd and 22nd to address the situation by blog posts (as if THAT is going to raise $20M in 90 days!) when you have to have known by the beginning of August that the Org was facing a major revenue shortfall. Since ticket sales cannot be guaranteed and the last two years were unusually hot and wet, reducing interest in attending, the Org should not have budgeted based on an assumption that the event would sell out.
You say, boiled down, that ‘The event can’t pay for itself, let alone all these other activities.’ So, fix those problems.
First, have the event pay for itself. Raise ticket prices overall with a larger number of OMG sales and the number of low income tickets kept at the same absolute level. And yes, cut expenses. Maybe fewer funded art projects, a smaller Temple and Man, etc.
You say that revenue from the event is highly variable. OK, that means you have to manage the budget accordingly.
So, cut your fixed costs. Sell the Fly Ranch; that purchase never made sense and is clearly a luxury the Org was never able to afford in the first place. Sell the building in SF and have everyone work from home. The startup I work at is 100% remote and it works fine.
Use any LEFTOVER FUNDS after event expenses are paid off to pay for “art out in the world” projects that can be committed IF the revenue arises. That way, you wind up with variable revenue and also variable expenditures instead of variable revenue and fixed expenditures.
Part of the problem is that you’re inserting the Org as an intermediary between art projects out in the world and donors. Org wants donors to donate $20M per year so you, the Org staff, have funds for the event and for an expansive menu of activities YOU choose. That’s not the Burning Man Project; it’s the Marian Goodell Service Projects Endowment, and while I’m sure the projects you want to fund are well intentioned and nice activities, it’s pretty clear your sprawling vision has exceeded the ability of the Burning Man community to reliably fund.
Since you’re facing a revenue shortfall, cut salaries starting with your own. The poor financial management and failure to take timely remedial actions you’ve displayed here don’t justify your current salary. Ask yourself honestly whether you’re the right person for the job you hold.
The Org must budget with the assumption that ticket sales will be variable and COVID-19 won’t be the last shock that will cause the event to be cancelled. If bird flu mutates to readily spread person-to-person, we could be in global lockdown again NEXT YEAR!
I’m willing to donate something to support the event, but not to subsidize a grab bag of random disconnected activities and to enable continuing irresponsible financial management. Change is necessary, possibly starting with who is the CEO.
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Too much foofiness. Burner culture does not need to be spread out into the world. That’s exactly why it barely feels like a countercultural anything anymore. The reason it got so big and hardly able to contain itself is because you wouldn’t stop talking about it! Stop telling the whole world about us! And stop paying yourselves ridiculous amounts of money to do so.
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Here’s an idea: stop talking about Burning Man so much. Don’t try to spread it around the world. That’s exactly why it isn’t much of a countercultural thing anymore at all – too many people know about it and want to go! So of course the event grew beyond its capabilities and now is barely able to sustain itself! The world does not “need” Burning Man because Burning Man can’t save the world. The qualities that burners ideally show, according to the principles and all, is not specifically unique to Burning Man culture. It’s called being a decent person, and it isn’t the Burn’s job to teach people how to be that. Focus on the event itself, which is what the vast majority of Burners want, rather than trying to spread the gospel and congratulate yourselves for doing so with your outrageous salaries.
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The trend lines that I seem to see in the comments section here and for the 10/3 message may not be adequately addressed. And perhaps we might say that we don’t know how well the comments represent the community as a whole. Perhaps the org might survey the community to measure how well they are on track. Or perhaps the org hopes they can find enough who share the org’s view and are willing to send $$, and see where this direction leads.
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Just throw the god damn party! Jeez!
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LOL. you condensed my thoughts into a very short sentence. THANK YOU !
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Thank you for the update. We live in a time of stress and that can manifest in angry online comments. Forgive.
Burning Man knows it needs to work on the revenue and expense side for the long term while maintaining its tax status and good reputation. It’s clear the next 9 months are a crisis.
I would suggest the 10 Principles are not the brand and mission to bring Burning Man forward towards new burners or new support. The 10 Principles were Larry’s distillation, in enigmatic Larry-speak, of what burners already developed on their own. It is a tool for orienting on-playa behavior. It is too abstract to attract new burners or spread the burner culture. It makes no sense to the first reader.
You need a three sentence summary of what Burning Man is to save it.
We trust you.
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Exactly. Talk about real impacts please.
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How about this:
In a divided world Burning Man provides a pathway to true connection that is uplifting and bonding. It is our mission to continue this phenomenon in the hopes that in some small way we can contribute to helping those separated by ideology and hate to build a better common society. We celebrate our connection but don’t limit ourselves to just “throwing a big party”.
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In case it hasn’t occured to you yet, consider the possibility that demand is down because of what the organization and event have evolved into. Costs go up every year, and yet ticketing remains an annual disaster, porta potties are broken, gate lines long, OSS services unreliable, art projects require an unbelievable amounts of red tape, and smug leadership refuses to increase transparency (financial and otherwise). Nobody read this blog post and came away more inspired to start planning for next year, yet alone open up a checkbook.
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This.
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It would help raise money if the IMPACT of the work was articulated in a clear way. “Record numbers of people participating” is not an impact. Why do those numbers of participants matter? What is the change that is occurring in the world as a result of the work being done? “Spreading the Culture” is not an impact. How does participation shift the behavior of participants over time? How is the quality of lives and communities improved over time by participation? I know, I sound like a fucking broken record. It’s the truth though. There was a donor interested in helping answer those questions in a very quantifiable way back in 2016. Apparently doing that work wasn’t a priority. So we bough property instead.
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I would like to see an accounting of the $749 cost per attendee. Share it and I’m sure we can fix the problem. There are plenty of festivals (I know BM is not a fest, no need to tell me) where the ticket price is much lower as are the costs. But they’re bringing “name the music act”, stage production, etc. etc. I’m assuming you’re rolling in the entire year-end payroll into the cost of producing the week long main burn? Why would you do that? Have you studied production companies on how to host an event? I would have hoped so. I’ve gave money during CV. I volunteer for non-profits. It’s very hard to raise money if you can’t show your ROI. The ROI isn’t always money, it can be lives saved, education advanced and contributing to society x value. I don’t see any of this here. I have no doubt that BM provides certain value, but as other have said, without financial transparency, impact/ROI numbers, and identifying and focus on mission – or w/out support for the mission as stated – I have a hard time thinking people would contribute money.
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At the time I write this, a week after the blog posted on October 22, there are 84 comments on this post.
One is unequivocally supportive.
Eighty-three beg Org to cut the global and year-round programs and focus instead on the main event, BRC.
I agree with the 83! On your to-do list:
1) cut the global and year-round programs budget to zero and
2) cut the BRC event budget to break even
3) fix the mission to something finite like “to produce the Burning Man event, with special attention to the inclusion of marginalized and oppressed communities”
From what I can glean, BLM permitting and law enforcement demands have greatly increased the cost of producing BRC. What other things have increased the production costs? How small does BRC need to be to break even? Please let us know!
P.S. We can live with cutting the art grant budget significantly. Smaller man, smaller temple, smaller number of installations…
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Marian Goodell makes 346k “compensation” per year. Let that sink in… Take all the time you want.
https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/452638273
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Two things to think about:
1) We had a burn just three years ago which was free to attend. Worked out okay.
2) Burning Man exists in the real world for 50 weeks of the year. As a business – non-profits are corporations too.
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Can’t they sell off Fly Ranch because it doesn’t seem like they use it to store year round burning man equipment and there’s also a warehouse property in Bayview in the city, don’t know if they own it or rent it but I didn’t see any heavy equipment storage, just a nice space to hold burning man events for the burning man elite. So… asking for money at $20/month is just plain rude.
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Hi everyone here is posting because they are passionate about burning man and the community. Thank you for the 10 year financial look back. Maybe I missed it. What is the 10 year financial forward, looking forecast? If we donate and the burning man organization raises the requested $20 million, will that plus a conservative financial estimate of ticket sales, etc. ensure the financial viability of the BRC event and burning man organization and activities for the next 10 years? If yes, I think many of us would be happy to donate. Just as I’ve donated most of the 15 years I’ve been part of the Burning man community and I contributed especially generously during the Covid years. Help us understand the burning man organization’s plans and financial outlook for the next 10 years and I think many of us would be happy to donate!
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The shortfall in this budget is not due to Marian Goodell’s salary.
Ripping Marian to shreds for earning a salary is ignorant and non-sensical. Marian runs a major nonprofit with a budget in the tens of millions of dollars. Her salary is way *under* industry standards for a nonprofit of this size. Suggesting that Marian is the problem and that she should resign is also an absurd, cruel, and cold-hearted approach. Do you want to do this job?
CEO of BM is a thankless job and there isn’t a line of people wanting to replace her. Just think of the absurdly long list of responsibilities and also the bratty attitudes you have to deal with (just read most of the comments above!). There are so many armchair quarterbacks commenting here.
Burning Man’s org appears to be on life support. And the attitude of most burners who comment is to lay blame, complain, and offer little to no constructive suggestions. How about questions, support, and gratitude?
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Perhaps, but do other nonprofits of this size earn 95% of their income from one event? Do they rely almost entirely on volunteer labor and donated art? Much different situation than the average non profit. I commend Marian for keeping the Burn alive during covid, but besides that I have seen very little leadership of value.
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Seriously “increasing Black Rock City ticket prices to cover the nonprofit costs to get more Burning Man in the world is another untenable option. This would price out diverse community participation and is inconsistent with our principles”
that is not true and basically tells us “hey, please give us money so we can continue doing all kind of random good” instead of really focussing on the core BM BRC experience, making sure it balances, and only then once it does, start thinking about random good in the world.
They need some seriously good financial advice there.
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Burning since ‘99 and this shit is hilarious — Get a damned clue.
Sell some of the assets we’ve paid for over the years, move the office to Reno where office space is cheap and the reduced cost of living will allow salaries to be reduced proportionately, and stop the incessant overreaching…
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Radical self-reliance! The nerve of this shakedown knowing the insane salary amounts each person in BM leadership receives…
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Hmmh. Who decided / when did they decide that BM was going to become so much bigger than the annual burn? What was the intention? and was any thought given to asking the community at large if they supported this?
I ask because it sounds like the financial obligations of these endeavors and ‘missions’ are now endangering the financial stability of the thing that gave birth to them in the first place.
“Hemorrhaging money” is the phrase that springs to mind.
Is the Org. too close to these side quests, locked in because of prior commitments and promises made?
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THANK YOU Marian and others making this happen for decades and making this a big part of my life! For over a decade I have been volunteering about 40 hours every year. Every year I look forward to see faces of some of my co-volunteers with a few more gray hairs on their head. I think at this point burning man WILL happen no matter what (Renegade Burn..). I love the art, have hate/love relationship with portos and would love to keep doing shifts with my comrades. Consider this FANTASTIC opportunity/excuse to “trim the fat”. Show me what you have done and I will get on the monthly donor list.
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