On October 22, Burning Man CEO Marian Goodell posted an urgent message to the global Burner community. The bottom line? The organization needs to raise $20 million in charitable donations by the end of the year — or may need to raise ticket prices for future events.
“We have surpassed the point where ticket revenue from Black Rock City can support our cultural work year-round,” Goodell wrote, explaining that the Burning Man Project — the nonprofit organization behind the annual desert gathering Nevada's Black Rock and other Burning Man-related initiatives — experienced a significant revenue lag this year.
Goodell explained that the main reason behind this shortfall was that Burning Man's higher-priced tickets for the 2024 festival had not sold “as planned.” Every year since 2016, before the main sale begins, about 4,000 Burning Man tickets have been sold for much more than the main sale tickets — this year selling for $1,500 and $2,500. Those tickets, which are usually bought by cash-strapped people who don't want to risk not getting a ticket during the main sale, typically fetch about $7 million — and nearly $10 million in 2023. But a Burning Man representative Project says that in 2024, higher-priced ticket sales totaled $3.4 million, down nearly $6 million from the previous year.
“This $5.7 million shortfall, combined with a $3 million drop in receipts from main sale tickets and vehicle passes, means our year-end charitable giving goal has effectively doubled to nearly $20 million,” Goodell wrote.
The financial issue was compounded when Burning Man 2024 failed to sell out, with organizers pointing to the generally soft market for the 2024 festival and the fact that after two difficult years — temperatures reached a grueling 103 at Burning Man 2022 while rain caused problems in 2023 — many people chose to stay home. Goodell says all ticket tiers saw reduced sales in 2024 and estimated attendance was down by about 4,000 this year, bringing total attendance to about 70,000.
“The decline in population, but especially around the higher ticket prices, just pushed us to a point where I knew we would be,” Goodell says, explaining that she and the team had seen this financial tipping point coming for many years as production costs rose.
Burning Man typically relies on $10 million in charitable donations each year, with a varying number of full-time staff dedicated to charity, depending on current projects and the time of year. Now, with demand for donations doubling in 2024, the organization has launched a new fundraising model where people can sign up to make a monthly donation, while one-off donations are also accepted.
Goodell declines to give a number on how much money was raised in the last month, but says engagement with the new model has been high and that Burning Man is “at a record high for repeat giving.” The organization is also seeing new donors “coming in decent amounts,” he says.
However, not everyone in the community was thrilled with the request. Comments on Goodell's post and on social media have turned to criticism, with some accusing her and the organization of mismanaging funds, despite Burning Man sharing information and tax returns about its annual revenue and expenses. tax-exempt organization for the past decade. For 2023, Burning Man reported $63.6 million in total spending, with $43.8 million of that spent on Black Rock City and the rest on art, civic engagement, administration and fundraising efforts.
“I like reading Reddit because it's really mean,” Goodell says, laughing about the comments on her announcement, all of which she's read. “I really process it all as people who have incredible passion. If they didn't, we wouldn't be Burning Man.”
Some commentators have accused the organization of spending unnecessary money on projects related to the Burning Man Project, including the volunteer disaster relief group Burners Without Borders and programming at Fly Ranch, a 3,800-acre property near the Black Rock City site that the organization purchased for $6.5 million in 2021. But Goodell says there is “absolutely” a misconception that these projects they use more money than they make, adding that the initiatives are largely funded and run by groups of independent Burners and that their costs represent less than 4% of the organization's total programming dollars. “So even if you get rid of them,” he says, “you still haven't solved the budget problem.”
The general consensus from commenters is that they want the focus of the agency's spending to be in Black Rock City itself. To that end, Goodell says, the amount of money raised by the end of the year will determine the price of Burning Man 2025 tickets. As she explains, the price of many Burning Man tickets is subsidized by tickets sold at a higher price . Those higher-priced sales allowed Burning Man to sell general admission tickets at $575 starting in 2022, up from $475 in 2019. (Burning Man didn't officially happen in 2020 or 2021 because of the pandemic.) Without that subsidy Burning Man estimates that those $575 tickets will cost $749.
“If we don't get it right, we're going to have to raise ticket prices,” Goodell says, “[especially because] we don't have the sponsorships that other festivals have. And I would like to reduce ticket prices.”
As for the prices for the 2025 event, says a representative of the Burning Man Project Bulletin board that current fundraising “will inform operational decisions, including pricing for Black Rock City 2025. Philanthropy, which is key to subsidizing ticket prices, helps us avoid a situation where the cost of a ticket prevents a community member or new Burner to come to Black Rock City.”
To save money, the agency looked, Goodell says, at “all the ways we can work better with resources” by looking at everything from Black Rock City's electricity use to medical facilities to the number of restrooms rented. . He adds that the owners of the Burning Man Project's San Francisco office “were really flexible” in adjusting the rental agreement to give them “a little bit of relief.”
With many tech billionaires, movie stars, and other one percenters trekking to Burning Man every August, there's also probably a short list of wealthy Burners who could solve the current financial deficit by donating a million or two. But Goodell says that's not the point.
“Going to big donors right now without having a narrative from the outside world doesn't make sense,” he says. “It's not like the pandemic where we're short, so we call two people… We need to build a narrative and a conversation about what we're doing long term. That's why we're creating this public discussion, which is not something we normally do.”
The idea, Goodell says, is that building broad community engagement through information sharing and the subscription model will help build Burning Man in the long run. In making this point, he emphasizes that many cultural institutions – ballets, operas, museums, etc. – rely on patrons who believe in the cause and bear the cost. As she says, “I want to spend this moment [to a place] where people get excited and feel good about the philanthropic nature of Burning Man culture.”
Raising this money is especially critical given that Burning Man has a strict non-sponsorship policy, which is part of the principle of “decommercialization” — one of 10 principles that guide and shape the event. Burning Man does not have a merch booth or sell t-shirts or posters on its website. the only thing one can buy on site is ice. (This no-cash arrangement of course contrasts sharply with the typically high price of attending the event.)
“We're intentionally creating an environment that brings people together so they can collaborate, create art, and do it without interference from transactions or commerce,” Goodell says. “We will continue to protect it.” He adds that this principle of decommodification is so entrenched that when Ben & Jerry's co-founder Ben Cohen he came to Burning Man and drove around giving away ice cream, used an unmarked truck and cups without a logo.
“[People from] Coachella, from Outside Lands, Bonnaroo, Glastonbury, they've all come to Burning Man, and they're all like, 'You're crazy. Don't have sponsorships? How do you do it?' says Goodell. She adds that the producers of a corporate-sponsored California festival told her that their event receives 25-30% of its total revenue from, as she puts it, “forms of commerce that Burning Man has banned.”
While the current financial situation raises questions about the viability of Burning Man 2025 and beyond, Goodell says the event “has to happen and it will happen, because that's who we are.” In true Burner spirit, he talks about the current need as an opportunity to prepare Burning Man for the future: to create more art, bring a more diverse group of participants to the event, and spread Burning Man culture around the world.
“There are definitely some skeptics out there,” he says. “But what we're hearing is that the majority understand that we're a nonprofit organization and that we rely on financial support to accomplish the mission.”
