501(c)(3) Donation Matching Programs, Burning Man Ticketing

[HappyEndings]

I’m posting this for constructive feedback, collaboration, and to raise awareness of this potential practice. Not only for BMorg use, but perhaps other 501(c)(3)’s you may work with or for.

Shower thought on Burning Man fundraising and ticketing:

Fact: Many of our “real world” employers have “Matching Gift” programs where if you donate a dollar they match it at some multiple to a 501(c)(3). I’ve seen programs where multiples have been 2 or 3. Often times the donor limit (pre multiple) is also in the area of $5,000/year (varies).

For example MS society talks about it if you don’t believe me:

http://www.nationalmssociety.org/Chapte ... hing-Gifts

Simple Math:

Your Donation x Employer Multiple = Amount donated to 501(c)3 organization (like BMorg ).

Note, this donation is also tax deductible for both you and your employer (actual out of pocket).

Question:

Could BMorg change the pre-sale process to donating for the “right to buy” an early ticket(s)? What would be the challenges, and benefits (general magnitudes)?

Math behind various cases using this methodology:

Case 1(a,b,c) ($ same as 2015 (1X), 2X donor, and 3x):

Assumptions: 10% of tickets are sold at $800 ($410 buy right+$390 ticket), 80% at $390 (general sale), 10% at $250 (low income).

Computations:

6600 (10% of 66,000 tickets) x $410 = $2,706,000 (“rights” sold at 1X)
6600 x $410 X 2 = $5,412,00 (“rights” sold at 2X)
6600 x $410 X 3 = $8,118,00 (“rights” sold at 3X)
59400 x $390 = $20,592,000 (90% of tickets at $390 – (pre + general sales))
6600 x $250 = $1,650,000 (10% of tickets at $250 – Low income sale)
1X total = $24,948,000 (******My estimate of gross sales for 2015*******) *Case 1A*
2X total = $27,655,000 *Case 1B* (all 2X donors)
3X total = $30,361,000 *Case 1C* (all 3X donors)

Case 1 Summary:

The difference in this the donor method at approximately 2015 ticket ratios vs. the existing method would yield somewhere between a 0 and $5,413,000. For the first year subtract program implementation cost, and yearly cost to run the program. The following only yearly program operation cost.

Case 2 (Sell 70% of ticket rights at $290 donation, all tickets $100):

66000 tickets total * 0.7 = 46200 available presale tickets (19800 remaining at general)

46200 x $290 = $13,398,000 (base “70% presale ticket buying rights”)
66000 x $100 = $6,600,000 (actual ticket sales)

Grand Total: $19,998,000

Case 2 Summary:

A *loss* of approximately $5,000,000 vs the current method is experienced; Fail.

Case 2A (same conditions as 2 however all donations are 2X):

Everyone uses a 2X program yields $26,796,000 from the 46200 ticket buying rights.

$26,796,000 + $6,600,000 = $33,396,000

Case 2A Summary:

A gain of approximately $8,000,000 vs. the current method is experienced. However participants experience no additional cost.

Case 2B:

Everyone uses a 3X program yields $40,194,000 from the 46200 tickets buying rights.

$40,194,000 + $6,600,000 = $46,794,000

Case 3 Summary:

A gain of approximately $11,000,000 vs. the current method is experienced. However participants experience no additional cost.

Case/Math Summary:

The economics behind said system demonstrate a benefit to BMorg from ~$0, to $11,000,000 per year ignoring first year implementation and yearly. Other clever permutations using this method obviously should be considered and impact the overall range. Obviously said campaign has a lot of potential ($) and IMHO sends a good message.
Notes of interest/Discussion:

Many employer programs have a unilateral agreement (the 501(c)(3) doesn’t necessarily have to follow; donor cannot receive something of value in return. For example if the donor paid $390 through a donor program, the employer matched, and in return a ticket was delivered, this could be a violation on the program. If the donor was proven to exploit the program, the employer may have the right to discipline the donor. Does the 501(C)(3) care? Probably not. Is this legal? I don’t know. If we were allowed to get tickets back for each $390 donation effectively BM would now receive ~$780 or $1170 per ticket. Or hey, maybe reduce the cost of a ticket for people that pay like this… but potentially fraud.
If the donor gets something of tangible value, the value must be deducted from the donation for tax purposes. Ex. I donate $780, get a ticket worth $390, the deduction max is $390. If your employer donated half in this case, this is at minimum peculiar.

I’d claim BMorg based on the estimates computed above could hire one or multiple people to perform manual functions and still achieve a net benefit (job creation).

The CARIVANCICLE ticket secretive ordeal involved a privileged group bypassing STEP for donations. The describe methods above are open and all pre-sale.

Employers obviously have no rights through their charitable donations to post company logos at a Burning Man event…. Duh.

By all means, feel free to comment or expand on the idea above. All I ask is you keep your comments on topic and relevant.

[ACfromSAC]

Cliff's notes?

[tamarakay]

I do better with pictures

[HappyEndings]

Cliff's notes?

If the Burning Man Community and Leadership would accept the concept of a controlled, open (non secretive), documented, donation related to accessing ticketing system (basically what pre-sale is now), the organization could grossly benefit from employee gift matching programs related to 501(c)(3) charitable organizations.

I attached simple computations showing the potential magnitudes.

Note: BM screwed up on the Carivancicle ordeal of "donors". That evolution bypassed and cheated people waiting in STEP.

[some seeing eye]

Seems unlikely employers given a choice of which charities qualify for matching would choose BM. Maybe an eccentric billionaire would match.

[danibel]

TL;DR

[Eric]

I'm just wondering if the OP realizes we're just a group of Burners talking about Burning Man and other shit, not actually anyone at all on the BMan board who might be interested in this sort of analysis (that I didn't read either)

[HappyEndings]

Seems unlikely employers given a choice of which charities qualify for matching would choose BM. Maybe an eccentric billionaire would match.

That's the beauty behind these programs. Long as it's a 501(c)(3), it qualifies.

[tamarakay]

We have a program where I work, we donate one hour pay a month, company doubles it, at the end of the year we can pick who to send it too. I do Threads of Love. They knit things for premies and nicu babies. A charity close to my heart. I would not change that donation. Not exactly to the point I know.

This seems like a nice plan however it would require a bit more diligent and oversite than I think BMorg would want to deal with.

[bitsychi]

I'm not sure whether Burning Man would be considered an acceptable non-profit for donation by some employers. I know for my matching program, there are restrictions on the activities of the organizations that you can donate to- things like organizations providing services to the disabled, homeless, the United Way, etc are ok. So would things like established arts groups (certain programs of the civic symphony, art museum, for example). Religious or political organizations, or a donation to the football program at ones alma mater would not be. I believe there are also restrictions on donating to foundations that exist soley to themselves donate money to other people.

Not sure if this is common in these types of programs, this is just my personal data point. We actually contract to an outside agency that manages this for us and they have a pre-vetted list of organizations that qualify for corporate matching.

Granted I work in a conservative industry, but I have a hard time seeing Burning Man Project and its mission of exporting the message of Burning Man making the cut in my old school corporate world.

[HappyEndings]

We have a program where I work, we donate one hour pay a month, company doubles it, at the end of the year we can pick who to send it too. I do Threads of Love. They knit things for premies and nicu babies. A charity close to my heart. I would not change that donation. Not exactly to the point I know.

This seems like a nice plan however it would require a bit more diligent and oversite than I think BMorg would want to deal with.

Thanks for the feedback. Although it's buried in there, one of my points is the program can pay for the additional manpower required for oversight. For example, if BMorg had to pay someone all year, full time, $50,000/year to manually track donors, it would be a fraction of the proceeds. In fact in some cases computed, they could hire like... 10+ people and still keep afloat.

I did get feedback from someone at BM today... Basically it was encouraging (used the word "urge you") to continue discussion of this topic to the community.

[tamarakay]

That is awesome. And it is a good idea. A mutually beneficial idea.

[HappyEndings]

I'm not sure whether Burning Man would be considered an acceptable non-profit for donation by some employers. I know for my matching program, there are restrictions on the activities of the organizations that you can donate to- things like organizations providing services to the disabled, homeless, the United Way, etc are ok. So would things like established arts groups (certain programs of the civic symphony, art museum, for example). Religious or political organizations, or a donation to the football program at ones alma mater would not be. I believe there are also restrictions on donating to foundations that exist soley to themselves donate money to other people.

Not sure if this is common in these types of programs, this is just my personal data point. We actually contract to an outside agency that manages this for us and they have a pre-vetted list of organizations that qualify for corporate matching.

Granted I work in a conservative industry, but I have a hard time seeing Burning Man Project and its mission of exporting the message of Burning Man making the cut in my old school corporate world.

Thanks for the feedback. I work for an extremely conservative industry as well. The electronic 3rd party runs the donation program I use and it appears blind. For example, I donated to BURN NFP [url]http://boldurban.org/[url] entering in their EIN and it pushed through; rightfully so, it's a great organization. I also confirmed the system would identify Burning Man's EIN (45-2638273). Likewise "religious or political organizations" are prohibited in my program. However i was curious to see if i could donate to organizations such as chapters of Planned Parenthood and Right for Life; i could have.

What probably would feel strange is the transaction of manually submitting a physical receipt. However, even that this 3rd party has an option that it goes to them, and not my employer. Some may not have that somewhat anonymous method.

What i'd love to see is companies like Exxon, Walmart, James River Coal, Pepsi, BP getting "Thank You" cards from BMorg "Burning Man cherishes your donation and commitment to the 10 principles -listed".

[HappyEndings]

I'm not sure whether Burning Man would be considered an acceptable non-profit for donation by some employers. I know for my matching program, there are restrictions on the activities of the organizations that you can donate to- things like organizations providing services to the disabled, homeless, the United Way, etc are ok. So would things like established arts groups (certain programs of the civic symphony, art museum, for example). Religious or political organizations, or a donation to the football program at ones alma mater would not be. I believe there are also restrictions on donating to foundations that exist soley to themselves donate money to other people.

Not sure if this is common in these types of programs, this is just my personal data point. We actually contract to an outside agency that manages this for us and they have a pre-vetted list of organizations that qualify for corporate matching.

Granted I work in a conservative industry, but I have a hard time seeing Burning Man Project and its mission of exporting the message of Burning Man making the cut in my old school corporate world.

Thanks for the feedback. I work for an extremely conservative industry as well. The electronic 3rd party runs the donation program I use and it appears blind. For example, I donated to BURN NFP [url]http://boldurban.org/[url] entering in their EIN and it pushed through; rightfully so, it's a great organization. I also confirmed the system would identify Burning Man's EIN (45-2638273). Likewise "religious or political organizations" are prohibited in my program. However i was curious to see if i could donate to organizations such as chapters of Planned Parenthood and Right for Life; i could have.

What probably would feel strange is the transaction of manually submitting a physical receipt. However, even that this 3rd party has an option that it goes to them, and not my employer. Some may not have that somewhat anonymous method.

What i'd love to see is companies like Exxon, Walmart, James River Coal, Pepsi, BP getting "Thank You" cards from BMorg "Burning Man cherishes your donation and commitment to the 10 principles -listed".

i may have actually found how things get discriminated against:

http://www.irs.gov/Charities-&-Non-Prof ... %29%283%29

"charitable, religious, educational, scientific, literary, testing for public safety, fostering national or international amateur sports competition, and preventing cruelty to children or animals"

So think a database lookup.... If you or I enter in an EIN that is coded "religious", or hand in a receipt for an org coded the same, it'd get rejected.

[trilobyte]

Too long, didn't read. Which is probably the same thing that led the original poster into thinking that this community message board was the appropriate place to post such suggestions, instead of going here.

[Dr Helix]

Too long, didn't read. Which is probably the same thing that led the original poster into thinking that this community message board was the appropriate place to post such suggestions, instead of going here.

Exactly. Now let's get back to posts that don't give me a headache.

[tamarakay]

Well, you just have to read the first sentence to see why he posted here. Goodness.

[unjonharley]

I'm not putting any money into something thats 50-50 chance of not attending..

Burning Man is fuck up enough without the OP's suggestion..

[Major Krash]

what would they do with all this windfall money?

concentrating anything is rarely a good idea, especially if there is no plan for what to do with the concentrate once you have it. This goes at least triple for money.

(now, if they used this to create a 4-lane super highway with rest stops and some gas marts...)