2023 990 Financial Report is available

[some seeing eye]

The Burning Man Organization is a California nonprofit corporation which files an IRS 990 nonprofit tax return.

It may be posted in the public documents part of the Burning Man Org website https://burningman.org/about/about-us/f ... reporting/

It is available now from ProPublica which posts many nonprofit 990 returns. You can look up your local nonprofits there too.

https://projects.propublica.org/nonprof ... 09111/full

2023 was the famous year of rainstorms, for build, and then at the end of burn week. The organizers responded with rare items in their contingency plans, dealt with the press creating drama, deployed communications for all burners with help from electric utility Nevada Energy, and cleaned up all the MOOP afterwards like they always do.

One way to read these reports is to compare them year to year. 2019 was a peak year in the economy and a "normal" Burner year. 2020 and 2021 were COVID years. 2022 was very hot and windy, I know several burners who decided to move on to the regional and not return to the Black Rock Desert. There were COVID infections on playa in 2022 which impacted some camp operations. 2023 was mud and early gate entry closure.

The 990 is a good companion to the Annual Report, the detailed Census report, and other public announcements.

There seems to be a contingent of anonymous burners announcing "cut this, cut that." As a nonprofit the organization does nonprofity things as a condition of tax status. "Cut everything but the party I'm entitled to" is a meme I hear even experienced burners exclaiming without reading and understanding the 990. Sad.

What we individually can do is recruit new and returning burners to return the population and ticket sales to 80,000, keep our camps healthy, volunteer for departments, participate in regionals, help throughout the world with BWB, and bring art!

[wailgas]

The tone here seems to be urging both seasoned and new burners to engage with the organization and support it in a way that ensures long-term sustainability, especially given the financial, environmental, and logistical challenges of the past few years. It also seems to highlight a balance between necessary organizational adjustments and the core mission of Burning Man, emphasizing participation and community-building as the way forward.
Understanding the organization’s operations through the IRS 990 can help participants better appreciate the complexities of running an event of such scale and how they, as individuals, can contribute to its ongoing success.