California · Nonprofit
BURNING MAN PROJECT
BURNING MAN PROJECT (California) receives grants from 74 organizations whose IRS filings report $32,047,517 to it, the largest being DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC ($13,527,450). 42 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 92% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $56M
- Funders on record
- 74
- Grants received
- $32M
- Net assets
- $19M
What Burning Man Project does
Mission
Burning Man Project facilitates and extends burning man culture into the larger world. Its charitable mission is to uphold and manifest the values reflected in the ten principles of burning man, specifically: radical inclusion, gifting, decommodification, radical self-reliance, radical self-expression, communal effort, civic responsibility, leaving no trace, participation, and immediacy through arts, culture, education, and civic engagement.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Civic engagementcivic engagement fosters volunteerism, public service, and creative placemaking in communities including black rock city. It manifests through the work of burners without borders, regional network events, and civic infrastructure projects and gatherings.
$36,325,670 spentof which $34,861 as grants$47,504,471 earned by the program66% of program spendingCulturethe cultural center develops and operates spaces that showcase and incubate burning man arts, culture, and community participation. These include temporary, virtual, or physical gathering spaces, galleries, archives, and community hubs, both urban and rural, that support collaboration, education, and connection.
$6,632,506 spent$240,762 earned by the program12% of program spendingArtsburning man arts aims to shift the role of art from object to a participatory, shared experience, both at the burning man event and globally. The program supports interactive, participatory creative expression through grants, public art, exhibitions, and civic installations.
$5,916,917 spentof which $1,524,337 as grants$14,879 earned by the program11% of program spendingEducationeducation shares burning man's culture, principles, and skills through workshops, trainings, and seminars. Topics range from interactive art and nonprofit operations to leadership, project management, safety, and government engagement.
$3,286,332 spentof which $17,522 as grants$18,759 earned by the program6% of program spendingPhilosophical centerthe philosophical center supports the exploration and documentation of the ten principles through research, publications, and curated dialogue. As bmp's cultural think tank and documentarian, it creates and publishes content and maintains a living archive of burning man's evolving ethos.
$3,020,720 spent$50,960 earned by the program5% of program spending
The 5 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $55,182,145.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2023 to 2024, from $38M to $30M (−19%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2018 0% · 2019 0% · 2020 0% · 2021 21% · 2022 3%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
12% of BURNING MAN PROJECT’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (60% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Chief executive
Marian Goodell
Chief executive officer/director
Board chair
Dennis Bartels
Chair of board
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 10 funders to 27 funders, grant income rose $156k → $6.8M.
24 of 74 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 92% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of BURNING MAN PROJECT’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 74 funders by total. Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
BURNING MAN PROJECT leans on a few funders — its largest provides 42% of grant income and the top three 82%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
92% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund BURNING MAN PROJECT.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 32% · 2018 28% · 2019 13% · 2020 87% · 2021 83% · 2022 45% · 2023 82% — growing more concentrated.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
33% of BURNING MAN PROJECT's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 57% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
92% of BURNING MAN PROJECT's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $2.5M that is directly attributable, 51% of it comes from funders outside California, across 15 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $30M arriving through sponsors registered in 14 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
BURNING MAN PROJECT's revenue grew 26% between 2017 and 2024.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 659 community improvement nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2024
Government funding BURNING MAN PROJECT receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $3k on record — $3k federal, $164 state.
- Department of State$3k
- REFUNDS - GENERAL $164
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like BURNING MAN PROJECT
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
83% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
91%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 3 states
Part of a family of 6 related entities
- Black Rock City LLC · disregarded
- Black Rock City Properties LLC · disregarded
- Future Man LLC · disregarded
- Gt Nv Manager LLC · disregarded
- Green Tree Nevada Properties LLC · disregarded
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for BURNING MAN PROJECT: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds BURNING MAN PROJECT?
- BURNING MAN PROJECT (California) receives grants from 74 organizations whose IRS filings report $32,047,517 to it, the largest being DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC ($13,527,450). 42 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 92% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does BURNING MAN PROJECT have?
- IRS filings report 74 organizations giving $32,047,517 in grants to BURNING MAN PROJECT, 42 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of BURNING MAN PROJECT?
- DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC is the largest funder on record, with $13,527,450 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like BURNING MAN PROJECT find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 74 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing