Burning Man exits counterculture, joins nonprofit world

Burners climb a butterfly sculpture to watch the sun rise over the expanse of the Black Rock Desert known as the Playa. Burners climb a butterfly sculpture to watch the sun rise over the expanse of the Black Rock Desert known as the Playa. Photo: Frederic Larson, The Chronicle Photo: Frederic Larson, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 123 Caption Close Burning Man exits counterculture, joins nonprofit world 1 / 123 Back to Gallery

Burning Man, the desert bacchanalia for 68,000, has officially left the counterculture and become part of the mainstream. It is now a certified nonprofit just like the San Francisco Symphony, Ballet and Opera.

Effective this year, the weeklong event in the Black Rock Desert outside Gerlach, Nev., is a subsidiary of the Burning Man Project, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit public corporation, which has been in operation for three years.

From the point of view of the burners, as participants are called, there will be no noticeable change unless they attend one of the offshoot events around the world, which might now get some funding from the parent organization.

"After 24 years of tending our garden in the desert, we now have the means to cultivate its culture worldwide," Burning Man founder Larry Harvey told an online paper called the Jackrabbit Speaks. "Sometimes things just pop and this is one of those moments."

The moment has been building since the late '90s, when the free-form festival became more popular than any of the six founders expected, said Burning Man Communications Director Jim Graham. With 20,000 people attending at that time, and demand pressuring ticket prices ever upward, they needed a business structure to manage it. The easiest way forward was to establish a limited liability corporation, a for-profit structure known as an LLC.

Then Burning Man became too big for the LLC. A week in the desert extended to spontaneous year-round activities referred to as "the regional network."

The original LLC could not control or support the burner culture worldwide, so in 2011 the nonprofit Burning Man Project was formed to operate separately but in the same headquarters building as the Burning Man LLC. It has taken another three years to transition the LLC into a subsidiary of the nonprofit Burning Man Project.

This means that both the annual Burning Man and the 40 local events that take place throughout the year on six continents will work together.

From a financial point of view, nonprofit status allows Burning Man to raise money outside of ticket sales, previously the primary source of funding. On an annual basis, 68,000 people pay $190 to $650 per ticket. On top of that, a fundraising goal of $1 million has been set for 2014.

The additional funds that will be raised from donations and foundation grants can be used to commission art created for the regional network.

One new initiative is "Big Art for Small Towns," which will bring new and existing art from Burning Man to places that might not be in the normal sphere of the event and its culture. The first of these is Fernley, Nev., a small town on Interstate 80 east of Sparks. Nevada-based sculptor Pan Pontoja will create a piece called "Desert Tortoise" that will be installed with community input and partial funding from a National Endowment for the Arts grant.

Burning Man is also getting into the conference game, sponsoring its first in Las Vegas this fall.

Meanwhile, late last year Burning Man moved into new offices on Alabama Street in San Francisco's Mission District. There are more than 50 full-time employees, and 17 members on the board of directors.

This year's Burning Man is Aug. 25 through Sept. 1Already 53,000 tickets have been sold at $380 and 3,000 at $650. A "low-income" sale of 4,000 tickets at $190 each started March 4.