While money may not be welcome in the economy of Black Rock City, money is necessary to create the city.

It took more than $44 million to run the Burning Man Project and erect the arts metropolis in the Black Rock Desert in 2018, according to the Burning Man Project's most recent tax documents.

The San Francisco-based arts nonprofit covered costs with more than $43 million in ticket sales, more than $2 million in contributions during fiscal 2018 and a number of other miscellaneous revenue streams, all together more than $46 million in revenue.

About a third of the revenue went toward salaries, with some top staffers receiving more than $40,000 raises that year.

Though the organization is known for its free-spirited ethos, tax documents also reveal that the Burning Man Project is focused on financial security. In two years, the organization's rainy day fund more than tripled to $10 million.

Information about the 2019 event likely will not be available until later this year or early 2021.

Burning Man budget breakdown

Consistent with years past, a large chunk of Burning Man's budget during fiscal 2018 went to the more than 100 full-time employees of the nonprofit corporation, which now has offices in San Francisco and Reno.

The organization's highest paid employees included:

Burning Man CEO Marian Goodell: $268,000, increase of $7,000 over 2017

Director Harley Dubois: $216,000, increase of $40,000

Director Theresa Duncan: $192,000, increase of $6,000

Attorney Ray Allen: $185,000, increase of $10,000

IT Director Heather Gallagher: $183,000, increase of $46,000

Managing Director Heather White: $176,000, increase of $15,000

Director Kim Cook: $175,000, increase of $19,000

While some of the salary hikes were hefty, nonprofit watchdog CharityWatch said the raises may be well warranted.

"Maybe the person was getting underpaid before. You always have to look at facts and circumstances," said Daniel Borochoff, president of CharityWatch. "Just because they're the top-paid employees doesn't mean they're overpaid. What you have to understand about this group is that, it's not a typical nonprofit."

Many nonprofits are working largely off of donations, while the Burning Man Project works off ticket revenue, Borochoff explained.

"They have to have business-minded people, who are used to being paid like business-minded people, to run this organization," he said.

Borochoff said it is fair to ask whether Burning Man's tax status as a nonprofit is appropriate.

"One could make the argument, should they even be a nonprofit? (Burning Man Project) would argue they're promoting the arts, but it's not black and white. They probably like the tax benefits," said Borochoff. "Are they a public benefit? I'm sure that people -- I've met some of them -- they say, 'It's mind expanding. Wow,' but is this a benefit to the public? They don't pay taxes because it improves the spirit of the world?"

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Burning Man's interesting expenses

Some of the other big ticket items during Burning Man's 2018 budget included more than $5 million to contractors. Burning Man Project also paid $1.4 million for sanitation services (portable toilets), $500,000 for on-site medical services at the event and $1.2 million for catering

The Project paid more than $4 million on permits and fees during the year.

Burning Man continues to contest the federal permitting costs incurred in recent years and recently sued regulators because of the wait on any kind of decision on Burning Man's cost appeals.

Other expenses included equipment rental, office expenses and grants. The Burning Man Project awarded more than $2.2 million in grants in 2018, an increase of about $500,000 over 2017.

The Burning Man Project donated more than $58,000 to Friends of the Black Rock High Rock nonprofit, which fosters environmental awareness about the Black Rock Desert, and $9,300 to the Gerlach Volunteer Fire Department.

Of the more than $2 million that Burning Man Project collected from donors, some individual donations were upwards of $300,000. Some donors also contributed thousands of dollars worth of tech company shares from Apple and Facebook, according to the 2018 tax documents.

Borochoff said donating shares is an easy way to avoid paying taxes on market profit.

The nonprofit also paid more than $920,000 for Ticketfly's operation of ticket sales in 2018, though the former vendor returned about $35,000 after Ticketfly suffered a major cyber attack that exposed the accounts of 27 million users. The cyber attack took place after Burning Man's main ticket sale and affected not just accounts involved in Burning Man's ticket sale.

"Burning Man Project did not take any action against Ticketfly; they approached Burning Man Project with an offer of accommodation in light of the attack," according to Burning Man spokesman Dominique Debucquoy-Dodley.

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Debucquoy-Dodley did not answer whether Burning Man Project would seek reparation from the ticket vendor that managed the 2019 sale, which was rife with technical errors.

In 2018, the Burning Man Project also created Future Man LLC beneath the umbrella of Burning Man Project to handle the assets of Fly Ranch, which totaled $6.7 million by the end of the fiscal year.

Future Man LLC is tasked solely with holding the land and overseeing limited activities, such as nature walks, campouts and "other engagements," on Fly Ranch. Burning Man Project has not committed to any specific plan as to the future of Fly Ranch.

As for the festival, organizers attempted to grow the 80,000-person event to 100,000 last year, though federal regulators denied the request citing concerns that growth would adversely affect local and federal resources used during the event.

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Jenny Kane covers arts and culture in Northern Nevada, as well as the dynamic relationship between the state and the growing Burning Man community. She also covers the state's burgeoning cannabis industry (Check out her podcast, the Potcast, on iTunes.) Support her work in Reno by subscribing to RGJ.com right here.