by Igneouss » Tue Aug 16, 2011 8:04 am
There sure are a lot of confused people on this issue which is one reason I think it's important.
Some comments from the responses above:
Playa Hater: the burning man project is NOT Burning Man they are seprate organizations. I am talking about Burning Man and not about the burning man project.
portaplaya: I clicked on your link to the 2010 afterburn report which I have read previously. Contrary to your statement it seems to indicate that the LLC is against non-profit status. It also does not discuss compensation. It does mention that anyone who leaves gets no more than 20k severence. But that's all I see. One of your other links talks about the burning man project which is not Burning Man. It is a different organization. Related for sure but it's not Burning Man. This seems to confuse a lot of people. The Laughing squid articles is also about the project and not Burning Man itself.
All: yes, Larry has talked about non profit status. This is obviously a good thing in my opinion. However, the 2010 afterburn report seems to contradict him.
The sense I have is that the Org was headed toward NP status and then stopped the process. From the 2010 report:
"Nonprofit status, however, is a tax category, and strict rules apply to what is called "self dealing". This means that a nonprofit entity cannot exist for the purpose of enriching its directors. We had no difficulty with this concept. None of us have been particularly financially enriched by this enterprise. Our problem, however, was that we could not afford to work at guiding and creating Burning Man without being paid.
The Project requires a yearlong effort and, for many of us, a normal workweek often exceeds forty hours. We could have stayed on as hired managers of a nonprofit and ceded ultimate authority those who could be deemed "disinterested", but we are a society of activists who are very interested in guiding the essential mission and purpose of Burning Man. A governing board made up of non-participants who are detached from the day-to-day toil of creating a community seemed inappropriate."
Hmmmmm
Basic b/e analysis:
2005 $243K
06 $855K
07 $1.0M
08 $1.1M
09 $0
10 $1.1M
11 $1.2M
12 $1.2M
That’s $6.8M that thousands of volunteers deserve to know about. Capitalism is alive at BM. Tickets are the commodity. Others have estimated higher profits.
