Fiscal Sponsorship

What is fiscal sponsorship?

Fiscal sponsorship is an activity by which a public charity facilitates tax-deductible donations to a project by providing some oversight of projects that serve a public benefit but do not have their own non-profit status. Fiscal sponsorship allows projects to receive tax deductible contributions that an independent project might not otherwise be able to receive.

What is Burning Man’s History with fiscal sponsorship?

Burning Man Project inherited the program from the Black Rock Arts Foundation (BRAF) in 2015. In 2014, BRAF started offering fiscal sponsorship to projects that had received an Honoraria grant from Black Rock City, LLC to bring art to the Burning Man event. When Burning Man Project merged with BRAF, Burning Man Project continued to support the program. Since 2015, Burning Man Project invested in capacity building around this program. From 2015 – 2018 Burning Man sponsored 71 projects, which raised a combined total of $872k using the program over the four year period. At the end of 2018, after reviewing the national landscape of fiscal sponsors and its own ability to provide an impactful and sustainable service to the community, Burning Man decided to roll back the program in favor of refocusing its capacity in other program areas. We will only offer fiscal sponsorship in a few select cases.

May I apply for Fiscal Sponsorship with Burning Man?

Burning Man Project no longer offers this as a standard program, if you think you may qualify for an exception please email fiscalsponsorship@burningman.org.

Does Burning Man still sponsor project or organizations?

On rare occasions, Burning Man may continue to offer or engage in a new fiscal sponsorship agreement with a mission aligned project or organization.

If you have any outstanding fiscal sponsorship needs, please refer to the two resources linked below and/or send an email to fiscalsponsorship@burningman.org.

More information:

National Network of Fiscal Sponsors

Fiscal Sponsorship Directory