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.

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

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.

ther 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.

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.

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.