The CFO of Burning Man on bringing the nonprofit back from the brink.

While partying in the desert at the annual global cultural phenomenon called Burning Man, very few people are thinking about the financials of the festival. But that’s CFO of Burning Man Project Juho Parkkinen’s job.

He’s been a “burner” since his first visit to the Nevada desert location known as Black Rock City in 2015, but joined the nonprofit HQ as CFO a year and a half ago.

Burning Man has had a tough few years. This year’s iteration was almost biblical, with a baby born, a murder, and torrential rain and wind. In 2024, the event didn’t sell out for the first time since 2011. The 2023 event became known as Mud Man after heavy rains that trapped attendees. And in 2020 and 2021, the event was canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

So as CFO, Parkkinen has had to deal with a lot. CFO Brew spoke with Parkkinen about his role inside one of the world’s most interesting nonprofits.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

How is being the CFO of Burning Man different from being CFO at another company?

I’m entirely from the tech space, entirely from for-profit, mostly software and other technology companies. And when I joined Burning Man Project, it was actually funny, because I was wondering if this would be a fit at all, because my experience is entirely in a different space than the nonprofit. But it turns out that the problems, the challenges, the opportunities, are very similar to many of the largest, most successful companies out there in the world. It all is about financial translation, being able to tell the story, being able to do impact analysis, being able to guide the financial decision-making in such a way that it fits the mission and fits the goals that any entity is trying to do.

We are in the mission of creating a more thriving culture, more connected culture, and it’s fascinating to be able to do financial guidance toward that. It’s not about, we need to increase profits, we need to have a better stock price. But this is about, how do we have more people engaged in a global cultural movement that gets people happy and generates awe?

Decommodification is one of the 10 principles of Burning Man. How does that impact your role as the CFO?

There’s a common misconception that Burning Man is anti-money in some way or another. And that’s not true. I think it’s much more about spending money with a purpose and not having the experiences be Red Bull or Heineken presents Burning Man. That doesn’t sit well with what Burning Man is about. So that creates some challenges, because obviously, from a financial perspective on how we can fund and provide the experience, we can’t have a Heineken or Budweiser sponsor.

It’s a self-imposed shackle, for lack of a better word. But I think it creates a better opportunity to find more mission-aligned philanthropy, for example, trying to do more education and communication on, what does the ticket price actually cover? And it just brings us more innovative approaches in terms of, how we can make this more accessible and affordable to as many people as possible?

Burning Man has been in a bit of a tough financial position the last few years. As the CFO, how are you addressing this?

This really started over a year ago, when, you know, the high-priced tier, the “FOMO tickets,” did not sell as expected, and last year [2024] we had to do a lot of belt tightening. We had to restructure many things.

We really did some math around, what does it actually cost per person to come to Burning Man? And then built the ticket model based off of that. $749 was the cost per attendee…and the concept of pay your own way [for] $750. If you pay anything above it, you’re gifting back. And then if you pay the $650 or the $550, you’re really receiving a gift. That actually got some nice traction from the community, so we’re quite excited about that model as we start thinking about what 2026 looks like.

What is something that people wouldn’t expect about your job as the CFO of Burning Man?

Well, maybe they expect this or not, but people really care. Everybody has an opinion, which is helpful and exciting, but it was a little bit unexpected.

If you weren’t a CFO, what would you be?

An astronomer.