Magic Incorporated
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 942638200
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2020–2024
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Stanford, CA, USA
- Phone
- 6503237333
- Rating
- 76
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Environmental Education and Outdoor Survival Programs
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $599,817
- Expenses
- $330,874
- Assets
- $6,088,202
- Liabilities
- $503,594
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
5 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Hilary Hug (Director, President)
Highest reported compensation
- Hilary Hug (Director, President): $30,000 total reported compensation
- David Schrom (Director, Secretary/Treasurer): $30,000 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Further common interests of humankind by sustaining a residential service learning community to research and teach how people may apply human ecology to discern value more accurately and realize it more fully.
What it reported doing in 2024
Environmental Stewardship - A hundred volunteers gave 600+ hours to plant 20 oaks, irrigate 200, and maintain 2,000 on public access open space visited by 500,000 people each year. We completed a partnership with Stanford's Fukami Lab to establish 512 plants at 16 research sites around the Stanford Dish. Magic was featured on the Plant a Trillion Trees Podcast and in The Tree Collectors by New York Times bestselling author Amy Stewart. We grew Silicon Valley Barcode of Life both on the SF Midpeninsula and the Eastern Sierra, deploying Malaise traps at five sites and hand collecting hundreds of unique specimens. We published, "So You Think You Don't Like Bugs?" in The Sheet, the Mammoth Lakes newspaper.SVBOL principal scientists were among 20 biodiversity researchers who participated in a California Insect Biodiversity Initiative strategic planning meeting with former California Governor Jerry Brown at his rural retreat. We received permits to collect on Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District lands, and we completed the first of several planned deployments of a dozen Malaise traps at Stanford's Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve. Our affiliate Escondido Outings Club organized rafting trips for 75 participants on six different rivers in Northern California: camping trips for 70 in Yosemite and other places; and ski trips for 30. We adopted as a sponsored project Project Green Home--a LEED Platinum, net zero energy Passive House used extensively for education public awareness (4000 visitors since 2008) that is featured in annual Peninsula Electric Home Tours.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 82% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and a large share of available resources goes toward mission work. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and reported officer compensation is a large share of total spending, which may reflect staffing concentration.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 66
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 68
- Sustainability: 78
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 63%; rating input score 63
- Program expense ratio: 91.7%; rating input score 92
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 60%; rating input score 60; 12th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 7 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 78
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 44.8%; rating input score 91; 91st percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 18.4; rating input score 96; 96th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.08; rating input score 45; 45th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 18.1%; rating input score 17; 17th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 3.8% per year; rating input score 100; 36th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 11.1% per year; rating input score 100; 70th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 3.2% per year; rating input score 100; 30th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 63% of revenue deployed · 91.7% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 3 of 5 board members independent · 7 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $303K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $30K · 5 people listed
- Consistency: 42 of 42 current checks pass
- Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 5 filing years from 2020 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: Resolved incoming and outgoing counterparties from filed money flows.
- Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
- Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
- People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 17/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 45/100.