Magical Bridge
Legal name: Magical Bridge Foundation
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 812377796
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2017–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Jul 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Palo Alto, CA, USA
- Phone
- 6505382850
- Rating
- 84
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Parks and Playgrounds
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $961,729
- Expenses
- $4,382,107
- Assets
- $1,186,588
- Liabilities
- $87,537
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
10 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- OLENKA VILLARREAL (CEO)
Highest reported compensation
- OLENKA VILLARREAL (CEO): $252,199 total reported compensation
- ELAINE CAPTAIN (COO): $160,268 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Creating inclusive play, programs, and events that bring communities together.
What it reported doing in 2024
In 2024, we continued to work on the community engagement, design, and development of four playground projects locally in mountain view, santa clara, daly city, and at cesar chavez middle school in east palo alto. We also continued design work on three playgrounds in singapore: national museum, sun plaza park, and eden school. Lastly, we entered into a new licensing and consulting agreements marin county, morgan autism center, and st. Francis center. Entered into a partnership with the city of palo alto to provide "magical series" programming thoughtfully designed for people off all ages and all abilities on and off the playground. The agreement also includes the further development and operation of the kindness ambassador volunteer program.launched an initiative to reimagine school playgrounds as universally designed magical bridge learning landscapes that promote physical activity and social interaction for students of all abilities but also serve as catalysts for civic engagement, empathy thinking, stem education, and ongoing community building and health.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 64% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% 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.
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Expenses are high relative to revenue and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 94
- Transparency & Controls: 84
- Accountability: 79
- Sustainability: 14
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 94.2%; rating input score 94
- Fundraising efficiency: $21.91 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 61; 61st percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 4 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 67
- Compensation committee: Pass
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Pass
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 80%; rating input score 80; 18th 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: -355.6%; rating input score 0; 0th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.27; rating input score 13; 13th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.07; rating input score 47; 47th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 9.4%; rating input score 39; 39th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 18.7% per year; rating input score 100; 81st percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 0.3% per year; rating input score 100; 16th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 12.4% per year; rating input score 100; 66th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 5 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 8 operating locations identified
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 94.2% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 8 of 10 board members independent · 7 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $4.1M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $252K · 10 people listed · 4 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 1 contractor listed · $117K reported
- Consistency: 26 of 26 current checks pass
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
- Filing history: 7 filing years from 2017 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 2 filed money-flow records
- 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.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 13/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Independent financial-statement audit not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 39/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 47/100.