The Magic House

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
510138441
IRS 990 coverage
2010–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
St Louis, MO, USA
Phone
3148228900
Rating
84
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Children's Museums

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$9,615,507
Expenses
$9,060,539
Assets
$37,162,689
Liabilities
$4,307,427

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

47 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • ELIZABETH FITZGERALD (PRESIDENT)

Highest reported compensation

  • ELIZABETH FITZGERALD (PRESIDENT): $328,559 total reported compensation
  • CHERYL DARR (CFO): $209,147 total reported compensation
  • PAULA BURDGE (COO): $146,013 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

The magic house, st. Louis children's museum will engage all children with hands-on learning experiences that spark imagination, pique curiosity, enhance creativity and develop problem-solving skills within a place of beauty, wonder, joy and magic.

What it reported doing in 2025

School and community programs - the magic house offers facilitated field trip programs for students ages 3 to 14 that connect to classroom curriculum and meet state and national standards. These educational programs take place at both the magic house and our satellite location in the city of st. Louis, made for kids, and cover steam (science, technology, engineering, arts and math), social studies, and financial literacy. In 2025, the magic house provided in-person field trip programs to 32,000 students. Magic house educators also served students through steam family nights and outreach programs in their schools. Through the magic house's access for all initiative, free admission and interactive experiences were provided to more than 91,000 children and families in need in 2025. (continued on schedule o)(school and community programs continued): this was accomplished by providing monthly public free family nights at both locations, free admission on a daily basis to foster families, big brother big sister pairs, and active-duty military families and family nights for not-for-profit youth organizations, field trips for under-resourced schools, and free memberships to families in the city of st. Louis through the st. Louis public library.

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 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.
  • Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.

The verdict

STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 77
  • Transparency & Controls: 84
  • Accountability: 100
  • Sustainability: 53
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 83.8%; rating input score 84
  • Program expense ratio: 79.2%; rating input score 79
  • Fundraising efficiency: $9.49 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 34; 34th 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: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
    • 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: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 5.8%; rating input score 45; 45th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 4.1; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.12; rating input score 46; 46th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 11.6%; rating input score 29; 29th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 4.3% per year; rating input score 100; 31st percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 3.2% per year; rating input score 100; 24th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 2.7% per year; rating input score 100; 21st percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 83.8% of revenue deployed · 79.2% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 35 of 35 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $7.2M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $329K · 47 people listed · 4 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $972K reported
  • Consistency: 36 of 36 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 8 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
  • Filing history: 16 filing years from 2010 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 6 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.
  • Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 34/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 45/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 29/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 46/100.