Illinois · Nonprofit
OPEN HEART MAGIC
OPEN HEART MAGIC (Illinois) receives grants from 55 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,274,629 to it, the largest being AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC ($269,698). 30 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 61% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.2M
- Funders on record
- 55
- Grants received
- $1.3M
- Net assets
- $1.1M
What Open Heart Magic does
Mission
The mission of Open Heart Magic is to use the therapeutic power of magic and laughter to energize and strengthen seriously ill children in Chicago, IL, Ann Arbor, MI and Cleveland, OH area hospitals and aid their healing.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Open Heart Magic's long standing program provides therapeutic magic, one-on-one, at a patient's bedside to bring laughter and strength to sick kids facing serious medical conditions. Our hospital magicians work with young patients, using magic as a means to encourage participation, engage the imagination, and help these kids find their own sense of confidence and mastery as they learn to perform tricks for their doctors, family, and friends. Because our bedside magic performances are personalized and interactive, we're able to work with kids of all ages, regardles of physical or developmental restrictions. We offer support to kids who are in a one time er visit, as well as patients undergoing long-term treatment for conditions such as pedicatric cancer, childhood diabetes, heart problems, and more.
$709,690 spent$92,237 earned by the program100% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$0 spent0% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $709,690.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2021 to 2022, from $918k to $1.3M (+42%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2021 21% · 2022 10% · 2023 0% · 2024 0% · 2025 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
60% of OPEN HEART MAGIC’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (81% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Chief executive
Michael Walton
Founder and Executive Director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 7 funders to 22 funders, grant income fell $149k → $139k.
11 of 55 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 61% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of OPEN HEART MAGIC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 55 funders by total. Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
OPEN HEART MAGIC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 21% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
72% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund OPEN HEART MAGIC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 69% · 2018 65% · 2019 68% · 2020 24% · 2021 18% · 2022 20% · 2023 20% — diversifying over time.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
43% of OPEN HEART MAGIC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 55% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
61% of OPEN HEART MAGIC's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $497k that is directly attributable, 55% of it comes from funders outside Illinois, across 16 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $778k arriving through sponsors registered in 10 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
OPEN HEART MAGIC holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 7,349 human services nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 7,349 human services nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like OPEN HEART MAGIC
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Illinois
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
65% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
99%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for OPEN HEART MAGIC: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds OPEN HEART MAGIC?
- OPEN HEART MAGIC (Illinois) receives grants from 55 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,274,629 to it, the largest being AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC ($269,698). 30 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 61% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does OPEN HEART MAGIC have?
- IRS filings report 55 organizations giving $1,274,629 in grants to OPEN HEART MAGIC, 30 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of OPEN HEART MAGIC?
- AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $269,698 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like OPEN HEART MAGIC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Illinois. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds Open Heart Magic →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 55 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing