Service Organization

Mag­ic, found­ed in 1972 and incor­po­rat­ed as a 501(c)(3) pub­lic ser­vice orga­ni­za­tion in 1979, research­es, teach­es, and demon­strates how peo­ple may live bet­ter by apply­ing sci­ence to ques­tions of val­ue. Mag­ic pro­gram par­tic­i­pants apply meth­ods and prin­ci­ples of ecol­o­gy to (1) clar­i­fy val­ues, (2) improve health, (3) increase coop­er­a­tion, and (4) stew­ard the environment.

This group of Apple vol­un­teers rep­re­sents some of the sev­er­al hun­dred vol­un­teers Mag­ic leads every year in habi­tat stew­ard­ship on local open space.

Cen­tral to Mag­ic is an inten­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty whose par­tic­i­pants shoul­der pri­ma­ry respon­si­bil­i­ty for oper­at­ing Mag­ic and for con­duct­ing its char­i­ta­ble activ­i­ties. At home and at work they aim to mod­el how eco­log­i­cal analy­sis and ded­i­ca­tion to com­mon inter­ests of humankind are a foun­da­tion for liv­ing well.

Mag­ic res­i­dent asso­ciate Hilary Bay­er teach­es bio­di­ver­si­ty at a local sci­ence fair.

Mag­ic is a vehi­cle for giv­ing. Each year hun­dreds of donors con­tribute atten­tion, advo­ca­cy, labor, mate­r­i­al, and mon­ey. With this gen­er­ous sup­port, we are able to adjust, and some­times entire­ly waive, fees for Mag­ic ser­vices to make them more wide­ly available.

Father and son select fresh fruits and veg­eta­bles from sur­plus col­lect­ed by Mag­ic vol­un­teers at a local market.

We are cur­rent­ly gath­er­ing resources for three major ini­tia­tives: to expand and diver­si­fy our edu­ca­tion­al ser­vices; to improve our phys­i­cal facil­i­ties to bet­ter exem­pli­fy a sci­en­tif­ic approach to val­ue; and to estab­lish an addi­tion­al research and teach­ing facil­i­ty in a set­ting where oppor­tu­ni­ties for liv­ing clos­er to nature are more abundant.