Misplaced Pages

Locks of Love

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Quackslikeaduck (talk | contribs) at 02:06, 22 October 2020 (update and cleanup). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Revision as of 02:06, 22 October 2020 by Quackslikeaduck (talk | contribs) (update and cleanup)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
Locks of Love
Logo of Locks of Love
FoundedMay 28, 1997; 27 years ago (1997-05-28)
FounderMadonna W. Coffman
Type501(c)(3)
Tax ID no. 65-0755522
Legal statusNonprofit organization
PurposeTo provide custom-made hair prosthetics to disadvantaged children to age of twenty-one, who suffered hair loss as a result of various medical conditions.
HeadquartersWest Palm Beach, Florida, U.S.
Coordinates26°40′32″N 80°03′06″W / 26.675636°N 80.051663°W / 26.675636; -80.051663
PresidentMadonna W. Coffman
General managerLinda Borum
Revenue$513,103 (2018)
Expenses$724,897 (2018)
Employees6 (2017)
Volunteers77 (2017)
Websitewww.locksoflove.org

Locks of Love is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit charity that provides custom-made hair prosthetics to disadvantaged children to age of 21 who have suffered hair loss as a result of medical conditions, such as alopecia, burn trauma, and cancer treatment. The wigs are provided to the children free of charge, and they continue receiving a new wig every two years until they turn 21 years old. Locks of Love accepts donations of human hair, and it also accepts financial donations.

History

Girl donating her hair

Locks of Love was founded by Madonna W. Coffman on May 28, 1997. Coffman was a registered nurse who had suffered from alopecia in her twenties. Coffman's daughter also had allopecia and lost all her hair at the age 4. Locks of Love received a determination of its 501(c)(3) status from the Internal Revenue Service in December 1997. By September 2006, Locks of Love had provided about 2,000 wigs to recipients completely free of charge.

Representatives of Locks of Love are frequent guests on The Oprah Winfrey Show and other daytime television shows, where they provide haircuts to guests and audience members. Some children choose to sponsor Locks of Love inside of school and donate their hair when it is long enough.

A 2007 'hair donation day' at the American Aviano Air Base in Italy

Tax deductions

Financial donations to Locks of Love are tax-deductible as charitable contributions to the extent of the law. The Internal Revenue Service consdiers hair to be a body part, and donations of body parts are not considered tax deductible by the Internal Revenue Service. The cost of the haircut, however, may be a tax-deductible charitable contribution.

Criticisms

In 2013, Forbes and The Huffington Post reported that up to US$6 million-worth of hair donations are unaccounted for by the charity each year.

Marc Owens, the former director of the tax-exempt division of the IRS, stated that "there are just so many omissions, that it's hard to say for certain that any of the data on the return is accurate."

According to its IRS returns, Locks of Love made $1.9 million from hair sales from 2001 to 2006, and took in another $3.4 million in donations. Besides paying for wigs, the money goes to overhead and other costs, including grants for alopecia research. Locks of Love sends the best of the hair it receives to a wig manufacturer, Taylormade Hair Replacement in Millbrae, California, which sorts the selection still further, rejecting up to half. Very little of donated hair then ends up in the wigs. The other donated hair is sold for profit, supposedly to pay for the manufacturing process and to raise funds for the organization's activities.

Locks of Love emailed a statement to The Huffington Post, but did not address the claim.

2015 Form 990 Reporting

According to the IRS Form 990, mandatory for all US non-profits, in 2015 Locks of Love

Total Expenses $1,389,468
Grants & Benefits paid $500,030
Efficiency (funds directed to purpose) 35.9%

The only grant paid was to Columbia University, New York, for research. $579,125 is listed as "Other expenses" and is not defined on the Form 990.

Only 259 wigs or hairpieces were provided to children at a cost of $127,127. The organization also paid for a four-day camp for 15 children and one parent (Part III, item 4a).

Notable donors

Sunita L. Williams (background) and Joan E. Higginbotham (foreground) in the International Space Station's Destiny laboratory. The hair did not clog the instrument panel, as was feared.

After launching aboard the Shuttle Discovery, Astronaut Sunita Williams arranged to donate her pony tail to Locks of Love. Fellow astronaut Joan Higginbotham cut her hair aboard the International Space Station and the ponytail was brought back to Earth by the STS-116 crew.

All American football player (and Chicago Bears first-round draft pick) Gabe Carimi's maternal uncle suffered from leukemia as a child, underwent chemotherapy while he was in second grade, and lost his hair in the process. At nine years old, his uncle died. He was mentioned often in family discussions. Carimi thought he would do something "that wouldn't take a lot of my time but would help other people." He grew his hair for 20 months, until it was long enough in 2010 to donate to Locks of Love.

Professional wrestler The Honky Tonk Man has stated that he donates his hair to Locks of Love once a year.

National Hockey League player George Parros has grown his hair long since the start of his professional hockey career, so he can donate it to Locks of Love.

See also

References

  1. ^ "" Florida Division of Corporations. State of Florida. Retrieved October 21, 2020.
  2. "Our Story". Locks of Love. Retrieved October 21, 2020.
  3. ^ "Form 990: Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax". Locks of Love Inc. Internal Revenue Service. November 30, 2018.
  4. "Locks of Love Inc." Tax Exempt Organization Search. Internal Revenue Service. Retrieved October 21, 2020.
  5. ^ "Get Involved". Locks of Love. Retrieved October 21, 2020.
  6. Cite error: The named reference ourstory was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. "History". Locks of Love. Retrieved March 11, 2012.
  8. ^ Hayt, Elizabeth (September 6, 2007). "Lather, Rinse, Donate". The New York Times. Retrieved March 11, 2012.
  9. "Frequently Asked Questions". Locks of Love. Archived from the original on June 12, 2010.
  10. ^ "Publication 526: Charitable Contributions (pdf). Internal Revenue Service. Retrieved June 1, 2011.
  11. Chao, Kent (May 13, 2013). "Locks Of Love: $6 Million Of Hair Donations Unaccounted For Each Year". Forbes. Retrieved April 21, 2014.
  12. Goldberg, Eleanor (May 14, 2013). "Locks Of Love Has More Than $6 Million Worth Of Donated Hair That Is Unaccounted For: Report". The Huffington Post. Retrieved April 21, 2014.
  13. "". CBS San Francisco Bay Area. Retreived May 15, 2013.
  14. The Huffington Post
  15. Form 990 downloaded from http://www.locksoflove.org/about/
  16. CollectSpace.com (2006-12-20). "Astronaut cuts her hair in space for charity". CollectSpace.com. Retrieved 2007-06-08.
  17. ^ Brian Mason (April 23, 2010). "Lots of locks means lots of love from Carimi; Wisconsin senior donates hair to charity aimed at improving life for ill children". UWBadgers.com. Archived from the original on December 29, 2010. Retrieved February 10, 2011.
  18. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlRfFL8RkSw
  19. "Parros Cuts Hair for a Cause - Anaheim Ducks". Ducks.nhl.com. Retrieved June 1, 2011.

External links

Categories: