Charitable donation democracy?

March 14, 2007 9:38 PM

My girlfriend wants to auction off her 3' dreadlocks for charity. Is there a website that will track donation pledges as votes for or against the chop? Sort of like PledgeBank but with the feature of multiple competing pledges?

I'm reminded of the 'vote offs' that MTV used to have to pick the top pop songs of the week. Text 1234 to the number on your screen for NSync!

posted by anthill to Computers & Internet (10 answers total)

You could certianly try eBay, where 14" wavy black hair extensions are going for around $2. Human hair itself isn't worth all that much, intrinsically. Any dough she could raise that would be worthwhile to a charity would come from someone who would pay to see her chop her dreads, which is potentially pretty negative energy to enlist for a charity, but if from a family member or someone she knows, could be fun, supportive, and remunerative. What she's gotta ask herself is "Who hates my dreads?" and then ask those people what they'd pay to see 'em on a salon counter.
posted by paulsc at 2:28 AM on March 15, 2007

paulsc: I just shaved my head to raise funds for leaukimia. It's definitely not negative energy. A lot of people were in awe of our bravery and donated more because of that.

I did get a number of people who'd rather pay for me to keep my hair, though.
posted by divabat at 3:17 AM on March 15, 2007

Not exactly what you asked, but my wife periodically has between a foot and a foot and a half chopped off and sends it to Locks of Love, who provide "hair prosthetics" for underprivileged children who've lost their hair due to medical conditions.
posted by JaredSeth at 3:55 AM on March 15, 2007

I don't know how reputable this information is, but:

In 2002, LoL received enough hair to make approximately 10,000 hairpieces. What a huge difference this would make to those under 18 with hair loss. Yet give.org cites they only made 113 wigs from human hair in that same year along with 61 other pieces for a total of 174 hairpieces. Where did the other 9,826 potential hairpieces go?
posted by croutonsupafreak at 7:33 AM on March 15, 2007

Locks of Love has very, very specific requirements for their hair.Hair they can't use is sold to wig makers and the profits funneled back into the mission. I know it sounds low. They don't take hair that has ever, ever, ever been bleached or colored. That rules a lot of it out. I am also pretty sure that dreads could not be made into wigs because they are of course locked.

I would do it as more of an event and videotape, who knows.
posted by stormygrey at 7:39 AM on March 15, 2007

Justgiving.org lets you set up your own on-line fundraiser, and track donations. I think this might do what you want.
posted by kimdog at 7:44 AM on March 15, 2007

I just cut off 14 inches for LoL. If you can find someone that'll make a dread wig... that might be really awesome. Otherwise, I'd think you could specify it as a charity auction on ebay, and hype it if you could.
posted by Glitter Ninja at 9:00 AM on March 15, 2007

i just read about st. baldrick's foundation -- that might have something helpful. (i'm trying to get my best friend to shave off his waist-length dreadlocks for charity as well, so i've been doing a little research!)
posted by oh really at 10:54 AM on March 15, 2007

Response by poster: Thank you all for your answers. Divabat got the gist of the competition - the hair is worthless for wigs, it's more of a "should I change my hairstyle" friends and family vote-off, with the largest charitable donation winning.
posted by anthill at 9:05 AM on March 17, 2007

Response by poster: kimdog, JustGiving looks good but I don't see any way to have two donations on the same webpage - a "pro cut" and "anti cut" donation option, as it were.
posted by anthill at 9:08 AM on March 17, 2007