About The Henrietta Lacks Foundation

News alert: Read about The Henrietta Lacks Foundation and its grants given to date in the New York Times here: "Returning The Blessings of An Immortal Life: Rebecca Skloot Seeks to Help Henrietta Lacks's Descendants". Also see: First Henrietta Lacks Foundation Grants Awarded

As of August 24, 2011 the Board of Directors of the Henrietta Lacks Foundation has awarded 22 grants. Fifteen grants were for tuition and books, five were for medical or dental aid, and two were for other emergency needs.

Welcome to the web page for The Henrietta Lacks Foundation, a non-profit organization founded by Rebecca Skloot, author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, who is donating a portion of her book’s proceeds to the foundation. Henrietta was a poor black tobacco farmer whose cancer cells, taken without her knowledge, became one of the most important tools in medicine, with damaging consequences for her family who today can’t afford access to the health care advances their mother’s cells helped make possible. The Henrietta Lacks Foundation strives to provide financial assistance to needy individuals who have made important contributions to scientific research without personally benefitting from those contributions, particularly those used in research without their knowledge or consent. The Foundation gives those who have benefited from those contributions -- including scientists, universities, corporations, and the general public -- a way to show their appreciation to such research subjects and their families.

The Foundation has already awarded 19 grants, including grants covering tuition and book expenses, health care expenses and emergency needs of multiple members of her immediate family. The Foundation's goal is to continue to help the Lacks family as well as others with similar needs who may qualify, such as descendants of research subjects used in the famous Tuskegee Syphilis Studies, those injected with sexually transmitted diseases without their knowledge by the US Government, and others. To be eligible for a grant, an applicant must prove financial need and have made, or be the descendant of someone who has made, a significant contribution to scientific research as a research subject, including those who have unwillingly or unknowingly been used in research or contributed biological materials for research. If you believe you are eligible and would like to apply for a grant, please email the foundation at grants-at-henriettalacksfoundation-dot-org for more information. For information about the grants given out by the foundation to date, click here. Donors will receive a periodic newsletter updating them on the status of the foundation, and how their donations have been used for grants.

More about the Lacks Family

If you would like to learn more about the Lacks family, please visit their website. If you have additional questions about Henrietta Lacks or the HeLa cells, please visit the Frequently Asked Questions page of Rebecca Skloot’s website.

Board of Directors

The Foundation’s board of directors includes Rebecca Skloot (president), Dr. Roland Pattillo of Morehouse School of Medicine (vice president), and Dr. David Kroll of North Carolina Central University (secretary). For more information about the foundation, you can download a PDF of its charter and certificate of incorporation here, or its action of sole incorporation here.

The Henrietta Lacks Foundation, Inc. is a public charity that is exempt from federal income tax under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. The Internal Revenue Service has determined that the Foundation's tax-exempt status is effective as of December 10, 2010; accordingly, donations received by the Foundation prior to December 10, 2010 will not be tax-deductible.