Liv Like a Unicorn

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
844043682
IRS 990 coverage
2021–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-EZ 2020
Location
Freehold, NJ, USA
Phone
2013969056
Rating
78
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Philanthropy, Voluntarism, and Grantmaking Foundations N.E.C.

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$862,714
Expenses
$524,232
Assets
$560,779
Liabilities
$7,362

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

11 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • EMMA EDWARDS (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
  • KATIE DINONNO (PRESIDENT)
  • JOYCE MALTESE (VICE PRESIDENT)

Highest reported compensation

  • EMMA EDWARDS (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $60,000 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Liv like a unicorn walks alongside families facing childhood cancer. Delivering hope through our unicorn box program, providing financial relief during treatment, and supporting pediatric brain cancer research to move us closer to better outcomes and cure.

What it reported doing in 2025

Unicorn boxes filled with activities, toys, and creature comforts are sent to any child battling cancer throughout the country. Many of these children spend long spans of the time at the hospital or have to be kept isolated because of their weakened immune system. The aimof this program is to provide a smile to children going through treatment. Children will recieve packages throughout the year for things like valentines day, halloween, special events and holiday's. The foundation also supports 13 pediatric hospitals in New Jersey and New York by providing toys to hand out to children and fill their playrooms. Not forgetting parents, they provide toiletry bags filled with items they might need for overnight stays.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 99% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 44% for direct work, and 56% for grants.
  • Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - A large share of total spending goes to programs and the filed numbers largely add up. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 68
  • Transparency & Controls: 89
  • Accountability: 77
  • Sustainability: 65
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 55.8%; rating input score 56
  • Program expense ratio: 90.1%; rating input score 90
  • Fundraising efficiency: $26.93 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 63; 63rd percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 92.3%; rating input score 92; 18th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 78th percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 87.5%; rating input score 88; 24th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 5 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 62
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Fail
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 39.2%; rating input score 87; 87th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.07; rating input score 45; 45th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 57; 57th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 11.4%; rating input score 33; 33rd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 27.8% per year; rating input score 100; 87th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 35% per year; rating input score 100; 92nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 49.5% per year; rating input score 100; 95th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 55.8% of revenue deployed · 90.1% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 7 of 8 board members independent · 5 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $472K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $60K · 11 people listed
  • Consistency: 25 of 26 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
  • Filing history: 5 filing years from 2021 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 2 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 1 filed related-organization link
  • Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
  • People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • Review — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 56/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 7 not reported.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 45/100.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 33/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 57/100.