Has anyone here ever donated a car to charity?

[Tobin S.]

I'm thinking about giving my old truck to Habitat for Humanity in particular right now, but I would like to know about any charity you've donated to and what your experience was with them.

From what I gather, it is better to donate directly to a charity. There are a lot of middle men advertising on the web that take care of the pick up and auctioning of the vehicle, but they keep a large chunk of the proceeds before giving the rest to the charity. I'd like to avoid that.

[bluedigger]

1. No, but there's a good one in NOLA.

I can't remember the name, but their clients fix them up, learn skills, etc...

[REP]

2. My brother, mother and I have all donated cars to the National Kidney Foundation

It was easy, and NKF is a good group.

[mucifer]

3. I donated my old Tercel to The Ark a Jewish organization that has a food pantry

and medical and legal aid for people who can't afford it here in Chicago. I called them and they picked up the car. I don't how much money they got for it or if it gets eaten up by the middlemen.

[Silver Swan]

4. My former spouse and I donated a car

to the American Lung Association, and my current spouse donated one to Volunteers of America.

The process is pretty simple. You sign over the title, and they pick the car up--even if it isn't in running condition.

We didn't even care about a tax deduction--we just wanted to get rid of the cars.

[nolabear]

5. Check with your local NPR station. Ours accepts donated cars.

We gave them one some years ago and it was simple as pie. And a tax deduction.

[struggle4progress]

6. I gave a car to the Salvation Army about a decade ago. They wanted to be sure

it ran and would pass inspection before they accepted it. The biggest tedium in the process for me was figuring out what I would claim as the value for the tax write-off: I looked through a lot of car ads for that make and model until I thought I had a good sample of pricing for cars in similar condition. I finally had 5 or 7 ads and took the middle value. The charity wouldn't estimate value for me

Actual transfer was pretty easy: hand over car, keys, and title; eventually, I got a letter from the charity documenting the donation. I wrote myself a memo for my files about where/when I donated and who exactly took possession. Six months or a year later, I got some sort of complaint letter from the state saying I hadn't been paying taxes on it or hadn't been maintaining insurance on it or somesuch -- so I wrote back saying I'd transferred title #X to the charity on such-and-such a date and included a copy of the letter from the charity

Claiming the income tax deduction was pretty easy: I just included the estimated value on the 1040, maybe with the letter from the charity and maybe with a brief discussion of how I estimated the value. I kept copies of the car ads with my own paperwork in case IRS complained

[quakerboy]

8. Anymore even the tax part is easy.

at least as i understand it. Its no longer estimated value, as too many people fudge it. Now they send you a letter with what they actually got for it.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

7. My dear Tobin...

Yup, I did that.

I donated it to our local classical music station, and they arranged for a towing service to come out and take the car away.

They auctioned it, and we were informed of how much money it went for. We were able to deduct that money from our income tax for the year.

No muss, no fuss. Easy.

It was all handled through the station, IIRC.

:hi:

[IcyPeas]

9. I gave my car to Habitat for Humanity...

"Cars for Homes" it's called

snip from their website:

Q: How much of the money generated by the sale of my car donation goes to Cars for Homes™?
A: Cars for Homes™ strives to run the most efficient vehicle donation program in the country. We take very seriously our responsibility to be good stewards of all car donations. On a monthly basis, our program has historically received more than 80 percent of the sales revenues. We have paid less than 20 percent of the selling price for towing, auction and processing fees. By comparison, some charities pay third-party, for-profit vehicle donation programs up to 70 percent in fees.


http://www.habitat.org/carsforhomes/faq.aspx

[Kali]

10. what? you don't want to drive it out here?

:P


series, I think most of the charities you would be donating it to use the same middlemen (they are all junk-for-jesus - same guy everywhere), but proceeds go to whoever you select NPR, local shelters, etc

[Tobin S.]

12. I'd do it Kali, but I really don't have the time

I did seriously consider it, though. I even thought I might be able to get a friend to drive it out there. But I've decided to give it to charity.

[Crazy Dave]

11. I gave an old running van to a friend in need, no tax break but....

It was the first and only time I've ever gave somebody a hand up and they tried to pay me back later (about $400) once they got back on their feet again. I told them just to pay it forward, pass it on instead.

[davsand]

We gave our old Buick to the local volunteer fire department.

They used it along with an old church bus and staged a training "disaster drill" for several of the local volunteer emergency responders. They recruited kids to be "injured" and triaged, and they even involved the local life flight/helicopter crews so everyone had an experience with a larger scale emergency. It made it onto the local news, and I gotta tell you it was a trip to see my old car with a bus on top of it and a bunch of firefighters swarming around it.

Seemed a fitting way for that car to go out--it was a good car than ran long past the time it should have. It was in such bad shape that the last time I took it to garage, the mechanic came outside and told me not to even bother pulling it into a bay. Parts of the car were hanging off, and it looked every bit as disreputable as it sounded.

Hubby and I had discussed it, and we were gonna have to pay to have it towed to a junk yard anyhow, so we figured we'd let the local fire department use it for a training first. I called the local fire chief and told him they could have the car--that we were willing to donate it to them for a training--and he got all kinds of excited. He told me they'd come and get it, and we didn't have to do anything at all!

Made sense for us, I hope you find an equally positive way to dispose of your car!



Laura

[davsand]

13. Duplicate post. Please delete!

[Arugula Latte]

14. We gave our car to the Oregon Humane Society.

They came to get it. Everything went smoothly.

We found out they got a bit more than $1,000 for it at auction, which surprised me. I'm glad it was worth so much.

[Old Troop]

15. I've donated cars directly to my church so they, in turn, can give them

to someone who really needs one. I don't know anything about the possible tax write-off but I have seen average folks driving my old car in our small town.

[lukasahero]

16. Donated a rusting Geo Tracker with 300,000 miles to MS Society

Still got like a $500 deduction out of it.

What a breeze too - the extent of my involvement was basically calling them. They handled everything else.

[Godhumor]

17. Donated my old Ford to Kidney Cars

Great organization and my car was picked up at my place. Tax forms were mailed to me about a week later. No muss, no fuss.

[AngryOldDem]

18. Couldn't be easier.

I donated my old rustbucket to the local homeless shelter, where I worked. Just called the main office, set up a time, cleaned out the car, left the signed title in the glovebox, they came with a flatbed, and hauled it away. A few weeks later I got a receipt for my taxes. Done.

The hardest part was watching it go away down the street. I had had the car for over 20 years and it was like saying goodbye to an old and faithful friend.

I wouldn't deal with any middlemen. Most charitable groups, I think, handle this themselves.

[Inchworm]

19. Additional question

Basically, a friend "donated" a vehicle to me. I wonder if I could point him to a place where this may help on his taxes.

I found this publication but it is all about "to a charity" stuff. Hmm, wonder if I can become a non-profit :D

:shrug:

EDIT: extra babbling removed :silly:

[Beer Snob-50]

20. i gave my sons car to susan korman (i think that is the last name)fund

the car was not drivable, but they took it (i gave them a heads up that this was the case)for parts. they picked it up, very very accomadating.