How Can A Charity Benefit From Car Donations

By Author: Martin Schloss
Total Articles: 4762
Comment this article

Whenever you read an article on donating cars for a charity, the article generally outlines how it benefits you. You read about the fair market value tax write off for the car donor. You also hear about what a good thing it is, helping others out; the warm, fuzzy feeling you get from knowing you've done a good deed and that someone in need will be helped.

What you very seldom read about is the charities themselves. How, exactly, does a charity benefit from car donations? After all, isn't the real question, "What happened to my car once I donated it?"

The Charities We Touch

Many car donation facilities allow you to choose your charity. Others have a specific charity they have chosen for any car donations to go to. Here are just a few examples of how car donations benefit charities:

Proceeds of sale - One of the common ways a car donation is used is to put it on auction. Either the car donation facility does this or the charity itself. What's the difference? Some donation facilities take a small fee of the proceeds for the management of the sale - not all, but some. Others give the car directly ...
... to your chosen charity to sell themselves, where they get the full proceeds.

Usually, donation facilities and charities have a mutually agreeable contract that lays out how the car donations will be handled. Charities almost always need more money (since they're nonprofit) and more staff (since many are run by volunteers), and may not have the time or necessary people to deal with sales. In this capacity, car donation facilities serve an excellent purpose as "middlemen" to the charities.

Charities that have benefited from sale proceeds include, but aren't limited to:

- American Red Cross
- Fund for Autistic Children
- Help for Abused Women and Their Children
- Helping Hands School
- Liberty House
- Lowell Association for the Blind
- Open Pantry Community Services, Inc.

This small list is just a drop in the bucket. Car donations and the proceeds that come from them have reached out to every major cause, from breast cancer research to making sure the hungry have something to eat. Media-covered charities and those charities that are so small few know about them all have a way to receive the necessary donations to keep going.

Fixer-uppers - Another way that charities can benefit from car donations is with "fixer-uppers". These cars may not currently be running but are capable of being fixed, or the car is more valuable as a give away.

Many of these cars are given to people who need vehicles and are capable of fixing them. Others are fixed and given away, or used by the charities themselves. Charities may use them as delivery vehicles, pick-up/drop-off vehicles or in many other ways.

Hundreds, perhaps thousands of individuals have benefited from these "fixer-uppers". Having lost their only means of transportation, car donations have been a saving grace for them. "One man's trash is another man's treasure" has never been more true.

Whether through proceeds of sale or as a means for transportation, charities have benefited in many ways through car donations. Every car, boat, truck, SUV, RV, golf cart, motorcycle, mobility scooter, ATV and dune buggy is one more step towards:

- a life-saving drug
- medical research
- helping hunger
- helping the abused
- studying diseases
- helping the blind
- helping someone through college
- helping homeless veterans
- providing shelter from the homeless
- helping someone keep a job with better transportation
- helping charities transport those in need

In other words, car donations may benefit you and they may benefit charities, but ultimately, car donations benefit the thousands, perhaps millions of people in need. One car is tantamount to reaching out a helping hand - a caring hand - to another human being.
About Author:
CarsHelpingAmerica.org, a vehicle donation center, is an authorized, bonded agent working on behalf of its supported charities to accept and process your car donation. Visit online for more information.