I listen to our local premier public radio station, KRCW, quite a bit. Like all public stations, they need to raise money twice a year through on-air pledge drives. The principle is quite straightforward–listeners donate money, and said money is augmented by foundation and corporate support, plus whatever they still get from the government. But how do old cars fit into this? As you’ll see if you peruse the links, donated cars need not even be running, just able to be towed.
I’ve long heard of charitable organizations like Good Will soliciting donated cars, but they traditionally provide vocational training and experience to the needy–some of whom presumably are put to work restoring and repairing the cars. But how and why does a radio station take on the organizational effort of dealing with them? Or have old cars become a sort of generally acceptable currency in the charitable and non-profit sector? Does a radio station simply trade the cars to other non-profits for something it can actually use?
I just donated my car to KQED. The station itself does nothing with it, a third party takes care of the car, sells it, and gives some of the money to the station.
And, FYI, they don’t necessarily take any car. A few years ago I wanted to get rid of my junker and my local station said they only accept cars less than 10 years old.
Its the same thing the kidney foundation or other charities do with cars… they simply contract with a third party who typically salvages them for parts.
It’s sort of like a charity golf outing that has a “Win this car” hole-in-one contest. The charity doesn’t go out and buy a car then wait for some duffer to accidentally hit a hole-in-on. They pay a fee to an outfit that acts like an insurance company. The outfit, like an insurance company, has done the math to know their odds on someone actually winning. They park the car near the green, everyone gets excited, and it becomes a win-win for everyone.
In the radio station case, you donate your car. The third party knows all about the used car, salvage car business. They know how to make money off the handling of the donation, take their commission and give the rest to the radio station. You get your tax write-off, the radio station takes in some cash and the third party make a profit. Life is good!
We did this last year, donating a car to Big Brothers. If the car was considered un-resellable, the salvagers valued it at $400. If it was deemed resellable, it was valued higher.
Did they let you sign over the title? My brother tried to donate a car to a charity, but they did not want to actually take ownership, saying that the title would be transferred on resale. He was wary about doing that, out of fear that someone might drive the car and have an accident while he was still the registered owner.
:eek: then thought 
at the snark, before reading the whole thing and going :smack:. I suppose it’s time for a cup of coffee..