I have a 1991 Chevy S-10 POS pickup that I want to unload. Donating it to a charity sounds just fine to me, but I keep coming across donation clearing houses that will take the vehicle and provide the designated charity with the funds. Naturally, I’m skeptical of those, what with the United Way horror stories and the proliferation of con artists on the Internet.
Any Doper out there with experience or knowledge of charities, clearing houses, and donations?
FWIW, I have the title for the truck, it runs but is rusty, needs a new exhaust system, and in general, won’t pass a Virginia vehicle inspection without some work and $$$.
I have a 1991 Chevy S-10 POS pickup that I want to unload. Donating it to a charity sounds just fine to me, but I keep coming across donation clearing houses that will take the vehicle and provide the designated charity with the funds. Naturally, I’m skeptical of those, what with the United Way horror stories and the proliferation of con artists on the Internet.
Any Doper out there with experience or knowledge of charities, clearing houses, and donations?
FWIW, I have the title for the truck, it runs but is rusty, needs a new exhaust system, and in general, won’t pass a Virginia vehicle inspection without some work and $$$.
Check with your local college. Ours has a wonderful automotive department that accepts donations, lets students fix 'em up and get some practical experience, then resells them and uses to money for the department. You should be able to get a tax-deductible receipt from them.
Check with your local college. Ours has a wonderful automotive department that takes fixable vehicles, lets students have some practical experience on them and get them running, and then resells them and uses the money for the automotive program. You should be able to get a tax-deductible receipt as well.
Last year I donated a car to the Salvation Army. It had belonged to my ex-husband, who’s a chronic alcoholic and will never drive again. (God, I hope he never drives again. He blew a .428 on his last DUI–and that’s not a typo.)
I held title to it but just plain didn’t like the car much; great for speed but lousy for gas mileage, and too many painful memories. It was a Nissan 280 ZX, '95 I think, in immaculate condition but hadn’t been driven in four years. It wouldn’t take much to make it driveable and highly saleable again, and the Sally Army uses such donations to help folks recovering from alcholism. It seemed appropriate.
The donation process was very smooth and professional. One call and they arranged a time to tow it away. I did all the research to document the ACV of the car, but they gave me quite complete receipt that listed mileage, condition, etc. as well as a formal letter of acknowledgment. It made for a very complete, easy tax deduction.
FWIW I called the local high school, inquiring about donating it them, but met with complete indifference. YMMV.
I also donated a car to the Salvation Army. While I can’t complain about the process, which was very smooth and easy, one thing did annoy me. About six months after I donated it, I got a notice in the mail that the car had been abandoned and impounded. This means whatever Salvation Army did with the car, they didn’t even bother to transfer the title.
I too donated a car to the Salvation Army in 1993.
It was a breeze: they even arranged to pick it up while I was at work (they instructed me to leave the keys and the title under the driver’s seat floor mat).
I plan to do it again shortly with the car I bought in 1993.
I donated my old car to Northwest Medical Teams, it was quite easy. It saved me the hassle of trying to sell it myself and the dealership just laughed when I asked about trading it in. (It was a 1988 Olds Cutlass with 170k miles.)
I would advise you to give to a charity directly, it allows them to get the full benefit of the donation without giving a cut to the middleman. Also if you are worried about the charity not transferring the title, you may wish to check with your state motor vehicle department. In Oregon, you are required to notify DMV if you sell or transfer the title. They even have a nifty online form to use.
I donated a non-running car to the Diabetes Association some years back. I called the toll-free number, arranged a time, and they came and picked it up later that week. I did have to have the title in hand, but finding that was the hardest part about the whole process.
Just be sure you don’t try to take a deduction for more than the vehicle is actually worth. We ended up not even claiming ours, since it would have been a stretch to say it was worth more than $100 or so.
I donated my dead old clunker to the Canadian Kidney Foundation, who arranged for towing and all the fun stuff. Check with the larger organizations around your area. Odd are good someone will come and get the thing, and mail you a tax receipt.
My tax receipt was for $50. I thought my car had more scrap value than that, but they took it away, and that was the highlight for me.
Check with local volunteer firehouses, too. My husband is a volunteer firefighter, and they take old POS cars (you get a receipt for tax purposes) and use them for training. Meaning they set it on fire and use the Jaws of Life on it. Repeatedly.
The training is invaluable.
we donated my old Chevy Blazer to ACTS here in Virginia. they’re a faith-based organization that works with numerous denominations in providing food, clothing, etc. to the disadvantaged. Big Blue was still in pretty good shape. the biggest hassle (as such) was driving it over there and signing the paperwork. no regrets, and no problems that i’ve heard of.
In 1999, I donated a 1990 Ford Probe, that was not running anymore with only 100K miles on it, to the National Kidney Association. I’m bad with the linkies, but I’m fairly certain it’s easy to google. If I recall, I think they fix them up - if it’s cost-effective for them to do so - then give them to needy folks. Otherwise, they may just turn em in for the scrap metal. I had to do the title work myself before they would pick it up, and that was only slightly a pain - dealing with my auto loan place, not NKA. Otherwise, it was a breeze - I can’t say anything negative about the experience. I even got $900 off my taxes that year. Every tiny bit helps.
I’ve been in the process of donating a 1991 car to the American Lung Association for the past 2 months. They’ve been perfect to deal with.
Now if everyone else (the bank, the state, my wife, the USPS…) were as helpful…
But I’d suggest donating soon. Many places do not want a car as old as 1991. The ALA was one that would take it, but mentioned they rachet up their max age in September each year. NPR was one place not interested a vehicle that old.
And I worked with them directly. I tried one of the wholsesale clearing-houses and had no response at all. So I cut out the middleman.
I used to work for a place here in Canada that administered a vehicle donation program on behalf of a number of Canadian charities. There are some differences in the States, but this is how we worked:
The donor would send us an application form, and we would go remove the car and sell it. We would sell the vast majority to local wreckers, but in the case of a newer car, or certain models that were always in demand, we might sell them at auction. Then we would send the proceeds to the charity the donor had chosen, and the charity would issue them a tax receipt for the amount of the sale of the car.
As for the title, the owners signed them over to my company, and when we sold the car, we signed them over to the new buyer. If there was no title provided by the donor, we would get one from the Ministry and make sure it got signed over into the name of the buyer.
Some people would get upset about not getting a receipt for blue book value, but the fact is, the charities by law could issue a receipt only for funds they actually received, and the time, energy, and administration that would have been involved in attempting private sales or selling to dealers to get a higher price would have made the whole process not worth while.
Most people were glad just to get rid of their old junker of a car, relatively hassle-free.
