Donating your car to charity is a great way to get rid of your old car while helping fund the programs offered by your favorite nonprofit organization. Most charities don’t handle the vehicle donation process themselves, which costs money and requires a lot of manpower. Instead, they typically contract with a commercial or nonprofit fundraising organization, which handles all of the details, takes a cut of the proceeds, and sends the rest along to the charity.
Unfortunately, the car donation industry is crawling with vermin who will be happy to take the vehicle off your hands under the guise of donating a percentage of the proceeds from its sale, but too often, that percentage is often as low as 13 percent.
To ensure the charity of your choice gets a fair percentage of the proceeds, it’s essential to donate through a highly reputable intermediary that will forward 75 percent or more of the net proceeds to the charity you choose. An intermediary that passes along 60 to 74 percent of the net proceeds is considered more or less satisfactory, but anything less than 60 percent is unacceptable.
Additionally, it’s a good idea to donate only to charities that are considered “highly efficient,” which means that at least 75 percent of their expenses go directly toward their programs to further their stated mission.
With these factors in mind, here are my top seven choices for the best car donation programs, listed in no particular order.
1. One Car, One Difference
One Car, One Difference is a public awareness campaign run by Insurance Auto Auctions Donation Division, which handles all aspects of the donation process through the One Car, One Difference website or their online tool, Auto-Donation.com.
Charities who contract with IAA’s Donation Division, including the Boy Scouts of America and the American Red Cross, typically see around 72 percent of the gross proceeds from the sale of a vehicle, which is about as good as it gets.
2. Charity Motors
Charity Motors is a highly efficient charity that accepts vehicle donations, which they turn around and sell to individuals in need for 50 percent of the fair market value, and they donate a high percentage of the proceeds to the charity of your choice.
If you’re looking for the highest tax deduction, donate your vehicle to Charity Motors to take a deduction that’s worth the fair market value of the car, regardless of the sale price, since they sell the cars at a discount to people in need. If the vehicle is sold at auction with a portion of the proceeds going to charity, you can only take a deduction equal to the actual sale price of the car.
3. Car Donation Wizard
Car Donation Wizard is the car donation tool provided by commercial fundraising organization Advanced Remarketing Services, which consistently passes on over 80 percent of the proceeds to the charities that contract with them, including Habitat for Humanity.
Advanced Remarketing Services is a nationally licensed and highly reputable vehicle dealer, which enables them to save on the costs associated with processing a donation.
4. The Arc Vehicle Donation
The Arc is a nonprofit organization that advocates for and serves people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. To handle the car donation process, this highly efficient charity contracts with another highly efficient charity, Melwood, whose Charity Car Donation Center employs people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. You can support two causes with one car by donating to The Arc through Melwood!
5. AllState Car Donations
Allstate Car Donations isn’t affiliated with the insurance company by the same name. Rather, this organization is the fundraising arm of the Center for Living & Learning, based in Van Nuys, California, which provides paid vocational apprenticeships to recovering addicts, ex-offenders, and at-risk populations. The apprentices process the car donations, which pay their salaries and fund other Center programs that teach work ethics, appropriate workplace behaviors, and effective communication skills.
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