??? Donating a car to charity

[Twigs]

Please tell  me your experience about donating an old car to charity.

 

Any charities you can recommend?

 

Thanks.

[DawnM]

We donated a car last month to Wycliffe Bible Translators.  In the past we have donated to the Union Rescue Mission.  It is easy and painless.

[PrincessMommy]

we have donated our cars to charity on many occasions.  One thing to keep in mind is that most charities want a car with 4 working wheels (for towing purposes) - so a car that has been in a bad wreck may not qualify.

 

But other than that, we've only had positive experiences.   I can't remember all the places we've donated too but I think we once did it to NPR.  But, I think most reputable charities have some kind of car donation program. 

 

 

[mlktwins]

Please tell  me your experience about donating an old car to charity.

 

Any charities you can recommend?

 

Thanks.

I've been meaning for 2 days to post this very same question!

 

If you don't mind me asking a question for those responding, does title get transferred directly to the charity that takes it?  If it doesn't, I think that is a concern?!?!?

 

[Tammi K]

We donated our car to Make-a-Wish. They came and picked up the car and title and gave us the tax papers we needed to claim the deduction. Easy!

[gingersmom]

I did it and it was very easy. 

 

I did have an issue with the title transfer though. The charity wanted me to in effect "skip" title which I was not willing to do. 

 

I left car with keys in driveway and they towed it away.

[Jean in Newcastle]

We donated one to our local PBS station. Very easy.

 

Here's their FAQ page: http://www.unctv.org/content/vehicle/faq and an IRS booklet on the subject: http://www.unctv.org/content/sites/default/files/Donors-Guide-to-Vehicle-Donations.pdf

We did the same - twice!  

[Stacia]

This is an informative & good article:

http://www.charitywatch.org/articles/car.html

 

We recently donated our van to charity. It needed more work than we were willing to put into it, yet felt it still had plenty of life in it for someone or a group that could use it. (We were not interested in the 'general donate a car to charity' thing where most cars go immediately to scrap & the charity gets next-to-nothing for your donation.) So, I emailed out to some local people & groups to see if anyone had ideas of places that would be willing to fix & then use our vehicle. Some charities need a vehicle for transport & have mechanics that volunteer their time, budget for vehicles, etc.... We ended up finding two groups that wanted to repair & use our van (one was a group that takes folks to dr. appts. & could use a van to haul a group; the other was an animal rescue group that needed the van to transport animals for adoption days, etc...). We selected one of the groups & feel happy that our van has been repaired & is being put to good use by a group that needs it.

 

So, I guess it depends on why/what use you want for your donation. In our case, I was willing to do a little research & footwork to find a group that could use our van rather than just scrapping it.

[MomtoCandJ]

We would donate to the local skill center mechanics class, or local college. We need to figure something for my car because the State of Georgia refuses to release my title (the car is now paid for but the financing company we had was bought out and because I can't get whatever information they won't release it). I plan to drive my car though until it's completely dead (like needs new motor or transmission). I think they would like because they would also get body work experience with it (stinking deer, although it did provide more meat for my freezer :))