The Best Charity Organizations for Car Donation
Car donation is a practice followed in the US wherein, a car owner gives away his old and used car to a charitable organization and in lieu of it gets tax returns. Most often the charitable institutions do not handle the vehicle donation program themselves as it requires a lot of money as well as manpower. They instead give a contract to a commercial or nonprofit fundraising organization that does all the processing for them and in return takes their cut and gives the rest of the amount to the charity.
Keeping these factors in mind, we have listed the best places for vehicle donation in the country:
1. One Car, One Difference
This is a public awareness campaign that is run by the Insurance Auto Auctions Donation Division. It handles all the vital aspects of the donation process via their website or an online tool called Auto-Donation.com.
2. Charity Motors
It is a highly efficient charity that does vehicle donation. It sells these vehicles to individuals who want 50% of the fair market value. They donate a considerable percentage of the proceeds to the charity of your choice. They offer the highest tax deduction that is approximately the fair market value of the car regardless of the sale price.
3. Car Donation Wizard
It is a nationally licensed and highly reputable vehicle dealer that saves a lot of costs associated with processing a donation. It gives more than 80% of the proceeds to the charities that you are interested in.
4. The Arc Vehicle Donation
The Arc is a nonprofit organization that works for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. It hires Melwood, another highly efficient charity to handle all the donation proceedings. This organization employs people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. So if you donate to The Arc through Melwood you can support two causes.
5. Allstate Car Donations
It is the fundraising arm of the Center for Living & Learning in California. It provides paid vocational apprenticeships to ex-offenders, at-risk populations, and recovering addicts. The apprentices undertake the task of vehicle donation that pay their salaries and also fund other Center programs teaching work ethics, effective communication skills, and good workplace behavior.
6. Riteway Charity Services
A highly renowned charitable organization in the country, Riteway gives about 75-100% of the proceeds from vehicle donation to the charities. However, some of the charities do get above 60% only. So it is essential to check which charity receives the most from them and then proceed with the vehicle donation program.
There is a lot of fraudulent activity taking place in the vehicle donation venture with middlemen posing to do the work and donating a very low percentage of the proceeds from the sale to the organization. This is why it is essential to vet the organization you choose so as to ensure that the charitable organization gets a fair share of the proceeds. The share usually amounts to about 75% of the sale value of the vehicle. An intermediary giving between 60-74% of the net proceeds is taken to be satisfactory, but anything lower than that is not acceptable. Also, while choosing an organization, ensure that a minimum of 75% of the expenses goes towards the program.