Donating a Car to Charity

Donating a car to charity is not only an excellent way to positively impact a needy family or individual in your community, it's a sensible way to lower your taxable income through increasing your charitable giving. In most situations, donating a car to charity is also a worry and hassle free means of disposing of a car, truck or minivan that you no longer need or want. Consider the process of selling your car to a used car dealer. The dealer only wants your car if he can resell it and make a profit on the resale. This is going to drive down his offer to you to help maximize his profits. The haggling process is adversarial, and common sense would tell you that you’ll want to shop your car around to many different potential dealers to get the best possible price. This all takes energy, which you will get back, and time, which you will not. Of course, you might decide to sell your car to a private party. Assuming that they are not looking to resell the vehicle in question, the money you get might be higher than you would get from a dealer. However, you have to pay to advertise your sale to get more potential buyers looking and you have to be available to show the car to these potential buyers at a time that is mutually convenient for the both of you. Again, you need to factor in the hidden costs of energy spent and time lost as well as the hassle.

Donating a car to Charity Cars, a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, is easy and enjoyable. When you call us to inform us of your decision to donate a vehicle, we will put you in touch with one of our affiliated towing companies to arrange a time and place convenient to you for the absolutely free pickup of your vehicle, running or not, anywhere in the United States. Typically, we can have a tow truck there to pick up your donation within 24 hours of your initial call. You sign over the title to Charity Cars and simply give the tow truck operator the title paperwork. We will send you a notification in writing allowing you to deduct the fair market value of your car for tax purposes. Donating a car to charity affects each individuals tax situation differently, so we strongly advise you to consult with your tax preparer or an accounting professional for any questions you might have about how this is best handled for your tax purposes. By law, you determine the fair market value of your gift when donating a car to charity, but that value is required to reflect what a willing buyer would pay a willing seller in a private party sale.

Take a brief moment to review the testimonials of some of the people helped by someone donating a car to Charity Cars. We have customer service professionals standing by to answer any questions you might have about donating a car to charity.