<p>We’ve got a car that’s just taking up space in the yard, gotten too expensive to keep on the road. Thinking about donating it to the national MS society, as we’ve lost a family member to that disease.</p>
<p>The whole idea of letting someone tow a car away, title in hand, with the promise of receiving a statement in the mail sometime later, indicating what they got when they sold the car, sounds a little bit sketchy.</p>
<p>Do all charities handle auto donations in this manner–it is possible that I’m just being over-concerned.</p>
<p>We donated a car to Kars for Kids. They didn’t tell us the amount that would be on our receipt. That arrived later in the mail. $500 for a Chrysler Town and Country. We took plates off, turned into our DMV, took off our insurance and deducted on our taxes. Didn’t get audited, so can’t say how it would have held up. </p>
<p>We donated a car, it was a clunker and I think the only organization that wanted it was either Goodwill or the Salvation Army, I can’t remember. We just deducted the blue book amount on it and didn’t worry about it. </p>
<p>Our car was sold at auction for more than our guestimated price, so we were able to deduct a tidy sum.
They were very easy & prompt to deal with.</p>
<p>We drive all of our cars into the ground so we usually wind up donating them. We’ve donated to the L’Chaim Society and Kars for Kids. Except for the fact that the jingle for Kars for Kids is the most annoying piece of music ever written, we’ve had no problems. </p>
<p>We donated a car to public television. It was easy and painless. I started a thread about it if you want to try and search for it. We also got more than they thought and we were able to deduct a nice amount also. The paperwork was sent promptly and it was easy to deal with. The only thing I remember as having to do was have the tittle notarized but that may have been the state it was donated from. </p>
<p>We donated ours to the local public radio station. It had multiple problems that would have cost more to fix than the car was worth. We could have covered most of them up, like the 3rd row seat belts the dog had chewed through that we tucked in when we had the car inspected (no we didn’t put anyone in those seats!), but we wouldn’t have felt comfortable passing those problems on to some poor college kid or young family. Donation was easy, and although we probably could have made more money with an as-is sale we were happy to get rid of the car hassle-free.</p>
<p>We also donated my husband’s old car to one of our local public radio stations and the whole thing was completely pain free. They came and picked it up, sold it at auction a few days later and sent us the paperwork right away. It was a nice deduction on our income taxes this year.</p>
<p>We have donated cars before to a church in Illinois that fixes them and then gives them to someone in need. We have also donated cars to Kars for Kids. The transfers were always hassle free and we got a tax deduction. Much better than trying to sell them to someone.</p>
<p>We donated a Ford Escape which was starting to have serial problems a few years ago to a local agency that supports people with developmental disabilities. It was easy, and they sold it for a bit more than we’d expected. We’d do it again in similar circumstances.</p>
<p>Years ago we donated to Rawhide Ranch in Wisconsin. Was able to take the car to a local dealership, sign over the title and claim an amount from paperwork they sent us.</p>
<p>It’s been about 15 years ago but we donated a car to the Make a Wish Foundation (make sure you’re contacting the real one) and they were great and we received a detailed account of how much money went to the actual charity after the sale and what that money was earmarked for…and the childs name (maybe only first) and what they were able to do for the child with the money. Was very easy to work with them.</p>
<p>We donated our car to the Red Cross for auction. We got a letter the following week, giving a receipt. It sold at triple the price we would have dared to ask for it. We were able to deduct the sale price on our taxes.</p>
<p>They have a quick turnaround because they don’t want vehicles hanging around in a lot. I would do it again next time. </p>
<p>Oh, this is a timely thread. We have 3 vehicles in the yard that my husband and son are planning to take to the junk yard next month when son visits (so happy he is visiting and thrilled that he offered to help dad get rid of them and that dad agreed to do it!!). Now I’m wondering if we’d be better off donating them. I thought they had to be in working condition? Can they still be donated if not. (I just want them gone one way or another, but a tax deduct wouldn’t hurt my feelings at all).</p>
<p>They usually don’t have to be in working condition, at least that was the case for the public radio station we donated to. You may not get as much of a tax deduction, but it would probably be more worthwhile than taking them to the junk yard.</p>