Car Donation for Charity

There are many reasons to donate autos or boats to your church or religious organization, as long as it’s recognized as being a legitimate non-profit venture by the IRS.  Some of these reasons are more tangible than others, but hardly less real to those who feel compelled to do good works.  Even when you donate an auto to a faith-based community service organization affiliated with a church, be sure to be honest with yourself first of all – the quality of the donation is dependent upon the quality of the donated auto in question.

1) You know someone in your church who really needs a car, and you’re in a position to donate an auto that requires only a small amount of work.

If you’ve been a member of a congregation for a long time, odds are you know a few people who’ve gotten down on their luck.  Instead of giving the car to them directly, if you arrange it through the church, then there will be no gift taxes to pay and you’ll be able to deduct the whole “fair value” amount.  This is usually best if the car is already in good working order.

2) The youth group needs a van for their upcoming fishing trip and you have one you’re sick of putting gas into now that the kids are off at college.

Just because you don’t have a use for a large vehicle anymore doesn’t mean someone else doesn’t.  Such donated autos are especially useful for team sports or camping trips.  Vans that are setup with benches and room for a whole pile of kids are perfect for this donation use.  Parochial schools are always on the lookout for these if they don’t already have one or the current model is on its last legs.

3) Your old car runs reasonably well and you’re sure someone in the church can use the car rather than it being sold for auction.

Since you presumably have the ear of someone in the church office, you can find out what the congregational need for cars is at any given time, ensuring that there’s a good fit for your donated auto out there.  Remember, you’re able to get far more deduction benefit if there’s a real need for your vehicle rather than a future sale, especially on the wholesale market.

4) One of the deacons is an auto repair expert and you want the kids to have a project for the summer to keep them out of trouble.

Of course, you’ll want to clear this with the deacon in question, but the goal of a donated auto sale is enough to keep several kids from running wild all summer while they’re learning a useful skill, and that’s invaluable.

5) You’ll feel very holy as a result.

The IRS can’t put a value on that.

6) You may donate as a type of self-imposed penance.

You can really put the icing on that cake by donating the money you save on your returns to the church or the charity of your choice in addition to the donated auto.

7) Your gift may inspire others to donate to a larger “Donated Auto Day” to buy a new organ or outfits for the choir.

Regardless of what the proceeds will buy, if you have a vested interest in the outcome of what the proceeds are to be spent upon, the idea of maximizing your deduction with donated autos isn’t nearly as important, especially if you’re using standardized deductions anyhow.

That woman down the street did it….

Hey, that’s not a very pure motivation!  Of course, it’s also a very popular one with donated autos or just about anything else.

9) Your yard is breeding old cars faster than you bore your nine children – it’s time to find all the extras new homes as donated autos, and you don’t care how.

The church will often have the use of a tow truck, and it’s good to just make junk go away at a certain point, regardless of the tax benefit.

10) Your church is the only charity you trust.

That’s up to you, but all qualifying religious and non-profit organizations are equal in the eyes of the IRS.

You may be beholden to render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, but there’s no need not to keep what is yours, donated autos and all, within your community of choice.

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Technorati Tags: donate autos, tax deduction

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There are many reasons why needy families in your community can benefit from charitable donations of your old automobile.  Much of this is rooted in the free market economy that dominates in the United States, sometimes despite the best interests of low-income workers that make up the bottom of the labor pyramid that drives consumer spending and business revenues.  Add a hot real estate market that has led a renewed flight of entry level jobs from densely populated urban centers that are well-served by public transit, and you have a crisis situation for many such workers that can only be solved by charitable donations.

It’s not just people on welfare that are in desperate need of charitable donations in the form of food aid and autos.  There are millions of gainfully employed persons in the US who are unable to meet even their  most basic needs.

Recent moves by the Bush administration to reclassify poverty are not fooling anyone who is living that nightmare.  Despite cheery headlines to the contrary, the poor are getting poorer and there are fewer people interested in their plight than ever before.  Perhaps it’s because so many who consider themselves “middle-class” are beginning to struggle as only the poor had once.

Perhaps it’s due to vitriolic rhetoric coming from neo-conservative mouthpieces and politicians who decry any use of public funding to support people not entirely like themselves.  Perhaps it’s just easier to assume that anyone can make it in America.  Well, anyone can, but the cards are definitely stacked against those with low incomes.  Anyone who has ever investigated taking out a payday loan to buy groceries or relies upon credit cards to make ends meet can attest to that.

Regardless of the reasons why charitable donations of automobiles are in such high demand, they are desperately needed by an ever-increasing segment of the working populace.  This problem is exasperated by the premium paid to workers who are able to navigate outside the areas of public transportaion.  Having a vehicle not only means that workers are able to free themselves from the whims of late trains and missed bus transfers, but also the ability to take higher paying work and finally crawl out of the hole and become more fully contributing members  of society who are not dependent upon charitable donations of anything.

That said, it is imperative that one find an organization that is capable of taking charitable donations of automobiles and giving them directly to needy individuals and families that need them.  Not only does this give you the satisfaction of knowing your charitable donations remain in the community, but you also can rest assured that you’ll be able to take the full, fair-market value of your charitable donations that can represent a significant increase over the wholesale auction price that is often given.

Even if the car is eventually sold at a deep discount to the organization’s constituents, you may still claim the full value, as long as it’s not sold to a member of the general public.  If repairs are made to one of your vehicular charitable donations before use, you’re still able to take that fair market donation according to the condition in which the car finally appeared.

Indeed, organizations that provide automotive transport have classically been those that chiefly benefited from these types of charitable donations.  Whether they exist to transport a needy individual to doctors appointments, a school of higher learning or even just keeping someone in touch with their linguistic community once they’ve had to move away to take work elsewhere.

Charitable donations of automobiles also have the advantage of giving a segment of the population a sense of freedom that their low-wage jobs don’t often afford.  It’s this sense of individuality that has made the US the crucible of self-determination that is envied the world over.  Even if you didn’t stand a very good chance of increasing your personal tax exemption with charitable donations of cars and trucks, creating a future population base that is fully contributing to the national economy is useful to everyone.

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Technorati Tags: charitable donations, Local Car Donations

Tags: charitable donations, Local Car Donations

Just about everyone who is moved to donate to charity, whether in the form of a vehicle, other non-cash goods or plain ‘ol money, wants to be sure their gift goes to the best possible use.  One way to make sure that happens is to actually become involved in your chosen charity.  In most cases, that’s best done on the local level.

Such opportunities can also be a good social outlet for those who don’t otherwise get out much or are sick of meeting all the same old people.  Volunteerism is one of the best ways for those without a lot of extra money or stuff lying about to donate to charity without breaking the bank.  In essence, the thing you are best able to donate is that you have extra of.

Many people have more than plenty of extra stuff, whereas they don’t often think of themselves as having any “extra” money.  It is on this premise that the Goodwill and Salvation Army (among many others) began taking donations of non-cash goods from the start – creating their now-famous thrift stores.  Since the Goodwill organization came up with the idea of taking old cars in the 1960s, it has caught on.

It should be noted that many of the advertisements you see are actually put up by for-profit agents of otherwise legitimate charitable organizations.  When you donate to a charity that employs such an organization, you may only donate a fraction of the car’s real value to your charity.  It is in everyone’s best interest that you keep your business with charities as direct as possible, and that means localism, too.

This, of course, isn’t good for local causes.  Therefore, perhaps the easiest way to make sure the vehicle or goods you donate to charity are actually used for that purpose is to find out, before you donate, just what sort of use they intend to put your old auto to.  Ideally, it would be fixed up a bit and donated to a needy individual or family who are in grave need of transportation.

One thing common to many ads imploring you to take just about any vehicle you own (regardless of the shape) and donate it to charity, is that there actually is a great need for transportation among the working poor.  Often the least expensive rents, or places that don’t require first and last month’s rent saved up, are often found well outside the metro boundaries.  Conversely, many of the manufacturing job and other entry-level work has moved out to where it’s cheap to build a “big box” store – namely, the outer ring suburbs of larger cities.

Of course, there are always people in rural communities that can use any good quality car that you can donate to charity  Though fewer than half in the US live outside urban areas, that still means several million people are working (and often commuting to) rural America.

That means that the donation of real cars to people who need to drive them is paramount, no matter where you live.  Though national services that operate large public campaigns, encourage people to donate to charity, unless your charity is truly local, you don’t know what’s going to happen to your car or the charity of your choice.

It is your right and duty to check and see where the car is going and to what use it will be put.  If the organization with which you organize the pick up and/or sale with is a third-party agent (almost always operated for profit), you may need to keep looking for a charitable organization in your local community that is not focused on selling your vehicle as soon as it’s donated to charity.

Though this may require a bit of calling around, there is very likely a local organization that can arrange the gift of a running car to someone who needs it.  Counties without large cities often conduct their own pickup and donation service.  Your state Attorney General’s Office should have a list of charitable organizations registered in the state as well as a list of organizations that are authorized to conduct the necessary filings when your car is donated to charity

Don’t forget that the local high school and police departments may also benefit when you decide your car is ready to be donated to charity  Call around or look online for IRS registered non-profit organizations (NPOs) if you’re not sure who is accepting cars for donation in your area.

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Technorati Tags: donate to charity

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