Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Car donating?

So, after getting our new car, we are getting ready to donate our old car. In California this is a way you can donate to charity and at the same time getting a tax reduction on your donation - sort of like a win-win situation (the charity uses your car or sells it and keeps the money – while the donator gets a standard tax reduction of the same amount for which the charity sells it for).

We decided to donate our car rather than selling it through Craig's list of CarMax or through a dealer.

We thought this would be an easy process, but it's turned out more complicated that we would have thought. First of all, we would like to donate to an organization that is real - and give their money to something worthy. We were not picky - could be for unprivileged families, after school programs or any other good cause. After reading numerous websites about car donations, most of the organizations we've found felt shady and had unclear goals or have bad reviews.

In the end we decided to choose the local chapter of Make-a-Wish foundation. They seemed serious and had good reviews in terms of car donations.

They still haven’t picked up the car however… Maybe we just have to give up this car donation and turn to Craig’s list instead…

7 comments:

Ally said...

My parents have donated a few cars and I don't know if they have problems getting people to come pick them up. I did hear on NPR that many volunteer organizations were having trouble getting people to show up since gas prices are high. They might be up to their ears in work if gas prices have scared some of their volunteers away. Just a guess . . .

Hope you're feeling better.

JaCal said...

Ally - yes, that could sure be a reason. We said we would have no problem to drive the car to the drop off/collection point - it's still running - but for some reason they declined and said they would rather tow it. Seems we've just run in to bad luck in the process... I am feeling a bit better finally...

Anne said...

Uppdaterar mig lite här... Grattis till nya vrålåket, supercool färg också!!! Det måste vara helt underbart med en så stor bil, vad lyxigt. Plats med ungar och grejer utan att alla sitter som packade sillar. Vad skönt bilköpet är ur världen nu, det tar ju som sagt på krafterna lägga tid och kraft på sånt.
Jag har aldrig hört talas om att donera bilar, så det var intressant. Vad generösa ni är, verkligen generösa. Pluspoäng till er.
Haha, vi var så snikna och i behov av alla pengar vi kunde få så jag tänkte inte ens på man skulle kunna gjort annorlunda. Men vi behövde ha ut de få dollar vi kunde få för vår gamla bil (vi bytte in den).
Men intressant det finns möjligheter att donera bilar, helt ny information för mig.

Aaron Wheeler said...

Definitely give it to NPR if you can't give it to Make a Wish. NPR makes America smarter, to a degree, and that can't be bad.

JaCal said...

Anne - tack! Vi är väldigt nöjda - det är extremt praktiskt med barnen - och när vi har familj och vänner här - nu kommer vi kunna använda bara en bil och inte två när vi åker runt! Jo, car donating är ganska stort här i Californien. Vi var också ganska lata - vi orkade inte trimmar och fixa för inbyte/sälja - och det känns bra att donera - så så fick det bli.

Aaron - thanks for the tip - didn't know NRP took car donations. Make A Wish will pick up the car on Monday.

Anna, Fair and True said...

Vilken bra grej! Hoppas de hämtar upp den snart!

JaCal said...

Anna - japp - idag kommer de och hämtar den!