The Gift That Keeps On Giving: Car Donations
Even in difficult economic times, people still try their best to be as charitable as possible. If you want to make a useful charitable contribution, you should consider donating a car. Many people know that donating a car can save people a couple hundred dollars on their taxes, but car donation is helpful for reasons that go beyond taxes.
Useful Charity
When you make a donation, you want to be sure that whatever you’re giving away will be put to good use by the organization. Most organizations will ask for monetary donations before they ask for anything else, but a car donation would be useful for almost every useful organization. You could be providing volunteers and workers a vehicle so they can get to work. You could be helping a person in need get a car so they can finally travel and find steady work.
Save Money
Selling an old car can be a long and occasionally unrewarding task. Your car starts to lose value as soon as your drive it off the lot, so you shouldn’t expect to make much money off of selling your used car (even if it’s new and in good condition). If you donate your car to charitable cause you’ll be able to get a considerable tax write off for it, and in the end that write off could be more profitable than what you would have gotten selling it.
Donating your car could be the better financial option if you have a vehicle that needs repairs. If you have a used car that needs any kind of repair work done, you’ll probably be obligated to pay to have the problems fixed before you can officially sell it someone else. Most charities will gladly take the car as is and deal with the repair work on their own. You won’t have to worry about spending money to make repairs, and you’ll still be able to have a money saving tax write off.
Eco-Friendly Charity
When you think about charitable environmentally friendly actions, donating a car doesn’t probably spring to mind. But donating your car to a charity could be one of the most eco-friendly donations you make this year. Your car donation could mean that one less car has to be manufactured. That could save some of the precious resources needed to build a new automobile. Think of all the energy that won’t be used in the manufacturing process, the raw materials that won’t be harvested to make new vehicles, and the pollution that won’t be a byproduct of car production.
Jesse Dugan is a part of an elite team of writers who have contributed to hundreds of blogs and news sites. Follow him @JesseDugan.