How to Find Charities for Selling Donation Cars

Charities that accept donated cars can use for-profit companies to do the towing and selling.

Many charities work with businesses to accept car donations. Companies interested in working with charities can make money by setting up an organization for towing and selling donation cars. The companies sell the cars or car parts and forward the money to the charity. Interested companies should learn how to find charities for car donations. They can then solicit the public for car donations and sell the cars for participating charities.

Things You'll Need

• Internet access
• Telephone

Instructions

1. Find charities that already accept donated cars with the Donate Car USA database (find a link in References). You will have to contact the charities individually to see if they will work with other sellers of donation cars. Click on the states to see charities by state. You can see the link to the charity websites when you click the link for each charity. Get the contact information from the websites of each charity.

2. Use the Charitable Auto Resources charity list to find more potential charities for your donation business (find a link in References). These charities also participate in car donations and may allow you to sell donated cars on their behalf. Click on individual charities to find the charity website link on the next page. Visit the websites and compile a contact list for soliciting the charities.

3. Register a free account with GuideStar. This site maintains a charity database of over 1.8 million charities recognized by the Internal Revenue Service as tax-exempt nonprofit organizations. You must register to see the contact information for the nonprofits.

4. Use the GuideStar search engine to find nonprofit charities and their contact information. Enter any city or state to find nonprofits in that area. Alternatively, use an organization name that you know to find local chapters of popular charities. For example, organizations like the Red Cross have hundreds of chapters throughout the United States that may show an interest in allowing you to sell donated cars on their behalf. You can get the contact information in each charity listing.

5. Use the contact information for the charities to find organizations that have an interest in setting up a deal to accept car donations. You may send a letter, but calling on the telephone may get more attention than a letter.

Tips & Warnings

• Visit the director of local popular charities like the Boys Club to negotiate a car-donation deal. Paying a personal visit instead of just calling can increase your chances of developing a positive relationship and gaining trust with the charities.

• Ensure that the charities you work with have Internal Revenue Service recognition as a nonprofit. Donations to some companies may not qualify for a tax deduction, which would make it more difficult to find car donors.

• Some charities do not accept car donations. You may also need to give most of the proceeds to charity minus your expenses. Charities generally want the majority of proceeds from sales of donation cars to go to the charity.

• You may need a state car dealer's license to sell the donated cars. Most states require a license even for junk or wholesale car dealers.

References

• Donate Car USA: List of Charities Accepting Car Donations
• Charitable Auto Resources: Charity Database for Car Donations
• GuideStar: Account Registration
• GuideStar: Charity Search Engine