Car Donation Center's Services to Charities

Car Donation Program Overview - Why do one?

A car donation program can be an easy and effective way for your charity to raise funds. The Vehicle Donation Processing Center, Inc. will administer a car donation program for your organization without risk, effort, or advancing a dime. Simply call 800-553-3018, or email charityservices@donatecarusa.com, and we do everything to put your non-profit into car donation fundraising. Now your group can utilize the best non-profit funding technique in decades without expending valuable staff time dealing with the logistics of receiving thousands of car donation phone inquiries, donate car pick up and sale, or risking the up-front cost of advertising for a donate car campaign.

We handle everything in the car donation program for the non-profit just like we do for the car donor. You might just be amazed with the results of a car donation program. People who have never donated cash to your organization before can choose to donate a car because of all the vehicle donation benefits to them, as well as the resulting cash flow to your organization. Vehicle donation participants benefit in three important ways:

  1. No time consuming problems selling a car, truck, van or other suitable property.
  2. The car donation program, an unwanted vehicle is picked up by a professional auto donation transportation company and delivered directly to a charity car auction.
  3. The particular car donated is quickly sold to the highest bidder. Itemizing donors may also deduct the fair market value of their vehicle donation on their taxes. The process couldn't be easier for donating a car or the participating car donation charity.

Car Donation Program Overview - Why Work With Us?

It is most likely that your organization already has prospective contributors who would rather donate a car to your group. So if you are considering embarking on a vehicle donation program for your 501-C3 non-profit organization, whether through the Vehicle Donation Center, one of our competitors, or you may choose to operate the program with all your own personnel, you might wish to remember that there are most likely a good number of people who are already familiar with your organization and they would rather donate a car to you if they are aware that you accept car donations. If they don't know your group could use their donated car they may respond to a vehicle donation advertisement from another car donation group at any time.

After many years experience, we at the Vehicle Donation Processing Center still find that many car donation decisions are made very quickly. An individual becomes a prospective auto donation candidate often because of a sudden change in the condition of the particular car, or a family or employment change. These things can happen quickly and if your supporters are unaware that your group provides a car donation services in your area they just may see some other group's vehicle donation ad and not think until later that they should have called you.

So consider giving your supporters the opportunity to help themselves while funding your important work through car donations. If you plan to operate a donate car program with all your own personnel - more power to you - there are certainly reasons for that kind of a decision for your vehicle donation program. However, if you would like to hear more about some of the conveniences and advantages in working with a highly experienced and technically qualified car donation processor (not to mention assurances that your group can not lose money in operating a vehicle donation program) then call the Vehicle Donation Processing Center, Inc. at 800-553-3018 or send an email to charityservices@donatecarusa.com. The Vehicle Donation Processing Center, Inc. is managed and operated by a skilled team with many years experience proudly serving dozens of charities in the operation of car donation, boat donation and real estate donation programs.

Car Donation Programs Create a Win-Win

Itemizing vehicle donation taxpayers receive a fair-market value tax deduction for their car donation. Auto donors also get the satisfaction of knowing they helped their favorite cause in a big way by donating a car. With a car donation program everyone comes out a winner. Car donation participants are able to get rid of an unwanted vehicle and support a good cause. The folks who buy a donated car at vehicle donation auctions are able to find a donated car that might have otherwise been junked. And charities are able to develop a valuable new revenue source from their vehicle donations.

Along with car donations the Vehicle Donation Processing Center offers our same full service processing for folks who donate trucks, donate vans, donate lots, donate real estate, donate RV's, and even donate airplanes!

Taking the Calls From Donors, Screening the Cars -- It's All Scripted...

The Vehicle Donation Processing Center takes car donation telephone calls on an 800 number that is specifically assigned for your organization's vehicle donation program. Your organization doesn't have to train anyone or devote any staff time to the auto donation task. We have a careful car donation screening process and a highly experienced auto donation program staff to do everything possible to make sure that each car donation pledged to your organization will sell for a high enough cost to cover the expenses of your vehicle donation program (auto donation transportation fees, car donation auction fees, etc.). Virtually all aspects of the vehicle donation program staff's remarks to car donation prospects are scripted to assure that your organization, as well as the Vehicle Donation Processing Center, is protected from the chance of a misunderstanding that could possibly create a disgruntled contributor who may call us about an auto donation on your behalf.


After ascertaining that the prospective car donation is financially and logistically suitable for your vehicle donation program we have the vehicle donation picked up and towed to the car donation auction site for immediate liquidation. Auto donation transportation companies are carefully screened, trained, and supervised by the charity car auctions and by the Vehicle Donation Center. This is very important because the charity car transport company employee is the individual who will actually meet your car donation contributor in person when she or he picks up the car donation and the transfer paperwork. We're certainly not saying that one of our transportation operators has never made a mistake, but we can promise all our car donation charity clients that the Vehicle Donation Center devotes the utmost in attention to detail regarding the transportation of your vital car donations.

Handling the DMV Paperwork -- Correctly and Forever!

We handle all the confusing Motor Vehicle Department forms for title transfer for all cars donated to you through your vehicle donation program. The Vehicle Donation Processing Center, Inc. keeps all this car donation paperwork permanently on computer with off-site back up. The Vehicle Donation Center requires that all charity car auctions that may sell vehicles donated to your vehicle donation program keep complete records of each donated auto. The auction also properly arranges to process your auto donation through the DMV when sold to a buyer. If a car donation directed to your organization's vehicle donation program was subsequently sold to an irresponsible party who got a parking ticket and failed to pay that ticket the car donation service department at the Vehicle Donation Processing Center would in a short time (generally), be able to bring up the information on the party who bought your charity's car donation.

What If There Is a Problem After The Car Donation Is Sold?

Your auto donation charitable contributor simply informs the Vehicle Donation Center that she or he has received a ticket notice and our auto donation service department contacts the agency that issued the ticket and gives them the information on the new, true owner of the donated car that got the ticket. Believe it or not, sometimes those agencies that administer parking tickets can be obtuse and hard to deal with! The car donation service folks at the Vehicle Donation Center WILL NOT be stumped by recalcitrant bureaucrats. You and your donor are 100% indemnified against any possible problem by the Vehicle Donation Processing Center. If in the final analysis bureaucrats stay bratty we fight fire with fire. Richard M. Osborne, Esq. one very persistent attorney-at-law is on monthly retainer with the Vehicle Donation Center and he has a lot of letters of apology from said bureaucrats (let alone copies of some sizable settlement checks on behalf of vehicle donors) on his wall. The Vehicle Donation Center can proudly say that after countless thousands of car donations there has never been a vehicle donor problem that we have failed to rectify, in full, for your auto donation charitable contributor.

Reconditioning Vehicle Donations

Car donations are reconditioned as needed. Major repairs of car donations are rarely advisable in that the gross sales price of the average auto donation to your group will be significantly under four figures. However, putting a battery in a non-running vehicle donation to turn it in to a "runner" is very wise and, in many cases, will bring up the average gross sales price of the car donation by a couple hundred dollars or more. Charity auto auctions that we engage to liquidate all the vehicle donations to your charity are carefully instructed by the Vehicle Donation Center as to what kinds of repairs to make to car donations we process on your behalf.

Advantages Of Selling Donated Cars At Public Auctions

Each vehicle donation is sold utilizing the best technique to maximize the funding potential for your group's vehicle donation program. This 'best technique' for selling your group's car donation will typically be a "public" charity auto auction. A "public" charity car auction is the best way to liquidate an auto donation on your behalf for a number of reasons. The "public" aspect of it means that the general public is encouraged through advertising to attend the charity vehicle auction where auto donations to your group will be sold. The "public," in this case end users of the donated car, will simply pay more for a car sold via your vehicle donation program than will a car dealer.

In arranging the liquidation of a donated car sold through your vehicle donation program by charity car auctions the donation will be sold in the fastest way possible. This means not only getting the auto donation money in your vehicle donation program coffers more quickly, but this quick car donation liquidation technique also avoids the requirement for storage fees and some other incidental auto donation program expenses. When car donations are sold at auction (whether "public" or "dealer only" charity car auctions) your non-profit, your car donation participant, regulatory agencies - everyone - is assured of complete transparency in the operation of your auto donation program. Charity car auctions practice strict accounting procedures. The presence of multiple bidders also insures that your car donation is sold to the highest bidder. (Contrast the Vehicle Donation Processing Center's auto donation protocols to the methodology employed by some of our auto donation processing competitors, where vehicle donations are sold, frequently for cash, in used car lots in a very "un-transparent" -- one salesman/one bidder/buyer -- situations and you begin to understand why we insist on the enforced legitimacy, let alone the speed of car donation liquidation factor, inherent in the charity car auction paradigm).

Monthly Car Donation Statements & Proceeds To Your Non-Profit

Your organization receives a check for 50% of net proceeds of your car donation program at the end of each month for all car donations sold on behalf of your group in the preceding calendar month. Each monthly car donation statement contains detailed accounting on costs, revenues, and basic data on your vehicle donation contributors. Note that vehicle donation gross average sales prices vary by geographic area. While the national average gross sales price of a car donation to a charity is about $400; on the east coast - especially in the north east where rust and lesser availability of "public" charity auto auctions is a bigger factor – the average sale price tends to be significantly less. In the southwest gross average sales prices of car donations run a hundred or two hundred higher than the national average for car donations.

Multiple Indemnifications & Insurance For Your Non-Profit

Your charity is fully indemnified when the Vehicle Donation Processing Center, Inc. acts as your agent in operating a vehicle donation program. This auto donation program indemnification takes several forms. The Vehicle Donation Center has million dollar requirements of any of the charity auto auctions or car donation transportation companies that act on behalf of your organization in helping the Vehicle Donation Center process auto donations. As an additional, fully redundant, measure the Vehicle Donation Center also caries a multi-million dollar nation wide insurance umbrella policy.

As part of the Vehicle Donation Processing Center's agency agreement with our participating non-profits we also indemnify your group against any financial losses in the operation of your vehicle donation program through the Vehicle Donation Center. In plain language, that means that the Vehicle Donation Center cannot guarantee that you will make money, but we surely guarantee that you cannot lose a single dime. Not only does the Vehicle Donation Processing Center, Inc. guarantee that our car donation charities can't lose money in the aggregate, we guarantee that you can't lose any money on a particular car donation that you received through your auto donation program as administered by the Vehicle Donation Center.

Though it may not sound like it at first glance, this "can't lose on any particular car donation" guarantee is a significant benefit to your group in the operation of your vehicle donation program; because the reality is that we lose money on particular cars every day! Try as we might, the Vehicle Donation Center's intake operators (the fine folks in our office who talk to perspective car donation callers) can't be omniscient. Our car donation operators can not know for sure that the Vehicle Donation Center may be unable to sell a particular car donation for more than the fixed costs in transporting that car to the charity auto auction and the auction's charges in liquidating this donated car. Knowing which cars to accept and which to reject is a fine line and another one of the reasons we believe that the auto donation programs we operate for our charities are the best run in the business. To maximize revenues for our car donation charity clients, the Vehicle Donation Center wants to be sure we do not fail to accept as a car donation any car that is likely to yield a profit for our charity clients. Because the gross average sales price of a car donation is just $400 nationally, and because there are significant fixed costs like transportation and auction costs (and pricey variable costs like advertising), we need to be selective in the cars we accept.

Though we may err in making that judgment with particular car donations, we do not feel that such an error on the part of the Vehicle Donation Center should negatively impact our auto donation charity client. No matter how much the Vehicle Donation Center might lose on a particular auto donation that donated car will appear on your non-profit's monthly vehicle donation program statement as "zero" and that particular loss will never be deducted from the other profitable car donations received by your vehicle donation program for that month.

Advertising Your Non-Profit's Vehicle Donation Program -- It's Not Easy

Now let's talk about the Vehicle Donation Processing Center's unique advantage in advertising for a vehicle donation program we would operate on your behalf. Harvard E. "Pete" Palmer, Jr. Vice President and one of the two founders of the Vehicle Donation Processing Center, Inc. has operated a successful advertising agency since the Seventies. In the last ten years Mr. Palmer has become one of the nation's leading authorities on promotion of vehicle donation programs (see Mr. Palmer quoted elsewhere in this website by the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Seattle Times and more). After so many years in the advertising business not only does Pete Palmer Advertising have the expertise to buy car donation advertising more efficiently than others, the agency can provide full advertising service for your charity's vehicle donation program pro bono. There are no agency mark ups for agency service and any ad agency commissions are remitted back to your vehicle donation program. That's the "no mark ups" advertising edge the Vehicle Donation Center brings to your car donation program.

Probably even more significant than ad buying know-how and the years of experience is knowing what car donation advertising NOT to buy. Anybody can just pull out the checkbook and buy big splashy vehicle donation ads on TV or Magazines, but our car donation charity clients would rather have some auto donation money left over to fund their vital programs! Like our experience in knowing which car donations to accept from prospective auto donors, we are not perfect in picking the right place to advertise every time either. However, we can say with some assurance that no other company has more experience buying vehicle donation program advertising and the Vehicle Donation Center backs that up with our "you can never lose a dime" guarantee to our car donation charity clients.

The Vehicle Donation Center -- Not Right For Every Group...

The Vehicle Donation Processing Center vets prospective charity clients by an internal and by external processes and statements on this website should not be read as a guarantee that the Vehicle Donation Processing Center would agree to operate a car donation program for any particular non-profit - prior to coming to a specific written agreement with that non-profit. In that same vein, should the Vehicle Donation Center come to an agreement with a particular charity regarding operating an auto donation program on their behalf that should not be construed as a guarantee that the Vehicle Donation Processing Center would fund any particular advertising campaign for that charity. All advertising for car donations for our vehicle donation charity clients is done by mutual agreement of the non-profit and the Vehicle Donation Processing Center, Inc. and that mutual agreement provision applies to both the creative employed in any particular "donate my car" ad as well as the mutual agreement to place any particular car donation advertising, whether that be a print car donation ad, a broadcast (TV and/or radio) car donation ad, or an internet or other type auto donation solicitation announcement.