Donate car to charity California is a very simple task. Hundreds of charity organizations are willing to receive your car. Vehicle donation is one of the most convenient ways to get rid of an unused car. Besides, it always feels good to help people in need (or in this case, nonprofit organizations in need).
As you know, nonprofit organizations usually have their ways to help the community. Some focus on women and children, others focus on human rights, and other focuses on the disabled, etc. Therefore, you are indirectly helping these people to do good stuff for the community.
How to Donate Car to Charity California
Below is some guide for everyone in California who are considering to donate their vehicle:
- Make a list of possible charity organization
Giving away your car is practically the easy part. It is actually harder to find the worthy charity organization that spend the resources they got wisely and for the right purposes. Therefore, the first step is to look for a charity with a meaningful purpose, just like we’ve mentioned above. Whether it is for religious causes, helping the poor, for animal-related causes, etc.
- Tax deductible information
The next important information to gain is whether the donation given to the charity can be tax-deducted or not. You can confirm this by asking if the charity is registered as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in the IRS list. Simply call them and ask or you can also visit the nonprofit organization yourself to really see how they work.
- Ensure You Can Donate Your Car
It is also wise to ask them if they can handle such type of donation, because taking a used car can require a bit of an effort. It is best to leave all the technicalities to the charity because you obviously want a speedy and simple process. The charity that accept car donation usually works together with local towing company.
- Narrow down your option
Now the last step would be narrowing down the list of option you have. By this time, you should have no more than 10 charities organization on your list. To narrow it even further, you can see their financial profile of the charity organization through tax fillings on Guidestar and also see their Charity navigator rating.
- Tax deduction process
Tax deduction process is pretty simple and is usually handled by the organization. What you need to know is how much your car worth, and how much does the tax-deductible you can get. There’s no pinpoint answer to this, because the price of the car really depends on several things. The deduction is typically based on the fair market value minus the price of fixing the car (if broken). The organization might also fix and then sell the car in an offline or online auction, which sometimes provide better results.
Donating Car to Charity in California – The Process
After you made your mind on which charity you will give your car donation to, simply call them and inform that you are interested in making a car donation. After one or two days they will call you back and give you the stock number for your donation and ask you the convenient time to pick up the car.
After the towing company picks the car up, they will give you a tax-deductible receipt. After a while, they will send your tax-deductible information (typically after they have sold your car).
Last but not least, please refer to our reference section below for the list of charities/nonprofits organization in California area that might suit your purpose! Always follow our tips above and you should have a wonderful car donation to charity in California!
References:
- Donate a Car in California – “The Golden State”
- Image: carsdonation.net
