Learning How to Donate my Car

Donating items like money or clothing is very simple, but there are no drop boxes for car donations. There is a slightly more involved procedure when donating these large items, but car charities try to make the process as easy as possible. Read on to learn the answer to the question: how do I donate my car?

How do I know if my vehicle can be donated?

To donate a vehicle, you need to be in possession of a vehicle that you no longer need. The good news is that your car donation does not need to be in good condition. Many car donation charities will take any car even if it does not run, or runs poorly. This means that even an old vehicle that to you seems worthless can still be used to help a charity.

Policies can vary for different vehicle donation charities, but many of them accept all types of vehicle donations including cars, trucks, vans, motorcycles, boats, RVs, go-karts, ATVs, farm equipment, snow mobiles, golf karts, jet skis and more. Contact local vehicle donation charities to learn if they accept the type of vehicle that you have to donate. Be aware that while cars, trucks, and vans are usually accepted in any condition, vehicle donation charities are often more discerning when in comes to other types of vehicles that they take in. They are not a service for disposing of vehicles, and will decline any vehicles that cannot be sold.

How do I donate my car?

Many car donation charities have an online form for donating vehicles. It will usually ask for your personal information such as name, address, and phone number. Your car donation charity will also need some information about the vehicle donation such as the year, make, model, VIN, and some details about the condition of the vehicle. Once you have submitted the form, the car donation charity will contact you to set up a time and place for them to collect the vehicle. Nearly all car donation charities offer free towing. Schedule your vehicle pickup for a time when you will be able to hand over the title and receive a receipt for your car donation. Keep this receipt in a safe place because it serves as proof of your car donation. You can get your car donation started at http://www.rawhide.org/. 

What else do I need to know about car donation?

There are a few things that you will want to do before you donate your car to charity:

• Remove personal items: It is unlikely that you will be able to retrieve anything left in the vehicle.
• Remove license plates: Some states require that you return license plates to the DMV.
• Cancel insurance on the vehicle: Because you will no longer be in possession of the vehicle, you no longer need to pay to have it insured.
• Transfer the vehicle’s title: If there is more than one owner listed on the title, both will need to sign. List the name of the car donation charity as the buyer on the title - do not leave this line blank. Make a copy of the transferred title and keep it for your records.
• After you donate your car to charity you can claim that donation as a tax deduction. The car charity will most likely sell your vehicle and you should receive a document stating the amount within 30 days of the sale.

Hard to Sell Your Boat? Donate Boat to Charity Today!

A lot of people who live in areas like Wisconsin that have a lot of wonderful lakes have fond memories of growing up with a family boat. What could have possibly been more fun than going out on nice weekends for a little bit of fishing, swimming or just cruising around? As an added bonus, kids learned water safety and responsible boating from a very early age!

Unfortunately, even great memories like these can have less-than-fun moments, too. 

What happens when it comes time to sell that used boat? Maybe your family is moving to an area without any lakes. Maybe it is just too expensive to insure and too much work to maintain. Or, maybe you love boating so much you have purchased a brand new, state-of-the-art watercraft. 

Any of these scenarios leave you with a used boat that will continue to cost you time and money until you can find it a new - and better - home. There is an old saying that there is really no worse investment, financially speaking, than a boat. When it comes time to sell your boat, it is likely you will find out this is true.

Donate Boat Instead of Selling It

Once you have gotten over the disappointment of how little your beloved old boat is worth in a private sale, you may start to look for other ways to be rid of the extra responsibility for it while still giving it an honorable purpose. The perfect solution? Donate boat to charity!

Today, many charitable organizations are in trouble because they have very few private donors on top of recently having had their governmental funds significantly cut. 

This is the perfect time to realize your dream of being a philanthropist in your community by making a boat donation (http://www.rawhide.org/boat-donation/) to a worthy organization. Charities with missions that benefit various needy populations are able to receive "in-kind" donations in lieu of cash, and you (the donor) can take a hefty tax deduction at the end of the year. Sometimes, the deduction is as much or more than you might have realized in the private sale of the boat, especially once you figure in the costs of making that sale in the first place.

Donating your boat to a deserving charity is probably much easier than you think.

• A simple search of the internet ("where to donate my boat", "boat donation near me") will help you find charities in your area that accept donations of all types of used vehicles, including boats. There is sure to be one with a mission that speaks to your sense of fairness and social responsibility, even if it might take some scrolling.
• Check with the charitable organization you like best in order to make sure they can make the donation process as seamless as possible. They should be willing to pick up the boat at no cost to you, and should also provide you with a letter you can use to support an end-of-year, federal income tax deduction. In short, these charities want to make the process of making boat donations (and car donations, too) as simple as possible in order to encourage people to donate once - and then to repeat the process in the future, or to encourage others to do the same.
• Look on an Internal Revenue Center website with a .gov extension to determine how much you might be able to claim as your itemized deduction, as well as on sites like the Better Business Bureau or review sites to get an idea of what the charity you have chosen is truly like. 

Don't wait! Donate boat today!

The Third Option for Your Outdated Vehicle - Car Donation Milwaukee

One of the biggest purchasing decisions a person can make in life is which vehicle to buy. Being such a major (but necessary) decision, it is no wonder that owners get attached. Whether it was bought old or new, the longer you have it, the more rundown the car is going to be. As problems start to occur and the gas mileage dwindles, the time for another important decision arises: whether or not to keep that aging hatchback.

Cars and trucks are not built to last. With proper care and maintenance, you can keep an old junker running for quite some time, but all the moving parts do mean that at some point, they will need replacing. A complete engine overhaul can be the savior of an older vehicle but sometimes it can be similar in cost to purchasing a new vehicle. Often, the idea is not worth the effort for owners. If you decide to sell the car with existing problems - or a history of fixed ones - you will find that you will not get back what you're expecting. Unless it is some custom-made or special edition, you are going to have to look at it as an annual expense.

The other option is to keep your car or truck and replace parts as needed. Those so mechanically inclined have a lot better chance of not spending a small fortune on repairs, and may have the luck of a longer running vehicle. For the rest of us, the choice to sell, or run until it dies is best. If kept, the downfall is that eventually, you will be looking at a lawn ornament without and other value.

A car donation Milwaukee provides a third option for those not wanting to take a hit selling, or those that have already realized that they should not have gone with the second choice. When you decide to work with a charity to donate car Milwaukee, you do not only get the most money back, you are also helping a local family in need - as well as the charity itself.

The Reason People Choose Car Donation Milwaukee

Car donation charities (https://www.rawhide.org)are a unique way to help the community while also providing a solution to a much-needed problem. Most people have at some point in their lives ended up with an older vehicle. Usually, it is passed down through the family to be used as a "first car" or shipped away for a couple of hundred dollars. Car charities take advantage of their ability to receive older vehicles on the cheap and use volunteers and organization-specific mechanics to fix them up. This is useful for someone not fortunate enough to be able to afford one off the lot.

If the vehicle is in disrepair and the cost to fix it is more for the owner than the car is worth, but the charity mechanics can bring it back to working order with a few hours of labor, then they will either resell the repaired vehicle for profit or give it away. The funds from these sales go towards donations and supplies, and back into paying employees and providing services. If the car is in complete disrepair, they will sell it for parts or scrap, which still raises money. Because charities have the means of vehicle turnaround, they usually will come and pick up your vehicle for free too as long as you have a title in hand. If this isn't necessary, a free drop off location will be arranged.

Donating your car does not simply benefit you though, in terms of convenience. By working with a car donation charity Milwaukee, you can get a tax break as well. At the turnover of the vehicle, the company will write you a receipt for the amount the vehicle is worth at the time of donation. Although it may not seem like a large amount, this receipt can be used as a tax write off. This means a deduction from the amount of income you made along with a possible move into a lower tax bracket. What was once something that may have cost you money to get rid of now becomes a small source of income - and that's a win!