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!