Hundreds of charities have begun to adopt car donation programs as a way to raise funds or to provide themselves with no-cost vehicles to help operate their programs. But rather than managing the car donation programs themselves, they will often turn to fundraising organizations to actually handle the donation and auctioning of the vehicles. And that policy can mean a problem for you.
If you run an Internet search on car donation programs, you will get hundreds of hits from fundraisers who claim that they will let you choose from among a group of charities to which the proceeds of your cars sale, of not the car itself, will go. And they will give you the paperwork you need to claim your car donation as a charitable deduction on your IRS return.
Taking Advice From The IRS
But the IRS itself, in recent years, has become alarmed at the proliferation of car donation programs run by fundraisers which end up keeping the bulk of the proceeds they receive for donated cars. The IRS recommends that it you are considering any of the car donation programs, you contact the people running it and get a clear answer as to whether they are charity officials, or private...