March 26, 1998 | Read Time: 4 minutes
Many people who donate cars to charity are surprised to learn that the vehicles are usually sold to dealers rather than given to people who need them. But several charities do solicit car donations not merely to raise money but also to help needy people reach the next rung on the ladder toward social and economic stability.
Charity Cars, in Sanford, Fla., has provided scores of refurbished automobiles to people — mostly single mothers — who need the vehicles to find and keep a job. The charity, founded in 1996, spends an average of $1,333 to repair, clean, and register each car and make a down payment on insurance.
The recipients must secure employment within 30 days of acquiring the car. The charity holds a lien on the vehicle for three years to insure that it is not resold.
“We turn heaps into hope,” boasts the charity, whose recipients have included a paraplegic man whose car was modified for him to drive, as well as victims of domestic violence.
“There’s a lot of worthwhile charities, but when these folks get a car it has an immediate, dramatic effect on their lives,” says Brian Menzies, Charity Cars’ president.
Recipients are selected from people suggested by state agencies and private social-service organizations. But the charity will soon be moving to a lottery system, to make the process less subjective.
“We’re very small but on a stratospheric rise,” Mr. Menzies says. The program, which accepted 70 cars last year, expects to handle 300 vehicles this year and have a budget of $500,000. The program has attracted such favorable notice that Mr. Menzies is planning to help organize affiliates in several states and Canadian provinces.
Almost all the charity’s donations now come from individuals. But programs like Charity Cars would really take off, Mr. Menzies says, if auto dealers realized that they could take advantage of a special tax provision that allows them to donate their low-end vehicles to charity and deduct up to twice the cars’ book value as a charitable contribution. In many cases, donating a car would net the company more than if the vehicle were sold at auction, he says.
“The cars that auto dealers send to auctions, which they call junk, is like manna from heaven for us,” says Mr. Menzies, a former homeless person who was himself an auto dealer until he decided last year to focus on Charity Cars full time.
“The auto industry is poised to become the heroes in our national experiment in welfare reform,” he says. “Without successful transportation solutions, we’re not going to have meaningful reform.”
Public transportation is not a feasible option in many rural and suburban areas, he notes, and few people can walk to work any more. “Employers won’t even hire you half the time if you don’t have a car,” Mr. Menzies says. “But with a car, you can look for higher-paying jobs that are not on the bus lines.”
A rural state like Vermont is also a difficult place to be a pedestrian. But a charity in Burlington provides donated vehicles to help improve the lives of some of the state’s neediest people — enabling them to commute to a job, go shopping, obtain day care, or visit the doctor.
The Good News Garage has given more than 100 donated cars to poor people while charging them only for the cost of repairing and refurbishing them — on average, $400 to $800 per vehicle.
The garage, founded three years ago as a way to offer affordable car repairs to people with little spare cash for such services, now receives four or five vehicles a week.
“We get people into safe, reliable transportation for very little money,” says Hal Colston, who directs the program, which is run by Lutheran Social Services of New England.
Cars in serviceable condition are offered to program participants, while luxury vehicles are sold and the proceeds used to support the program’s $217,000 annual budget.
The cars are making a big difference in the lives of their new owners, Mr. Colston says.
“I released a car for $388 that will allow a woman to get out to job interviews and other things that are really critical,” he says. “Otherwise, she would have taken her $500 and bought a junk car from a sleazy dealer that would have been back in the shop in a week.”
