Wheels For Meals: How A Car Donation Can Help Feed The Hungry

People care. Well, at least those who value helping others. Unfortunately with the crumbling economy most Americans are probably more worried of where they will be living, and if they can still afford food for themselves before thinking of others. The current financial crisis has elevated the number of impoverished people across the states.

A Basic Need

Food is the most vital need for survival. If you have an old beat up truck parked around the corner why don’t you donate it? A lot of people may benefit from your car donation, not only that, who knows? maybe one of these days it will be you in that free meals line.

The Right Charity

In actuality it depends on the donor where his or her contribution goes. There are a lot of charities out there. If you go online and type car donation in Google you will be inundated with countless charities. Most of them will tell you that donating a vehicle is easy as pie. But hold up for a moment, before you dive into giving old “bertha” away make sure you have all the facts of making a car donation.

Your bequest will only be put into a meals program if the institution you donated it to has this kind of agenda. Do not hesititate to ask the person in charge the kinds of goals the charity have. If you and your chosen charity cannot agree on a specific set of goals, then move on and look for others.

How A Car Donation Becomes A Plate Of Food

The inner workings of a charitable institution is not entirely that complicated. A bequeathed vehicle will either be used by a person carrying out the meals on wheels program, or it could also be auctioned off to raise funds for the food itself. In short one of these days you may see your old car parked a couple of houses down, as a charity worker delivers the meals to someone you may know.

Although some people donate their time and services cooking those meals only a portion of the ingredients are donated. So they need cash to go grocery shopping. Some charity organizations have their own used car lots, most are auctioned publicly, and others use third party- for -profit companies. That is why it is imperative that you inquire how much actually goes to the charity, because then you can actually ask them to use the car (if it’s in good condition) instead of selling it.

The Bonus

It is widely known that a car donation gets donors tax breaks. What most people don’t know is that for the benefaction to qualify for a tax deduction the car donation has to be donated to an IRS qualified charitable institution. Commonly qualified organizations are those that are classified as section 501 institutions such as churches, and education oriented charities. IRS has a complete list of the years’ Cumulative Charitable Organization.

The amount of tax subtraction depends on the current fair price of your car, if it is less than $500. If your car is in relatively good condition, and could amount to more than $500 then, you may be able to get a deduction that is equal to the amount in which in the charity sold the vehicle. Even cars that don’t run can be accepted as long as it looks quite presentable, may be repaired and then sold.