DONATE OLDER CARS -- HELP OLDER CLIENTS
Senior Hotline's new program cuts out the 
for-profit middlemen

The Senior Legal Hotline has inaugurated a used vehicle donation program to create another way supporters can help out. Anyone with a car, RV, boat, etc. can receive a tax deduction for its retail value and benefit callers to the hotline, which provides free advice and brief services to seniors all over California.

Just call (916) 551-2145 or e-mail and we will assist you!

You may have noticed, as we did before undertaking this program, the mushrooming number of pitches on radio, TV and in the print media for car donations that supposedly benefit "orphans," "veterans" or other sympathy-inducing groups. You may also have noticed some news stories about how little of the proceeds can actually go to charity -- and how dubious some of the recipient "charities" are.

One of our volunteers conducted extensive research into vehicle donations last year before we decided to go ahead with our own program. He contacted a number of other organizations that take donations, heard pitches from commercial middlemen and talked with the Secretary of State's Office.

We found that these abuses are real, in many cases, occurring when shady operators collect donations for sham "charities" and/or when the lead role in soliciting for and handling donations is taken by commercial, for-profit outfits.

Some legitimate nonprofits do work with the commercial middlemen, we discovered, because their aggressive advertising can bring lots of donations and because small agencies like ours don't have the staff or the inclination to get involved directly with towing services, auction houses and DMV paperwork. But under such partnerships, the net proceeds (after all expenses) are typically split 50-50 with the for-profit middleman, meaning that only a tiny percentage goes to the nonprofit.

We decided that such an arrangement was not acceptable to us, but neither did we want to get involved in the car sale business ourselves. Fortunately, we found a better route, forming a partnership with another legitimate nonprofit -- Volunteers of America -- that already accepts vehicle donations for itself and a few other nonprofits. We talked to some of them - all real organizations doing good work -- and found them very happy with the arrangement - a split between us (60 percent) and VOA, which uses its share for its well-known work with homeless people and with ex-convicts trying to get their lives together - including many seniors.

So you won't be seeing commercial advertising in which you are implored to "help seniors" by giving your old car to the Senior Legal Hotline. But we ourselves are getting the word out to supporters (and please pass it on to your friends and associates) that if you do have a vehicle you'd like to donate, our clients will benefit and you can receive a tax deduction. Just call our administrative line, (916) 551-2145 or e-mail and we'll take care of it from there.