important discussion we all need to have

we are all painfully aware of the donate your car adds, it is now to the point I hear at least 10 a day, with several different "cherities" sponsoring these programs. The truth is the cherities DON'T sponsor any of them, or at leas none I have been able to find. I have done a little investigation on my own, and have found some disturbing info, but we all need to dig into this, i cant do it all on my own.

yester day I heard 3 different adds, now also including house hold appliences, which Im sure actually includes all scrap once they get to the donator.

here is the rub. many of these are franchises. in it self a brilliant Idea, if it wasent perpitrating fraud in the process. I have talked to 3 different cherities who are supposed to be the benificiaries in my area. two of them were vagely aware of the program even though they were mentioned in the adds as the benificiary. I convinced one administrator at one cherity to do sone digging and here is what she found.



the actual money recieved from the donation of a car was as little as $13 some were higher in years past, but administration and other fees from the program provider has grown to the point of eating any donations to the cherity. the success of the program is due to several factors. huge advertising budgets deducted of course from the receipts to the cherity. the benivalent thinking of those who actually believe most or all of the procieds go to the cherity , and the tax scam. the allowences for tax write off have been in the thousands for a single car, a junk car, in many cases the allowence was based on car lot prices. and heres another shocker, half or more of those donating wernt even in a tax bracket and paid no tax there fore a worthless value.

here is what i see as a probable senario. those with full pockets and empty morals, will, as scrap prices continue to rise, jump into this scam with both feet and will include all scrap. what will happen is just like wal mart moving into the outskirts of a small community, with in a year or so the mom and pops are out of business and main street becomes a gost town. we have all seen that happen time after time. it can and will hapen to us if we dont put up some sort of fight. what I need here is discussion of this subject, info on like operations in your area, and Ideas on how to combat it. as these "cherity operations grow larger and larger, they will lobby local, state and u.s. government to pass regulations freezing you and me out.

Originally Posted by Re-cycler

Since most of those creeps lurk these boards for tips......... we should all run CL ads like this.
DON"T DONATE YOUR OLD CAR, SELL IT TO YOUR NEAREST SCRAP DEALER AND DONATE TO THE CHARITY OF YOUR CHOICE. and then go on to break down the scams in whatever way works.
or you flag the hell outa the scammers.
;?)

+1 on that idea, also could drop a call or email to local news stations and see if a investigative reporter(if there is such a thing anymore) needs a story.

Originally Posted by Kris Kringle

I Would bet they operate as a Non Profit Operation. Funny how Non Profit makes no Money huh?

Tough to make money when the executives are making 6 figures.

One way to tell if the site is a legitimate charity is by the website address. A registered charity will usually have an .org designation. Scams will usually be .com or .net

Not all .org(s) are charities. Just one way to start deciding if it might be; if it claims to be a charity.