Charity Development Fundraising Blog

Change always begins with the first step taken, and that’s what my next several blogs are all about: taking the first step to making essential changes in the car donation industry.

Why? Because it’s time. It’s been over five years since the November, 2003, federal General Accounting Office (GAO) Report on Vehicle Donations focused on possible taxpayer abuse — and focused the public’s attention on how little of the proceeds from their car donations were actually landing in the hands of charities. It’s also been over five years since the Grassley Bill passed, revising car donation tax deduction law.

However, though the rules changed and the public’s respect for the car donation industry declined, most car donation businesses in the industry did not change; in fact, you can surf the Internet today and find a whole new proliferation of vehicle donation companies using the age-old tactics of “net proceeds” and percentages to steer dollars away from charities and into their own pockets.

Transparency in Car Donations

The public deserves better than what it’s getting from many in the car donation sector. It deserves an industry that works within established guidelines, one that can be trusted to be fair and committed to the dual goal of car donations: getting donated dollars into the hands of charities and tax deductions for the donors.

The Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) has drawn up a Code of Ethical Principles and Standards that applies to the car donation fundraising professional, too, with one exception, percentages, which I’ll get into in a later blog. (In brief: Car donation percentages work out better for charities than flat rates.)

I’ll be tackling the task of bringing problems out into the open, not just to air dirty laundry or to point fingers, but to seek solutions and open the windows to industry-wide transparency.

I welcome your collaboration along the way. In the end, I hope we’ll have our own guidelines that we can all agree to and that will honor the public’s trust.

– The only way to change an industry is by example
Tim

The public is aware that Toys R Us and other large corporations diligently protect their names against copy-cats and ID theft. The reason’s obvious: copycats and thieves cash in on the brand recognition, good name and national marketing done by these large corporations.

ID thieves try to steal the good name of well-known charities in the same way. It doesn’t get talked about much, but large, successful charities – those with both brand value and brand recognition – are often victims of attempted ID theft.

Charity Donors Being Deceived

ID thieves dupe consumers with variations on a good name; imagine the consumer’s confusion when approached to donate to the U.S. of  Red Cross (NOT the American Red Cross) or to look-alike names such as Cars for Causes, impersonating as Cars 4 Causes®.

We Take Legal Action

We in the charity realm protect our good names as diligently as do major corporations.

This often seems to come as a surprise to the thieves using the Cars 4 Causes name to drive donors to their Internet donation forms, and they seem surprised when we discover them. We usually do! Either a car donor calls to complain about shoddy service, mistakenly thinking Cars 4 Causes is the organization they donated to (Imagine their disappointment when they discover they’ve donated to some imposters!), or we see a series of bogus Internet links misleading trusting donors.

We Pursue ID Thieves

We’ve built our brands through marketing, creating our reputations and building well-deserved trust amongst charitable donors and organizations. So, we in the charity realm are getting the word out: we pursue ID thieves. We send 20-day cease-and-desist letters and we pursue violators in court. As a consultant for Cars 4 Causes, I’ve helped to pursue a China-based company using the Cars 4 Causes name, as well as other ID thieves here in the U.S.

We’re serious about protecting our good name. Car donors trust us; charities trust us; we follow through on our promises.

Charity Development Answers Questions

Car donations have the potential to be a win-win-win situation, a win for the donors, a win for the charity they donate to, and a win for the community. Sometimes they are exactly this. But too often, the value of a car donation is dissipated on its road to charity.

And this is what I want to talk about in this Charity Development blog. Where do some of these car donations go astray? And can we find a way as a fundraising community to make sure car donations achieve their purpose?

Let me first say that the over-riding purpose for car donations, in my opinion, is to raise money for charities. Period. That is why we’re in this business of collecting car donations and taking on the responsibility of finding the most effective way to sell the vehicles; it’s all about raising money for our charities.

Car donor Benefits

As a side benefit, vehicle donations also serve the interests of car donors. Think about why an individual donates a car in the first place. In my experience, I’ve found that most donors have a deep interest in the charity they donate their vehicle to, and the more valuable the vehicle, the more sincere interest they have in that charity.

It’s true that car donors get a nice tax write-off for their charitable giving. That’s a motivating force, too, to turn the car over instead of selling it at the nearest used car lot. The Grassley Bill that limits deductions and the current legislation under discussion notwithstanding, car donors do expect to benefit from their donations.

Community Benefits

When the system’s working right, we all as a community benefit, too. Here’s my thinking on that: when we as private citizens contribute to the work of our charities – feeding and sheltering the homeless, mentoring our youth, funding disease research, and more – then government funds are free to go to other community requirements, for everything from education to maintaining highways. We all benefit from a government running under a healthy budget.

Fundraising System

So, what does all this have to do with the car donation fundraising professionals that keep the system going? Lots. It’s up to us to make fundamental changes in the standard operating procedures of the car donation system. We need to educate charities on how to get the best value for their car donations. We need to create a transparent system, so charities can make informed choices.

And that’s what you’ll find in this blog: discussion for informed choice.

— Tim Finnigan