Archive for the ‘car donations’ tag
It’s Time for Change in the Car Donation Arena
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
