30OctHow to Lose a Loyal Car Donor and Charity Supporter, Forever

Here’s how to get rid of even your most devoted car donor: under-value his car donation.
That’s right: Sell that vehicle he or she donated to charity for less than it is worth.

Giving a car to charity as a gift

His tax deduction will plummet along with his donated cars’ sale price. He’ll wonder why you didn’t care enough about his gift to give it the attention it needed to sell somewhere near fair market value. He’ll think twice, maybe three times, before donating another vehicle to your charity. And what will his negative experience imply about the rest of your charity? Will he lose faith in that too? What will he tell his friends and neighbors about your charity?

To see donors’ vehicles getting less than their fair share of attention drives me crazy.

One of the most important services that car donation fundraisers offer is automotive expertise. We also need to have marketing and fund-raising expertise. It’s all part of the package, and I’d say that any vehicle donation fundraiser who doesn’t have expertise in the automotive industry is not a good bet.

How are you going to know you’re under-valuing a vehicle if you don’t screen it, see it and know its value to begin with?

Automotive vehicles of all kinds are a passion here. So is getting the most return on every donated vehicle. As any non-profit executive will tell you, finding new car donors is a tough job.

Losing them is easy.

– Tim Finnigan