21NovA Radical Idea for Car Donation Fundraising

Here’s how to get the most from every car donation to your charity: tell your car donors to sell their vehicles themselves, and then donate 100 percent of the proceeds to your charity.

Radical idea? Especially coming from someone who runs a car donation consulting firm? I’ve been told that it is. I’ve also told donors about this radical idea when they’ve asked me how to get the absolute most for their causes.

Unfortunately, most car donors tell me it’s just not feasible for them to sell and process their own donation; most don’t have the time to wait by the phone, the expertise to get their car ready for sale, or enough clear knowledge of the car’s value.

Still, owner sales would be the road to the highest possible proceeds for a charity, everything else being equal.

No fundraiser, whether they’re working within a charity or as a car donation fundraising consultant such as myself, can match a 100 percent donation. In-house fundraisers have overhead – direct costs such as salary and indirect costs, office and maintenance budgets.

Consultants have similar overhead. These costs are ours to bear as they are in any business or non-profit organization, and this is as it should be.

My thought for the day is: beware of any consultant who tries to pass his overhead fees on to you.

Working and Fundraising Together

Our job is to work together – you, the charity organization and me, the consultant – to get the most return for a car donation. This helps your charity, and it keeps your donors happy and loyal to your cause. We’ll never be as perfect as 100 percent, but your charity should be getting the lion’s share of all funds raised.

- Tim Finnigan