Monday, November 17, 2003
The old Mercury Lynx served well for Joseph and Elaine Nettis of Philadelphia.
But they just don't think it's worth the latest outlay: $650 to replace the carburetor and make other repairs.
So, like many other owners of aging cars, they've been looking at the steady flow of "Donate your car" ads in the newspaper -- a flow that always increases as the tax year draws to an end -- and wondering:
Is donating that old clunker truly such a wonderful win-win deal?
That's certainly how it's portrayed. The charity of your choice gets the car. You get a tax deduction.
Joseph Nettis, a retired photographer, says he and Elaine want to donate the car "to a worthwhile charity." But they don't want to get scammed, even if there's no dollar cost to them.
"None of them specify how much is going to charity," Nettis says. "They all hint that it's going to help, but there's nothing specific."
The Nettises are right to be skeptical. Any donation to an unfamiliar group should be approached carefully, but charity watchdogs have long suggested extra caution when it comes to appeals for cars.
The reason is that some donors do, indeed, let their guard down when they're giving an old car rather than cash. That makes car donation fertile ground for those willing to exploit other people's good intentions.
Does that mean donating your car is a bad idea? Not necessarily.
Checking groups out
A good place to start when considering any contribution is with oversight groups.
The American Institute of Philanthropy publishes an annual Charity Watchdog Report, which shows how about 500 national charities spend your money. For information, call (773) 529-2300 or go to its site (www.charitywatch.org).
Similar reports are available online from the BBB Wise Giving Alliance (www.give.org).
At the Wise Giving site, for example, the Nettises might have learned that one organization appealing for their car, the Childhood Leukemia Foundation, hasn't met the minimal standard of providing information.
"Despite written BBB Wise Giving Alliance requests in the past year, this organization has not provided current information about its finances, programs and governance," the site says.
You'll have to decide whether that makes the foundation a bad bet for your money or your car. Remember that you can always ask a charity for copies of public records (such as its IRS Form 990) and other documents.
But if you want to give to a leukemia-related charity, you might be better off with the National Children's Leukemia Foundation, which met 15 of the alliance's 20 standards, or the Leukemia & amp; Lymphoma Society (formerly the Leukemia Society of America), which meets all of them.
If the charity isn't listed at all, you're not out of luck. A great resource for information is GuideStar (www.guidestar.org), which provides information on close to 1 million groups classified as "public charities."
Service for donors
If your goal is simply to do well while doing good, a new service sponsored by the National Automobile Dealers Association may be just the ticket.
Go to www.nadaguide.com, the trade group's consumer Web site, and click on "Donate Your Car." You'll find one-stop shopping for giving away those worn wheels.
The service acts as an intermediary, enabling you to donate your car to one of more than 200 charities listed on the site. But don't confuse a charity's presence on the list as an endorsement .
Pete Palmer of Vehicle Donation Processing Center Inc., which runs the car-donation program, says the charities "were vetted by a variety of processes."
How much do the charities get? Palmer says that all the cars are auctioned and that his company splits the net profit -- the revenue minus about $300 per car for processing and advertising -- with the charity.
The bottom line: It may make sense to donate the car instead of junking it.
XJeff Gelles is a columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer. Write to him at: The Philadelphia Inquirer, P.O. Box 8263, Philadelphia, Pa. 19101 or e-mail consumerwatch@phillynews.com.