Car donation in New York

Car donations are a very easy way of donating to charities. Almost all the families have cars and face the question of disposing them off when the cars get old or when a new model is to be purchased.

Car donation helps the donors in two ways. Once they get the satisfaction of having helped a cause - which can be a society that is helping cancer patients, a charity that takes care of the aged or a voluntary organization that helps alcoholics in their rehabilitation efforts.

In New York there are many charities that accept car donations. The donors do need to keep in mind some basic points before they donate their cars to charities. They must check

1. If the charity is registered under the section 501 (c) (3) with IRS or not. Absence of such registration means that the donation cannot be tax deductible.
2. What cause the charity is supporting? A donor interested in helping the under privileged children can locate a charity that actively helps such children.
3. What percentage of the donation is actually put to use for helping the targeted group? This is important because some charities have been known to divert funds for other activities while claiming to espouse a particular cause. The donors should be wary of being cheated by such charities.
4. If a charity is directly handling the sale of the donated car or it is handing over the sale activity to a third party. In some cases third party intermediaries retain almost 90 % of the sale proceeds and hardly any amount reaches the intended beneficiaries.

Ideally a donor can locate a car donation center that can do all the above for them. Of course, the donor has to first check the credentials of the center itself before he can donate a car in New York.

There are many charities operating in the state of New York. One such interesting program is the Teddy Bear Cops program. This program targets the children who are involved in traumatic incidents and gives them teddy bears, which has been proven to calm them down. Gilbertsville Fire Department, Harrison Volunteer Ambulance corps, Bethlehem Volunteer Ambulance service are some services that actively make use of this concept.

Once a car is donated, the donor has to pick up the donation certificate from the charity; file is tax returns to claim the tax deduction. It is important to itemize the tax return and not to claim standard deduction. Care has to be taken to transfer the title of the car to the charity failing which the insurance liability or the traffic offence tickets will end up with the donor!

Some New York charities that accept car donations are : American Diabetes Association, Cancer Research Institute, United Way, SPCA, American Red Cross, Boy Scouts, Special Kids Fund, American Lung Association, Fire Fighters Burn Institute etc.

A resident of New York State you can easily find a deserving charity that actively helps the targeted needy group of people.