My sister wants to donate her Ford Taurus wagon. Does anyone recommend an organization to donate to?

 

There are tons of organizations. There is one my father in law used that gave him some cash plus the tax break. If she has a particular charity or something she wants to give to that is close to her heart then she should give there.

 

There are many, here's one which people I know have used:
http://www.kidney.org/funds/kidneycars/index.cfm

 

donateacar.com

You don't have to go through this organization, but their site lists a ton of charities with car donation programs. It lets you search by state and narrow down the particular chapters of a charity that participate in a program. Good place to get a lead on what's out there.

 

i thinks the tax law has changed, somehow tightened up in this area. verify with the irs before doing it, maybe you will need an apprasal or establish value somehow, dont know???

 

I second donating to the national kidney foundation.

I'm a little selfish in this because I'm a dialysis patient myself. There are a lot of people with not a lot of money trying to pay for medications and dialysis. Medicare fortunately pays the lions share (no, you don't have to be 65 if you have end stage renal disease), but prescriptions are another story. Also, most can't work, so that makes it even more difficult.

It is through the lobbying of organizations like the NKF that won kidney patients medicare coverage. Also, I believe they were instrumental in getting the medicare drug plan passed (politics aside, even if you disagree with details, it is better than the NOTHING that seniors currently get.

All in all, a worthwhile charity. They will even come get the car I think. I believe that the appraised value (probably comparable to kbb) is able to be deducted for tax purposes.

 

The law changed this year.

The charity will send you a receipt with the exact amount they received for the car at auction.

I donated a '94 Civic a few months ago and got a receipt (from Purple Heart) for $500. The car had a book value of around $1800, but had either a cracked engine block or needed a head gasket. The A/C was broken and the tail lights had just quit due to an electrical short.
Based on what it would have cost to fix, $500 was fine.

The way the law is now, it really is a donation, and not such a good tax break any more.

 

fsdasdfa

 

seems like there are some scams in car donations..... i see too many little plastic signs along the road "donate your car to the purple heart foundation" or something like that. Usually little plastic signs along the road means scam.

I see the same signs "we buy houses for cash" or "work from home".

I think the place that auctions the car gets a decent cut of the deal...so the charity only gets maybe 60% or something lame...and the place that handles the sale gets 40%?????