Car Donation FAQs
If your question is not answered here, please call 1-877-492-2779.
Why should I donate a vehicle to Goodwill?
Safety, convenience, a tax deduction, and knowing that your donation is helping us help others get jobs. You don’t have strangers coming to your home. You don’t have to haggle with car salesmen over trade-in values, plus we provide free towing. Donating to Goodwill is the easiest way there is to do something good in our community.
What percentage of the proceeds from the sale of my vehicle will go to help provide transportation assistance?
After paying a flat fee for towing, title work and auction services, we receive the net revenue from the resale of every donated vehicle. This money is used through WISH (Workforce Initiative for Supportive Housing) to help some of the community’s neediest working families with transportation needs and other services.
How will my vehicle be used?
Every donated vehicle is resold and the revenue is used through WISH (Workforce Initiative for Supportive Housing) to help some of the community’s neediest working families with transportation needs and other services. Qualified recipients receive help through gas cards, bus passes, assistance with car insurance or money for car repairs. Depending on the condition of your vehicle, it will either be resold through retail or at an auction.
Does my car have to be running to donate?
NO! WE TAKE EVERYTHING. We accept all vehicles, along with motorcycles, RVs, campers and boats on trailers.
What type of vehicles do you accept?
We accept all vehicles, along with motorcycles, RVs, campers and boats on trailers.
Do you provide a free home pickup service?
Yes, Monday through Friday within the greater Charlotte area.
I’ve heard that some for-profits companies are disguising themselves behind nonprofit-sounding names. How can I be sure that I’m donating my car to a legitimate charity?
We recommend you ask a lot of questions:
- Is the organization’s name familiar, or is it a name that doesn’t sound quite right?
- Is the organization local?
- Is the organization an IRS-approved 501(c)(3) nonprofit? If so, ask for their federal identification number.
- Do they have a web site?
- What happens to the vehicle after it is donated?
- What percentage of the vehicle’s proceeds actually goes toward mission work?
- Is the mission work local or in another state or country?
- Is the title signed over to the charity’s name?
What do I do after I donate?
You will receive a donation receipt once you sign the title over to Goodwill. Please take a copy of the donation receipt, along with your license plate and registration, to the DMV as soon as possible to de-register the car. Once it’s de-registered, call your insurance company to cancel coverage (they might want a copy of the donation receipt, too). Further documentation you’ll want to keep is listed in the following answer.
How much is my vehicle worth as an itemized tax deduction?
Keep your Goodwill donation receipt and your vehicle’s maintenance records for several years following the donation. Once your vehicle is resold (either through retail or at an auction), Goodwill will send you a written statement that lists the sale price of your vehicle. The sale price is the amount that you can take as a tax deduction.
Click here for the IRS Donor’s Guide to Car Donations. (To download PDF: right click & select “save target as.”) IRS guidelines for charitable contributions can be found at their web site at http://www.irs.gov/ or by calling toll-free 1-800-829-1040.