Why Should I Donate my Car to Charity?
This is a great question:
Why should I donate my car to charity instead of say, selling it?
There are a lot of really great reasons to donate your car to the National Kidney Foundation, both for those you are donating for, and for you!
Donating a Car to the National Kidney Foundation Really Does Help People in Need
Each car donated to the National Kidney Foundation is an enormous help to those in need. There are thousands of patients with kidney disease in Utah alone, some of which don’t have the financial freedom to take care of their expensive dialysis treatments and medical bills themselves. While other car donation charities utilize most of their funds for their own business ventures, The National Kidney Foundation is designed to ensure that as much of your donation as possible goes directly to those in need, from local patients to local medical facilities directing kidney disease research.
Proceeds from your car donation go directly to struggling kidney patients in Utah. It helps them get a kidney transplant, or transport them to their dialysis treatments. Without your car donation, thousands of struggling kidney patients wouldn’t be able to receive their treatment. That’s the difference. Donating a car to charity is great, but donating a car to the Kidney Foundation saves lives.
Be a life saver. Donate a car today.
How Does My Car Donation Help Kidney Patients?
Dialysis is the single most expensive ongoing medical therapy in America. The government and insurance companies spend over 30 billion dollars a year paying for it. More people die of kidney disease than prostate or breast cancer. In fact, kidney disease affects 1 in 3 Americans; because it is most often caused by high blood pressure or diabetes. There is no cure for kidney failure – only a kidney transplant. Let that sink in.
Dialysis is so expensive in fact, even the out of pocket insurance costs can bankrupt a middle income family (even with GOOD insurance). Often when diagnosed, people lose their job due to illness. Or people have to quit their job in order to allow Medicare to pay for the treatments because they can’t afford the out of pocket costs (for dialysis or a kidney transplant). Out of pocket costs can be as little as $1200 a month or as much as $15,000 a month. In essence middle to low income patients are basically forced beneath the poverty line because they cannot afford their medical care. There are over 500,000 Americans living this way with kidney disease.
Fifty percent of those on dialysis today may have prevented it.
The National Kidney Foundation of Utah & Idaho exists to serve kidney patients. We rely on the funding of the sales of Kidney Kars donation to fund our mission: Kidney disease prevention, local medical research, and provide life-saving patient financial aid.
While 38% of our budget is for kidney patient financial aid, just as important is the 20% of our budget to provide free community kidney health screenings and kidney health education. We offer a free educational series to all local Jr. high school health classes with curriculum information about kidney health as it relates to: illegal/prescription drug use, obesity, and nutrition. We also introduce information about saving lives through organ donation. The NKF of U& I provides the public with free information about how to prevent kidney failure through dietary and lifestyle changes. Prevention is the name of the game.
How Your Car donations Helps Kidney Patients
- Housing/Transportation/Medication Costs— Far too often patients (on a monthly basis) are forced to decide between paying their medical expenses, transportation costs (getting to and from dialysis or the doctor), and housing. Thirty eight percent of the NKFU&I Budget goes toward insurance and Medicare premiums, medications, housing and transportation.
- Home Dialysis Equipment-Some patients, with family support can dialyze at home during the night. Many patients have found that the prolonged nocturnal treatments lessen the physical toll dialysis takes on their bodies. This allows them to continue working. But home dialysis equipment, isn’t cheap – even with A+ insurance.
- Transplant Travel Costs– Funds are used to support family / friends who may travel to Utah from out of state to donate their kidney.
- Renal (kidney) specific Nutritional Supplements (ProCel)- Good nutrition is key to having good lab work. Good labs, allow patients the chance to stay healthy enough to qualify for the transplant waiting list. If lab work shows a lack of key nutrients, they are not considered healthy enough to qualify for a kidney transplant.
- Dental Work- While this may not seem important, up to date dental work is critical in getting on the transplant waiting list. If a patient has an abscess, cavity or needs a root canal they are disqualified from being considered for kidney transplant. Kidney transplant recipients have to take immune-suppressive drugs to keep their bodies from rejecting a transplanted kidney. Any form of bacterial infection, including cavities, must be fixed before qualifying for a kidney transplant.
Step by Step: What Happens After I Donate My Car to Charity?
After the National Kidney Foundation of Utah & Idaho has towed your car away, it will be assessed for value based on the car’s condition, mileage and mechanical issues. Based on that information, the charity will make a decision about whether the car can be sold at auction, or parted out & recycled. All of the funding raised from the sale of the car stays local to fund the prevention of kidney disease, cure kidney disease, and provide life-saving patient services that kidney patients need in order to physically, emotionally, and medically survive.
Kidney Kars is literally the life-blood funding the National Kidney Foundation of Utah & Idaho needs to help lighten the burden for Utah and Idaho families living with kidney disease. We currently serve over 3,000 kidney patients in Utah and Idaho. We work closely with social workers at each transplant and dialysis center to meet the needs of those who are struggling between making a house payment/rent and buying their meds for the month.
Thank you for considering Kidney Kars donation!
Donating a Car to the National Kidney Foundation Also Benefits YOU
When you ask yourself “why donate a car?”, consider what’s currently wrong with your car. Just because you installed a new engine in it 30k miles ago, or maybe even bought a set of new tires last week, if the transmission is now broken or you have another major repair to put into it before it will run, whatever repairs you’ve already invested in no longer add value unless you invest even more. Instead, it may be more worth it to consider the other benefits that can come from donating.
Here are other questions to ask yourself when asking yourself “Why should I donate my car?”:
- Do the repair costs supersede the car’s total value?
- Do I want to go through the trouble of putting this vehicle up for sale, and be responsible to disclose everything that’s wrong with it?
- Is the car more than 13 years old, with over 180,000 miles on it?
- Is the car ‘still good’ and doesn’t have more than 150,000 miles on it, but needs a new engine/transmission or has collision damage?
- Is your car a classic model that still needs some love and a few thousand dollars to restore?
- Do you want to limp that barely-running car over to the dealership, only to have them turn it down as a trade-in? Or worse yet, feel insulted by the amount they’re willing to give you on trade?
- Would you rather have $200 cash in hand from a junk yard or a $499+ tax deduction; and peace of mind knowing you’ve given the car to a local, worthy cause that helps Utahns who can’t afford to pay for dialysis expenses, transportation costs, or out-of-pocket transplantation deductibles?
- Would I like to feel good about doing something good for someone else, or do I really need $200 cash in hand?
These are all decisions you face when asking if you should donate a car to charity, and there is no wrong answer. Your decision should depend on your own needs, or how you want to feel about your car’s retirement. However, there are a ton of good reasons for you to donate, but the choice is ultimately yours.
The good news is Charitable donations are rewarded with tax deductions. So even just wanting to ‘feel good’ about donating your car to charity, the car still has a financial reward in the way of receiving a tax deduction.
“Why should I donate a car to charity?” Flow Chart
Do I need $150-200 cash to make ends meet this month?
- Yes
- No (flow chart to next option)
Or would I rather:
- Feel good about helping others in Utah who are need of medical financial assistance
- Get rid of this car in 24-48 hours?
- Get a tax deduction?