In my experience with vehicle donation programs, an NPO has to have a couple of major things in place for this to be the tiny bit successful: 1) Excellent name recognition and reputation in your community and service area. In other words, a very robust marketing program for your organization above and beyond what the vehicle donation consultant does for you. 2) a significant donor base or following on social media. People who can and will donate vehicles are modest in numbers in smaller communities and rural areas. It works well in metropolitan areas and suburban areas but in cities 50K and under, opportunities to find vehicle donors is pretty small. I think it is wiser to use any funds you may have for such programs to open a free brokerage account with Schwab or Fidelity and market your organization's ability to accept appreciated stocks, IRA contributions etc. More people own stock or have IRAs so your audience is bigger.
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Bruce Thorsen
President, Board of Directors
Purrfect Match Cat Rescue
Millington TN
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Original Message:
Sent: 02-19-2025 03:50 AM
From: Lisa Burns
Subject: Do you have a vehicle donation fundraising program?
Hi @Justin Ruffier,
We signed up our nonprofit with CARS back in 2022. We have a link on our donate page of our website and have shared through social media and email blasts. Unfortunately we've not received any donations yet. It's a great idea but I think because we are a small organization and because we generally don't bring in cats and dogs, (we are a farm and exotic animal sanctuary/rescue) we don't have the following that larger rescues do.
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Lisa Burn
Co-founder/VP
Farmhouse Animal & Nature Sanctuary
Myakka City, FL
https://farmhousesanctuary.org
Original Message:
Sent: 02-18-2025 02:22 PM
From: Justin Ruffier
Subject: Do you have a vehicle donation fundraising program?
Hello Fundraisers!
I work with the CARS vehicle donation program, which helps 9,000+ charities raise funds through car donations. We also work with 1,200+ animal welfare groups and have generated over $20 million for animal rescues in just the past four years. Some rescue organizations receive a few thousand dollars annually, while others earn $500,000+ per year, all from donated vehicles.
If you aren't raising funds through car donations, I'd love to speak with you about it. I'll be attending the Best Friends Conference this week and the Humane Expo in April. If you'll be there, I'd love to connect!
CARS is unique because we take care of everything from vehicle pick-up and sale to donor support, tax paperwork, and thank-you letters. All you have to do is promote the program and cash the checks! There are no costs to join the program.
Does your nonprofit have a vehicle donation program? If so, how is it working for you? I'd love to hear your experiences and insights. Let's discuss it!
Justin Ruffier
VP of Marketing
justinr@careasy.org
#FundraisingandDevelopment
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Justin Ruffier
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