Two Great Places to Donate Your Car in Detroit
If you live near the automobile capital of the world in Metro Detroit, the two best charities to donate your vehicle to would either by the famous Mother Waddles of Detroit, Michigan or the Volunteers of America in Pontiac, Michigan. I’ve personally donated two cars to Mother Waddles and the entire process is painless and hassle free. The late Mother Waddles started a mission for the poor and less fortunate in Detroit over 50 years ago. Today, her son Leroy Waddles carries her legacy and mission forward. The donation process basically involves two phone calls, then placing your title and keys in your vehicle’s glove box. That’s it! They come by and drive it home, or tow it away, you are not required to deliver the car anywhere! In fact, one of my cars broke down in a nearby party store’s parking lot and Mother Waddles picked it up from there! After the paperwork is processed they send you an income tax form declaring you’ve made a donation and you can file it with the year’s income taxes for a reasonable deduction. The whole process is finished in about two days. If you want to donate a car to Mother Waddles, call (313) 891-4475 or visit www.motherwaddles.com.
The Volunteers of America has a great auto donation program too. They are based in Pontiac, which is about twenty miles northwest of Detroit, off of Walton Boulevard. In addition to accepting your donation, they run a bi-weekly auction of donated vehicles, with all the proceeds going to their charity. This is great place to look for repairable vehicles if you are handy with fixing cars up. The best part is that their website, www.voaautoauction.org, is updated daily with new pictures of the cars for sale in the next auction. Which means, you don’t have to make a trip just to find out there is nothing there you like. This makes the auction process much easier. If you are interested in donating to the VOA, the process is like that of Mother Waddles: You would call their toll-free donation hotline at (800) 552-1515 and set-up a time for the tow company to come by and pick up your donation. They need the title and keys to be in the car. A gift receipt of charitable donation is issued so you can use it as a tax deduction on your income taxes.
I am impressed with the efficiency of both services. Nothing deters people more from interacting with institutions like red-tape and bureaucratic paperwork. These charities do all that for you. I cannot think of a way to make the donation process any easier, I mean, you make two calls, put the keys and title in the car and your done. The phone calls take at most two minutes. The bottom line is this: Donating your car to charity in Metro Detroit is a painless and a wonderful thing to do in your community.
