A car doesn’t have to be in working condition to be a valid donation. In fact, you can donate a car that doesn’t seem to have any redeemable value at all. There is even a special occasion when someone will make sure the vehicle never runs again before trying to sell it. The resulting shape and state of these vehicles has been called “art” by some and “cubes” by others.
While some charities use a car donation as transportation within their own organization and others fix up the vehicles to sell them at auction, these options just aren’t available for vehicles that have been – in the best sense of the phrase – run into the ground. That doesn’t mean they are completely worthless, though. In fact, up in Winnipeg there is currently a program going on in which the Habitat for Humanity is benefiting from cars that have a certain “boxy” theme to them.
In an article in the Winnipeg Free Press they discuss the collaboration between Habitat for Humanity and Urbanmine – a metal recycler. This car donation program will give the proceeds from the recycled car to Habitat, which will then used those funds to help with the construction of new homes. This is just one of the many examples of people using charitable car donations to make a difference wherever they can. In this case, there are two distinct benefits. One, the Habitat for Humanity will receive some very important funding, and two, the recycling process will remove old clunkers from the road and make sure they don’t just waste away in a landfill.
No matter how attached you may be to your old car, there comes a time when you just have to let it go. You may not be fond of the idea that your faithful car or truck is headed toward a temporary career as “modern art” but the money made from recycling the steel and other components in the car can really help out a worthy organization.
