Our causes
What your vehicle funds once it is sold
Giving Center has funded its work with donated property rather than cash appeals since 2005. Property is picked up, sold, and turned into assistance across nine program areas. Cars with Causes is the vehicle side of that work.
Nine program areas, funded by property rather than appeals
Vehicle proceeds land most often in the first four. The remainder are funded alongside real estate, equipment, technology and collectibles donated through Giving Center's other programs.
Urgent transportation
A reliable car is the difference between keeping a job and losing it, or making a course of treatment and missing it. Where a donated vehicle is sound and the need is real, the vehicle itself can be the help rather than the funding for it.
Veterans
Transitional and adaptive housing, vocational training, and the practical things that decide whether a transition holds: a dependable vehicle, a deposit, tools for a new trade.
Families in crisis
Rent, utilities, a car repair, emergency shelter. Small amounts decided quickly, aimed at the bill that turns a hard month into a lasting crisis.
Education
After-school and summer programs, youth camps, classroom equipment and school supplies. Where donated computers or instruments can go straight to a school, they go there instead of to auction.
Children and youth
Programs for children who did not choose their circumstances, including camps, mentoring and support for families caring for children with medical needs.
Medical and health
Help with the costs that surround treatment rather than the treatment itself: travel to appointments, equipment, and the household bills that do not pause during an illness.
Housing and shelter
Emergency shelter, transitional housing and the deposits and arrears that stand between a family and a door that locks.
Food and basic needs
Food programs, household essentials and clothing, distributed through organizations already working in their own communities.
Disaster relief
After storms and fires, when trucks, trailers and equipment do as much good as money does, and the need outlasts the news coverage.
Why a charity funded by property rather than cash appeals works differently
Most charities ask for money and spend part of it asking for more. Giving Center was built the other way around: people give things they no longer need, those things are sold or placed, and the proceeds fund programs. It is a slower model and a more practical one, and it means the people we ask for help are usually people trying to get rid of something rather than people being asked to part with cash.
It also means we invest in outcomes, not ad campaigns. Your contribution is not used for paid media, which in an advertising-heavy industry is a structural difference rather than a slogan. Where the money goes sets out the costs that do come off the proceeds and why they exist.
That also means we care a lot about whether a donation makes economic sense. A machine or a vehicle that costs more to haul than it returns does not fund anything, which is why we will tell you honestly when that is the case rather than take it anyway.
If you are the one who needs help
This site is for people donating vehicles. Assistance requests are handled by Giving Center, the parent organization, through its own process rather than here. Applications are at givingcenter.org/help-request.
We mention it plainly because people arrive here looking for a vehicle and deserve a direct answer rather than a page that pretends not to notice.
Turn something idle into something useful
Tell us what you have. Two minutes on the form, or one phone call to (888) 228-7320.
Related: where the money goes · about us · what happens to your vehicle · givingcenter.org