Giveacar arranges for the scrap or sale of your old car, with the profits going to a charity of your choice. The scheme appeared in January 2010 and has so far raised over £500,000 for UK charities. Given that we are talking about expensive pieces of machinery which often have personal sentiments attached, it raises an important question: Why are members of the public giving away items that could have netted them over £100?
Giveacar gives people to opportunity to dispose of an unwanted vehicle. It allows you to make a charitable donation to a cause that you consider to be important. It allows you to actively contribute to improving your environment – every car scrapped is one less car abandoned, saving the earth from damaging pollutants.
Some people donate their car because they have purchased another one. Others auction cars that belonged to loved ones who have passed away. Most recently, there has been an increase in the donation of vans which are still in working order. This was attributed to the new London emissions zone regulations.
Scrapping a car through a local scrap dealer can turn into a nightmare, especially if you are charged for its removal. Scrap dealers do not care why you are getting rid of your old car, only that there is profit to be had from it. Charitable schemes tend to have much better customer service than profit based ones, leading to many donors being won over simply because they find salvage collectors hard to approach and communicate with.
Auctioning a car privately, while probably more rewarding, also requires much more time and energy than most of our donors have to spare.
Your decision to scrap or auction your old car for the charitable cause of your choice will also be influenced by the reputation of the service you are considering using. The Giveacar scheme firmly distances itself from commercial operations, maintaining an altruistic persona. By building excellent relationships with their charity partners and carefully researching any potential salvage partner, they have established themselves as the leading car donation scheme in the UK.
By using Giveacar, you will be directly contributing to the hundreds of thousands of pounds raised for UK charities – the administration fee that they take from the donation is the only source of funding the non-profit social enterprise receives.
The first step would be to visit their website www.giveacar.co.uk or give their office a call and they will talk you through the whole process, from free collection, car scrapping, auction process, DVLA notification and certificate of destruction. Don’t forget to choose your favourite give a car charity