The Indicator from Planet Money - How nonprofits get cash from your clunker

Episode Date: March 27, 2025

Many nonprofits accept your used cars as a way to donate. This happens from Make-A-Wish America to Habitat for Humanity to ... public radio stations! So, how does the process actually work? And who takes a cut along the way? Today, we follow the car money.Related episodes: Show your love for The Indicator from Planet Money by making a donation For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.Fact-checking by Sierra Juarez. Music by Drop Electric. Find us: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Newsletter. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

NPR. This is the Indicator from Planet Money. I'm Darren Woods. And today we're joined by former indicator intern Sean Saldania. I'm glad to be back, Daryon. It is very good to have you. You're now at member station KUT in Austin. That's exactly right.

I work for a radio show called The Texas Standard. And today's story has to do with one of the ways we raise money. Car donations. Car donations. Yes. This is something that makes me. Make a Wish America does. Also, Habitat for Humanity.

These are just a couple of nonprofits that help pay their bills this way. Yes, and here at the member station level, we do a lot of begging for old and beaten up vehicles because it can be very lucrative. Here at KUT and Austin, we receive anywhere from 400 to 500 donations a year. And so that is why on today's show,

we're going to follow one of these donations to see exactly how old cars turn into hard cash, for non-profits. After the break, a driveway moment. All right, Sean. So today's story starts out in Austin, Texas, where you met up with a longtime public radio fan for the first stuff on our journey.

My name's Noel Preece. And you are a public radio donor? Yeah, we've been donors off and on for most of the time that we've been in Austin, yeah. Noel's family has lived here since 2008, and together he and I inspected a 2013 Ford Explorer that his mother-in-law, used to drive. It's silver, has a lot of dings and dents. And when I asked him how he described it,

this is what he told me. I think the brakes probably need to get replaced and the roof leaks. Okay. So is this actually useful for the public radio station or is it just offloaded junk? It's both useful and offloaded junk and that is exactly why Noel gave it away. It needs work. And so I thought, well, if I donate it, then that work can go to somebody else and all of the profits can go to, you know, services that I have relied on for a really long time. Okay, well, I've never met Noel, but he sounds like an ideal public radio fan to me. Anybody who gives me money is a good person. And Noel's especially a good person because he allowed us to track his Ford Explorer

through a long and complicated process. Yeah, that's because behind every car donation, there is a system of non-profit and for-profit companies that come together to extract as much value as possible. If there is value to be extracted, you'll find it in an automobile. That is the voice of Howard Pearl, the CEO of charitable adult rides and services. A nonprofit whose acronym spells out the word cars. Cars helps administer vehicle donations for around 10,000 nonprofits across the country. We can process as many as 150,000 vehicles in a year,

and those vehicles can be anything from heavy construction equipment to collectible vehicles. So the nonprofit that gets the vehicle donated, they end up with around 70% or more of the proceeds. And the rest goes to administrative costs and the nonprofit cars. Some of those donations are sold for parts and scrap metal, but the majority are auctioned off and sent back out into the world. Noel's donation is one of these, which is why right before we sent it off, he and I plastered the back bumper and NPR stickers and then dropped a care package into the passenger seat. to the new vehicle owner. That's the note I prepared for the potential new owner. KUT socks with song notes and what I...

We did this to let the future owner know that we are following this Ford Explorer. And just a few minutes after this, the first group of people who profited off of Noel's vehicle arrived. Right now, the Ford Explorer is being loaded up onto the bed of a tow truck while a woman named Sonia grabs the keys. That is it. That's all that entitles to, you know, donating the vehicle, they will call you.

Sonia works at Leo's Toeing, a local company with two trucks, and for this particular job, they earned $175. So as Noel's Ford Explorer gets repurposed, we know that many people are going to benefit financially from this, clipping the ticket, but generally not the donors themselves.

You know, it can be claimed as a tax deduction, but most people don't, as in the tax returns, they just claim the standard deduction. Our donor Noel will, however, get some public radio merchandise in the mail. Very nice. And now Noel's car is off to the next step in its journey. Exactly. To the auction lot. That's a Nissan Ultima. That's a little mini-Cooper. Town cars, Toyota Priuses. I mean, it is an array of everything. That's Andrew Kinnsfather,

the general manager of public auto auctions in Kyle, Texas. It's about half an hour south of Austin. On any given day, there are up to 200 vehicles on the lot. As I found out, they don't just taking cars and SUVs. Now this is a food truck that we have out here. This is not even a car. No, it's not a car. It is a full-fledged kitchen

on wheels. I mean, it has friars, a flat grill, regular grill. After Roinger and I got settled in his office, he showed me this pricing tool they used. The exterior color was silver. This allows him to compare similar makes and models that have sold in the past year.

And because our public radio car has dings and dents and that leaky roof, it gets a two out of five rating. And that gives us an adjusted MR value of $6,800. Public auto auctions takes fees based on the sale price of each vehicle, and they need to try and empty the lot as quickly as possible. I heard that these days a lot of car auctions take place online. You heard correctly, which is why right now a robot voice is doing the calls. Next item, 2013 Ford Explorer New bid $4,000. I need $4,200.

Wait, I recognize that voice. Is that the person who's always on the end of my phone calls to corporate? Yes, it's the most personal voice that they can find. Okay. Noel's car was one of the most sought after items because it only had 72,000 miles, which means that within just seconds of it opening, its price shot up.

Going once for $5,000. Going twice for $5,000. Come on, this is a nice one, guys. This is a nice one. one guys, it will keep you cool when the roof leaks. Sold for $7,025. All right, so doing the math from that final sale price, public auto auctions received $632.

The non-profit cars received a little over 1,000, and KUT, the member station that you work for, Sean, that got just over $5,700. And we were thrilled to receive every single penny, Darien. Yep. And after all those checks cleared, our public radio car has exited the sphere of non-profits in altruism and re-entered the free market. Bumper has been repaired.

All of our public radio stickers have been removed. About a month after it sold, I tracked our SUV down at the last stop in our journey. A used car dealership in North Austin. Its owner, Sam Safa, put around $1,200 into fixing it up, which is why right now it has new tires, new brakes, and a sunroof that does not leak. Start it up clean. It started up very clean. Low mileage, 72,000 miles on it.

I'm not in the market for a car, but it sounds like an okay deal. How much is it going for? Well, Darien, if you were in the market for a new car, this one costs $12,49. And at this point, our public radio car has completed a transformation. It's had a bit of a makeover. Yeah, it's gone from a rundown donation to a bright and shiny piece of inventory for a small business. That's right. So it seems to be good for both the station and for the car. Well, Sean, thanks for all the car talk.

Who knew you could squeeze so much money out of altruism? If you liked this episode and want to help, you can donate your car to your local member station. Or something a bit easier is just to tell a friend about this podcast. This episode was produced by Angel Creros with engineering by Maggie Luther and Jimmy Keely. It was fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. Keik and Canada edits the show and The Indicator is a production of NPR. Thank you.