Kidney Car Donation Update 2

Mr. Savvy and I recently became a single car household; we donated our second car to the National Kidney Foundationat the end of January. You can read more about the donation process in my previous posts.

The tow truck came and went, and we were left without our second car.  It was an easy transaction, and professionally done — so easy, in fact, that I decided to wait until we received the sale receipt before posting about this final step; there was nothing to tell!  They showed up on time, towed our car, and were pleasant to deal with.

And then we received the tax receipt.  By law, car donation charities are required to send you a receipt within 30 days of the sale date of the car.  The receipt tells you how much your car sold for.  In 2004, The IRS rewrote the laws concerning car donation deductions: if the car sells for over $500, you can deduct the sale price.  If it sells for less than $500, you can deduct the fair market value up to $499.

Our car sold for less than $500 because it needed expensive repair work. There was nothing wrong with our receipt otherwise, except that I was hoping that it would pass the $500 mark so that we wouldn’t have to determine the fair market value ourselves; we could just take the receipt and run with it.  This way, there would be no questions when it comes time to file our taxes next year.  But we weren’t that lucky.

The National Kidney Foundation doesn’t offer a guide to calculating the Fair Market Value, or even a definition of what it is.  Luckily, the Kelley Blue Book comes to the rescue by telling me it’s the “private party value,” or what my car would sell for if I was selling it by myself.  I used their handy quiz and came up with a number that lets me know my car is worth more than $500.  Since it didn’t sell for that, I can deduct $499 off my taxes next year, provided I have proof of the sale and the proper forms.

How Would I Grade the National Kidney Foundation?

They get a solid B.  Dealing with the National Kidney Foundation was painless.  I was pleased with their Charity Navigator rating and the reviews that I read.  They did an excellent job organizing everything, down to reminder emails and a friendly tow company.  Unfortunately, they didn’t provide links to all the relevant information about car donation, including the forms necessary for filing taxes.  I feel a little swindled by their proclamations of ease and their friendly-but-vague website.  Although I should have known that the  taxes portion would take a little legwork, some help on their end would have been nice.  I had to go to an unaffiliated website for more information.

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©2009 at Simple Savvy, the simple living blog where, once again, I am not a tax professional — just a woman doing what she loves and writing about it.  And I don’t think I’ll put that bumper sticker on my car either.

Website Review: The Eco Key

Have you heard of The Eco Key?  It’s a new (in the first 30 days of web launch!) Google-powered search engine that claims to help the environment with every search you do.  It sounded right up my alley, so I decided to investigate.  Their About page states:

The Eco Key has created a unique foundation for removing trash and litter in the world’s most polluted communities, parks, and beaches. In addition we are donating a percentage of our Ad revenue to various established organizations that remove litter Worldwide.

This sounds something like GoodSearch, which is a Yahoo!-powered search engine that donates 50% of their ad revenue (about 1¢ per search) to the nonprofit of your choice. It’s an interesting concept: a way to help your favorite cause without leaving the comfort of your own home.  Your single search might not mean much, but your search combined with 1000 other people’s searches, all directed towards one nonprofit, means an extra $10 in that nonprofit’s budget.  Imagine if 1000 people did one search per day.  At the end of the year, the nonprofit would have an extra $3650.  That’s a considerable sum, especially for a charity.

You can understand, then, that I wanted to make sure The Eco Key wasn’t greenwashing — that is, pretending to help the environment, but in reality, serving their own interests.  The Eco Key website is a little vague on the details: A unique foundation?  Just what does “foundation” mean in this instance?  And precisely which established organizations that remove litter?

A closer inspection reveals the FAQ page,which sheds some more (but not much) light on the situation:

We have crafted a unique eco-foundation combining volunteer efforts with fully paid trash removal positions. Our foundation not only helps clean our environment, but we are also helping to clean up homeless communities by providing paid trash removal jobs for those unwilling, or unable to find other work. In addition, we have partnered with several other litter control foundations to whom we make constant donations.

Now that sounds good.  Still vague, but good enough for me to want to learn more.  I went right for the goods: The Eco Key’s foundation status.  Usually, a foundation is either a private money fund that enables a donor to give at his or her discretion, OR a public charity with 501(c)3 status — fancy IRS lingo for “exempt from federal income tax.”

My knowledge lies with public charities/nonprofits, and so I looked for any sort of indication that The Eco Key acknowledges where their money goes, i.e. financial transparency.  I wanted to see a chart of how they allocate their funds; that’s what nonprofits are known for.  Not finding any more information, I used The Eco Key’s contact form to send in a quick question.  I wrote:

Hi there,

I’d like to learn a little more about the Eco Key. I’m interested in finding out about your status as a nonprofit organization — do you have a 501(c)3 number? Also, I’d like to learn about your ad revenue. I understand that the amount of money you generate from your ads will change daily, but I’m curious about your percentages. How is income allocated?

I’d appreciate any information you can give me!

I received this response from Jennifer, one of the founders of The Eco Key:

Christine,

Thank you for your email.

We are not a NON profit. We equally donate 40% of our ad revenues to organizations Adopt A highway, Adopt A beach and Coastal cleanup. We also have monthly volunteer cleanings in Los Angeles CA. The 60% profit we do get goes to updating, pollution research and adding new features to the site and helps us buy materials for our volunteer pick ups.

I started this site in addition to my other company (www.TheLuxurEco.com) to give back in a bigger way. I donate to Earth Share with that one.

let me know what other questions you may have…

Jennifer

Our Ad click through rate changes and we are still in our first 30 days of web launch.

Aha!  The plot thickens.  It sounds like The Eco Key is a private foundation.  However, the IRS states that private foundations must donate at least 85 percent of their income to their programs.  Jennifer says they donate 40 percent of their ad revenues.  This means they’re probably not a recognized IRS foundation.

So what are they?

It sounds like Jennifer is an everyday person, trying to do what she thinks is right.  Basically, she has extra income that she wants to donate to charity.  In the same way I write a check to “adopt” an animal from the WWF, Jennifer writes a (granted, much bigger) check to Adopt-a-Highway, Adopt-a-Beach and Coastal Cleanup.  She also organizes a volunteer day at the beach, and does some work on her new business, The Eco Key.

Pros to using this so-called foundation?

• It’s cool.  I know of no other search engines that allow you to filter your results by whether or not they’re eco-friendly.  Heck, I don’t even know how one would quantify that in terms of who gets in and who doesn’t!  But my very first search was for eco-friendly honeymoons, and I liked the feature of turning on and off eco-friendliness.
• It uses Google.  GoodSearch is a great idea and all, but I hate using Yahoo! as a search engine.  Because The Eco Key is powered by Google, I’m much more likely to use it.
• They have excellent customer service.  I bet if I contacted Google, I wouldn’t get through to Google’s founder — within three hours, no less.
• It gives a little money to environmental organizations.  Even though we don’t get to choose the organizations, or know how much money from each search goes to the organizations, it’s still a way to help out.

Cons to using The Eco Key

• They have no financial transparency on their website.  Because they’re not recognized by the IRS as some kind of foundation, they don’t need financial transparency, but I still like to know.  I’d hazard a guess that most people like to know who they’re helping out.  This also means they can change who they give to, and the amount they give, at any time without warning or notice, and we’d never know.  After all, by using The Eco Key, we’re helping someone else raise money.  What if they suddenly turned around and gave it to the Orphan Foundation of America?  While the OFA is a worthy cause, it’s not environmental.
• They’re vague.  They use the word “foundation,” but fail to state what that entails according to the IRS’s definition of foundations.  Also, I’m unsure if doing anything other than web searches (like images, video, etc.) counts towards the ad revenue.
• They don’t offer some of Google’s options, like installing a mini search bar next to the address bar in your browser.  I use that thing all the time.  Also, when you do a search, they don’ t let you know how many results you came up with.  Some of this is me being nitpicky, but not having the browser search bar will be a hindrance for me when I surf the web at home.  UPDATE 3/4/2009: In a second email, Jennifer told me that The Eco Key is installing a mini search bar and recycling center locater, powered by Earth 911.  Score another point for  personal contact!

In this case, the pros outweigh the cons — for me — and so I’ll probably use The Eco Key for my Googling needs.  I’d love to know what you think! Have you checked out The Eco Key?  Have you done any searches?  What are your opinions?

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©2009 at Simple Savvy, the simple living blog where I’m not a tax professional by any means — just a woman who loves nonprofits and looking up information about them.  I believe we already know that I’m a nerd like that.

Car Donation Update

I wrote about starting the car donation process two weeks ago.  If you recall, I had decided to donate the unfixable second car to the National Kidney Foundation and take a tax break instead of selling it.  Last week, I got down to it and filled out the application.  As promised, here’s the first update on how the process works.

The online application is straightforward and simple at one page of required information.  As expected, they ask for the car’s VIN and mileage, and the general condition of the car.  They also gave me the option of requesting that the process be expedited.  I could have had the towing company call within two days of submitting the online form instead of waiting for me to mail in my title.  I chose not to do this, in part because I still need to clean out the car, but also because I don’t want the Foundation to go through extra trouble (read: more money) to secure my donation.

They also have several reminders of what to do with the paperwork once it’s all filled out, including sending an email that details the remaining steps — smart! — although it would be more helpful if their link to the IRS page about car donations wasn’t broken.

One (minor) surprise at the end of the process is that the Foundation would like a photo of the car mailed in with the title.  It’s not required, but it would certainly be helpful to know about in advance.  When was the last time we got physical photos instead of digital?  This could be a good motivator for going through my pictures and seeing which ones I want developed.

All in all?  Not a bad way of doing things.  It certainly doesn’t strain the person donating the car.  Now all I have to do is quit dragging my feet and send out that title.  The towing company should call within five days of receipt, and away we go!