sent on behalf of Michelle Epstein
The Sierra Club Foundation is pleased to announce a new national vehicle donation program. The program is a great opportunity for Sierra Club supporters as well as the general public to get rid of old, polluting vehicles they no longer use, helping to clean the air and to orient them toward greener transportation alternatives — all while supporting the mission of the Club through the proceeds from their car donation directed back to the Foundation.
The Sierra Club Foundation receives a percentage of the proceeds from either the recycling of a vehicle or the reselling of a vehicle at auction. The Beyond Oil team worked with us to establish a recycling protocol for the car donation program — all cars (with the exception of collectible cars) that have an MPG of less than 27 miles per gallon will be automatically scrapped and recycled.
Additionally, car donors will be encouraged to green their (future) rides. We hope to expand the Green My Ride program to offer discounts on greener transportation alternatives (i.e. hybrids or EVs, Zipcar or car-sharing memberships, bicycles, etc). In 2014, once we have gotten the wheels turning (no pun intended) on this program, we would like to explore expanding the vehicle donation program to include an opportunity for Chapters to raise unrestricted c3 dollars locally — which could be a valuable additional source of funding for all Chapters that participate.
The car donation program will be managed by Charitable Auto Resources (CARS) based in San Diego, California. Earlier this year, the Sierra Club sent an RFB (request for bid) to four of the leading car donation vendors across the country. The RFB asked each of the vendors to answer very specific questions around customer service, compensation, reporting, legal compliance and marketing. CARs was chosen as a final candidate because they were the most proactive in responding, had the most comprehensive marketing plans and they were completely legally compliant in all 50 states. They also currently work with over 500 nonprofits across the country and had experience with organizations with a chapter structure like the Club.
CARs will accepts many types of vehicles for donation — cars, trucks, motorcycles, RVs, trailers, boats, planes, ATVs, even farm equipment — from any location in the continental US. Please encourage family and friends to utilize our car donation program if they have an older, close to end of life vehicle that they can donate to the Club.
To make a donation online, go to www.scf-cardonations.org or call 855-33-SIERRA.
For more information about the new vehicle donation program, please contact Michelle Epstein [log in to unmask]) or Vicky Barrett-Putnam ([log in to unmask]).