Transparency
Our filings, our process, and what we won’t claim.
Check us out. We would rather you did.
Charitable giving runs on trust, and trust should be verifiable. Our registration, our annual filings and our determination letter are all public records, and we would rather you looked at them than took our word for anything on this website.
This page covers three things: the organization search, what actually happens between the moment you offer a donation and the moment it becomes help, and the limits of what we can promise you. The third one matters most. An organization that tells you what it cannot do is easier to trust on the things it says it can.
One thing worth saying plainly, since anyone looking closely will find it: the work behind Giving Center began in 2005. The organization has changed shape and name since then; what it does has not.
If something here is unclear or you want a document we haven’t posted, ask. We will send it.
Public records
IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search →
Form 990 is the annual return every public charity files with the IRS. It lists revenue, expenses, compensation and governance. Ours is public and we will send you a copy directly if you would rather ask us.
What happens to what you give
The full chain, including the parts that cost money. Nothing here is a secret, but very few charities write it down.
You describe it, we assess it from photographs
Nothing moves and nothing ships until we have both agreed. We look at what you have, tell you whether we can place it, and say so within two business days either way.
Collection, and who pays for it
Towing for vehicles is free anywhere in the fifty states, running or not. We arrange and pay for collection of larger lots, property and business-scale donations. Small items are usually shipped by the donor at their own cost, which is itself deductible.
Direct placement, or sale
If something can serve somebody as it stands, it goes to them. Otherwise it is sold through the channel that returns the most — auction, dealer, broker or private sale depending on the asset. Real estate and vehicles carry closing, title and transport costs, which come out of the proceeds before anything is granted.
Your paperwork
You get a written acknowledgment for your records. For vehicles sold above $500 we issue IRS Form 1098‑C. For non-cash gifts over $5,000 we sign the acknowledgment section of Form 8283 — we sign it, we do not value it.
The proceeds are granted out
Funds go to reviewed requests from families and individuals, and to partner 501(c)(3) organizations as money, equipment or supplies. Recipients are not told who donated unless a donor asks us to pass that on.
What we will not tell you
Four things donors reasonably want and we genuinely cannot supply. Any organization that offers them should be looked at harder, not trusted more.
What your donation is worth
Valuing your own gift is the donor’s job under IRS rules, and a charity that assigns a number to it has a conflict of interest. Above $5,000 you need a qualified independent appraisal, which we cannot perform or pay for.
What you will save in tax
That depends on your bracket, whether you itemize, your other giving and your state. We can explain how the deduction works. We cannot tell you your number, and we are not tax advisors.
Which family got your car
People who ask us for help are at a low point and did not consent to being anybody’s case study. We will describe the kind of need your donation met. We will not hand over a name or a photograph.
A guaranteed sale price
We can tell you what similar donations have returned and which channel we would use. What a buyer actually pays on the day is not ours to promise, and the deduction on a sold vehicle follows that real price.
No paid solicitors, no commissions
We do not use professional fundraisers, call centers or third parties who take a percentage of what they bring in. Nobody here earns more because you say yes, which is why nobody here will chase you. The person you speak to is the person handling your donation.
Our income is the donations themselves. We spend nothing on advertising, and the reasoning behind that is on our mission page.
Sometimes the answer has to be no
Now and then something is offered that would cost more to collect, store and sell than it could ever return, and accepting it would mean spending charitable money to dispose of goods. That is usually the case with items in poor condition, obsolete electronics, or property carrying liabilities worth more than the property itself.
When that happens we tell you plainly and quickly, so you are free to find another home for it rather than waiting on us. It is never a comment on the offer or on the person making it, and it is the same arithmetic that lets us cover towing on everything we do accept.
Ask us anything on this page
Governance, filings, how a particular category of donation is handled, or why we declined something — those are all fair questions and we answer them by phone or in writing.
Common questions are already answered in detail across our donor FAQs and the tax guidance on each donation page.