The Dealer Percentage

Most charities use commercial dealers to run their vehicle donation programs. The dealer charges for its services (reducing the amount of sales proceeds going to the charity). We call what the dealer charges the dealer percentage.
The dealer percentage is a key factor – the smaller the dealer percentage, the more the charity receives.
Dealer percentages are regularly 50% or more of the auction or scrap sales proceeds. The California reported percentage for 2012 was 69% (31% went to charities). We have, however, seen a dealer advertise a 20% dealer percentage.
If the charity runs its own vehicle donation program, it will have costs for picking up vehicles, storing them, selling them and processing paperwork. The percentage of these costs would be the charity’s internal handling cost. In this guide we assume those costs would be the same as the commercial dealer charges.
Before donating your car, feel free to ask the charity what percentage of the car sales prices is used up by handling costs in its program.