How nonprofits get cash from your clunker

I'm glad to be back, Darian.

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.

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 in Austin, we receive anywhere from 400 to 500 donations a year.

After the break, a driveway moment.

And you are a public radio donor?

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 dints, and when I asked him how he'd describe it, this is what he told me.

It's both useful and offloaded junk. And that is exactly why Noel gave it away.

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.

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.

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

That's the note I prepared for the potential new owner.

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 Sonya grabs the keys.

That's all that entitles to you donating the vehicle. They will call you. Sonya works at Leo's Towing, a local company with two trucks. And for this particular job, they earned $175.

Our donor Noel will, however, get some public radio merchandise in the mail.

Exactly to the auction lot.

That's Andrew Kinsfather, 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. And as I found out, they don't just take in cars and SUVs.

This is not even a car.

After Andrew and I got settled in his office, he showed me this pricing tool they use.

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.

You heard correctly, which is why right now, a robot voice is doing the calls.

Yes. It's the most personal voice that they could find.

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.

And we were thrilled to receive every single penny. Darian.

And after all those checks cleared, our public radio car has exited the sphere of non profits and 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. Started up clean.

Well, Darian, if you were in the market for a new car, this one costs $12,499. And at this point, our public radio car has completed a transformation.

Yeah, it's gone from a rundown donation to a bright and shiny piece of inventory for a small business.

Who knew you could squeeze so much money out of altruism?