Does Donate For A Cause Really Care About Helping Charities Or Just Making Profits?

chaseh4 wrote:

Hell to all, My name is Chase, I have a company that consults for HOA boards and Property Management Companies. I understand what everybody is dealing with I see it all to often. The difficulty involved in disposing of a timeshare can be quite frustrating.

You say that you have a company that consults for HOA boards and property management companies yet in the very next sentence you say "the difficulty involved in disposing of a timeshare can be quite frustrating". HOAs and property management companies are not in the business of disposing of their timeshares .... after all, a resort's bread and butter are maintenance fees to keep the resort going so why would they want the timeshares to be disposed .... you really don't make any sense.

I understand, I was just trying to offer suggestions. I am as unhappy with all the scams that have taken over this industry as many of you. Again, I am sorry for even offering. I just thought you may want to hear it from someone that deals with these issues on a daily bases and doesn't have a hidden agenda. I realize I can't type but that doesn't mean I don't know what I am talking about. Email me in person whatever questions you would like and I will be happy to give you straight answers (maybe not in proper English) but I do have some insight that could help. Try not to be so quick to judge. Not everyone is out to scam you. Some of us do this because we have seen the trouble it has caused. Best of luck to everyone, I truly do hope everything works out.

Hello Chase: If you are really trying to help people, thank you. You offer to help people, but how? How would someone contact you?

chaseh4 wrote: "Hell to all, My name is Chase, I have a company that consults for HOA boards and Property Management Companies. I understand what everybody is dealing with I see it all to often. The difficulty involved in disposing of a timeshare can be quite frustrating".

You say that you have a company that consults for HOA boards and property management companies yet in the very next sentence you say "the difficulty involved in disposing of a timeshare can be quite frustrating". HOAs and property management companies are not in the business of disposing of timeshares .... after all, a resort's bread and butter are maintenance fees to keep the resort going so why would they want the timeshares to be disposed of .... you really don't make any sense.

Carol, what was the final result of your tax deduction?

Thanks!

carolh325 wrote:

craige13 wrote:

Carol - thanks for the update.

I've lost track. Do you intend to try to claim this as a charitable donation on your 2011 taxes? If so, that is what I'd really like to follow!

I will claim this as a charitable deduction to the maximum extent possible - as far as my accountant will let me. I will be sure to take notes about this deduction and pass it on.

The only deduction the IRS will accept is the fair market value of a timeshare ..... if you 'gave' your timeshare to a charity, then the fair market value is zero .... no matter what your accountant might say.

I have given several things to charities and gotten a tax deduction. People do it all the time with Goodwill and their church.

Chase, thanks for the offer. If you would like to contact me to determine what we may be able to do, please email me at dgoock79 at yahoo dot com.

Yes you can take a deduction of the fair market value of the item donated like Jayjay says. The new rules state that you can take the donation of what the item sold for. You have to prove to the IRS that it sold for what you claim it did. Unless you want to be hit with penalties and interest you should play by the rules.

Donate for a Cause is just another scam company. We own a week in Mystic Dunes (orlando florida) and they wanted $4400 to take it off our hands. They're just another outfit trying to rake in the cash on desperate time share owners.

The tax deduction will do nothing more than get you an audit as it's not legit either.

vanessac54 wrote:

Every timeshare donation we ever sent to Donate For A Cause was never "donateable" and they want to charge $1,299 to take all these timeshares that they end up selling and taking half of the sale profit and make money on the closings too. Is this fair to the consumer? Property Donation Group (http://www.propertydonationgroup.com) can do the services for much less since we are a small fundraising company that isn't intersested in funding corporate interests, but to fund smaller, more passionate, needy charities that make a real difference and do it because they love helping people genuinely. This is why we currently feature The American Association For Lost Children (www.aaflc.org) Charities like this make an immediate, visible impact, in this case to rescue missing and abused children.

gregr197 wrote:

Donate for a Cause is just another scam company. We own a week in Mystic Dunes (orlando florida) and they wanted $4400 to take it off our hands. They're just another outfit trying to rake in the cash on desperate time share owners.

The tax deduction will do nothing more than get you an audit as it's not legit either.

I wouldn't refer to Donate for a Cause (DFAC) as a scam. A scam is basically when you promise somebody something, that party pays you to do it, then you don't do it but keep the money.

DFC lays it out on the table for you. It says "Pay us $4400 and we'll transfer the deed into our name." DFC will do as promised and you will no longer be the legal owner on record. DFC wants the $4400 to protect itself in case in can't trun around and sell the unit quickly.

However, $4400 is indeed a lot of money and if your ultimate goal is to relieve yourself of ownership of this timeshare, there are other ways to do it if you're willing to put in a little bit of time and effort.

Have you tried asking the resort if it will take the unit back? Some resorts do and some don't. Some will if you agree to pay closing costs and the next maintenance fee. That will work out a lot cheaper than $4400.

You can advertise here in RedWeek's Bargain Basement. Offer it for free and, as well, offer to pay the closing costs (about $180 with Legal Timeshare Transfers) and the next maintenance fee. Again, that will work out a lot cheaper than $4400.

As for the tax deduction, that's a delicate situation. You are correct to be leery about suspiciously high tax deductions for donating a timeshare that's virtually worthless.

carolh325 - did everything go as you expect? I would like to give a way my timeshare through Donate For A Cause if it really does work!

whitneyh24 wrote:

carolh325 - did everything go as you expect? I would like to give a way my timeshare through Donate For A Cause if it really does work!

I'm not Carol H. but...

I don't know if you've read the many posts and reports about Donate For a Cause but you cannot give away your unit through them. They will charge you thousands of dollars to take it off your hands, perhaps about three or four thousand.

If you want to try to get rid of your unit, take a look at my last post which is just above yours.

Timesharing Today reports that the Federal Gov. has filed a suit against Donate for a Cause for timeshare tax fraud. They would inflate the appraisal then have to owners pay more than $ 2,000 to Resort Closings that they also ran. They would then sell some of the properties on Ebay and other sites for just dollars. Looks like the feds have all the records of people who donated their timeshares and how much they got for a deduction that they were not entitled to take off their taxes. Anyone who took the tax write off is now in the crosshairs of the IRS.

As donp196 said this company is being sued by the US government for timeshare tax fraud. Anyone who dealt with them will have their details passed to the IRS for them to recover any tax write offs. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-sues-shut-down-abusive-tax-scheme-involving-improper-deductions-donating

They've opened a number of businesses from their offices, namely other timeshare companies as well as some media company viralhog.com. If you've dealt with them you're best off seeking legal advice asap.

I have a Timeshare with Bluegreen Vacations by Bass Proshops. The cost was about 18,000 and it is full paid for. There are no maintenance fees due. I don't really care about recouping my money because I know that is probably not going to happen. What I want to know is if DFC really does guarantee getting rid of your Timeshare?

ken1193 wrote:

In have no affiliation whatsoever with Donate For a Cause, but your above criticism is unwarranted, incorrect and entirely inappropriate. Here are a few relevant facts you evidently just choose to ignore:

1. Donate For a Cause makes NO profit whatsoever. Funds go directly to the charity chosen and designated *BY THE DONOR*. The "value" of each offered timeshare is determined by Resort Closings, Inc. How can you criticize them for not wanting to just blindly accept a "donation" of something which may be nearly worthless in the first place???

2. DFAC will NOT accept just any timeshare --- that's true. However, they ONLY charge a fee when a particular timeshare has no real market value in the first place. This makes perfect sense, since the timeshare is nothing but a liability until it can (...maybe) be converted into cash.

3. When DFAC charges a fee to accept "donation" of a worthless timeshare, they are, in effect, ensuring that they have maintenance fees in hand, assuming (correctly) that it may take quite some time for them to "unload" the timeshare and (quite understandably) they don't want to have to "carry" it financially in the meantime out of their own pockets. Since the donor has the timeshare promptly OUT of his / her name upon donation, the donor is absolved of all future liability and Donate For a Cause TAKES OVER over that unwelcome liability. How can you possibly fault them for that entirely reasonable approach???

I don't know of your particular (subtly advertised) organization, but Donate for a Cause has been around for many years. Your organization MIGHT be a good one, but your integrity, credibility (and manners) are certainly highly questionable when you go so far out of your way to publicly and grossly misrepresent the operations and the nature of a "competitor" charity. Trying to "blow out their candle" certainly doesn't make yours burn any brighter. You should be ashamed of yourself...

DFC is facing charges from the federal government for fraud.

If your BG points are paid off and the MF are up to date, it shouldn't be hard to give them away and will cost you the transfer cost of $299 or less. There is a BG facebook page (Bluegreen Condo Owners) and tugbbs.com timeshare users group bbs where you can advertise giveaways for free.

billi48 wrote:

What I want to know is if DFC really does guarantee getting rid of your Timeshare?

If you pay DFC its service charge (usually between $3000-$4000) then it will guarantee getting rid of your timeshare by taking possession of it.

There are other cheaper ways of getting rid of your timeshare if you are willing to put in a little time and effort.

We are a qualified 501 (C) 3 non-profit organization so your contribution will be completely tax-deductible, and 100% of the proceeds goes to the Warren Blue Devil Travelers Baseball Team. We are a travel baseball team from Lake County, IL that was invited to play a week-long tournament in Cooperstown, NY. We are holding an auction on January 2017 to help raise enough money to send the boys to Cooperstown, NY. If anyone is interested in donating a week for our auction it would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.