MCC Vehicle Donation Program
Since 2016, MCC East Bay has facilitated the donation of more than 175 vehicles by connecting generous donors like you with deserving Bay Area families struggling because they lack a car.
Our goal is to help families become independent and gain financial self-sufficiency through a vehicle. Our waiting list includes domestic violence victims, single mothers, recently arrived refugees, and the working poor. We gauge priority and make vehicle assignments based on need and the recipient family’s breadwinner’s ability to demonstrate a clear commitment that a vehicle will lift the family out of poverty.
Our car program works in conjunction with MCC’s strong Zakat distribution committee. For most of our car recipients, MCC will also pay for an initial 3- or 6-month insurance policy on your donated vehicle.
STEPS TO DONATE YOUR VEHICLE
- Perform a smog test and then complete the form below. The vehicle must have passed smog within the past 60 days.
- Based on your information, MCC will assign your vehicle to a deserving family on its waiting list.
- MCC will contact you and make arrangements to pick up your vehicle or for you to deliver your vehicle to MCC. You will sign the vehicle’s title. If you have lost your title, complete DMV REG 227 – Application for Duplicate Title and bring it with you.
- Based on your engine assessment (not the vehicle’s aesthetics), MCC may pay a trusted mechanic to do a bumper-to-bumper check on your vehicle. That assessment is sent to the MCC Zakat Committee, which decides whether to invest Zakat/Sadaqah funds into repairs so the recipient family receives a reliable vehicle. Based on the Committee’s decision, we will refer you to an area junkyard if your car is beyond repair. You may sell your car for parts and donate those funds to MCC’s Vehicle Donation Program.
- Once the vehicle has been cleared mechanically (if applicable), we will inform the recipient family to come to MCC. The licensed driver will go to the local DMV with your completed title and transfer the vehicle into their name. The recipient will pay nominal fees to transfer the title (about $25) as this is a gift sale with no sales tax. Only after the recipient returns to MCC with a completed new vehicle registration, which immediately releases all liability on you, will MCC release the vehicle to the recipient.
Please complete our online donation form below.
MCC does not accept vehicles that will not pass smog. If your vehicle does not pass smog, low-income vehicle owners can apply to the Bureau of Automotive Repair for financial help with repairs or to voluntarily retire/scrap the vehicle for a cash payment through the Consumer Assistance Program (CAP). You can also sell the vehicle to a salvage yard or as a non-operational/parts-only car, and submit a notice to the DMV that the vehicle is being junked. See here.
Questions? car-program@mcceastbay.org
MCC Car Donation Form
VEHICLE WAITING LIST
Please fill out this form. The MCC waiting list is for Bay Area residents. We have 60+ families on the waitlist. The car waiting list currently is six months to one year, with priority going to domestic violence victims. For questions, please contact MCC’s Zakat Administrator, Sister Aminah Abdullah, at aminah@mcceastbay.org or (925) 264-9297.
