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

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.

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...

Sure you have no affiliation LOL. What I said is true. We sent them dozens of timeshares and none were donateable but they were willing to take them for a $1,299 fee. Your statement that they don't profit any money from the sale is funny too, considering that DFC is a charity, allowing them to keep half or more of the proceeds. I wonder what charitable causes get help once money is put into DFC coffers? DFC and Resort Closings are owned by the same owners too. No shame here, I only speak the truth from my own expierence. For you to write what you did with no affiliation is bogus.

vanessac54 wrote:

We sent them dozens of timeshares and none were donateable but they were willing to take them for a $1,299 fee. Your statement that they don't profit any money from the sale is funny too, considering that DFC is a charity, allowing them to keep half or more of the proceeds. I wonder what charitable causes get help once money is put into DFC coffers? DFC and Resort Closings are owned by the same owners too.

A petty and very unconvincing reply, reinforcing your own lack of understanding --- or any class. You are obviously indignant that DFAC did not want to accept your "donation" of worthless timeshares. That was not a "donation"; it was a failed attempt to DUMP them.

You are correct on one (...and only one) point. DFAC and Resort Closings are indeed owned by the same individual. More specifically, he is an attorney in Bozeman, Montana named James Tarpey. Being on the other side of the U.S., I don't know him from Adam, but the fact of his ownership of both entities is completely irrelevant to the fact that DFAC sends the net proceeds to the charity CHOSEN AND DESIGNATED ***BY THE DONOR***. What part of that fact do you not understand?

You rambled about "what charitable causes" DFAC supports. In the one timeshare which I ever personally donated via DFAC (it certainly wasn't worthless, but it wasn't really worth very much) the "cause" which I designated was for cancer research (I don't recall if it was the American Cancer Society itself). In any case, that organization later sent me a nice thank you letter after they received the sale funds from DFAC.

You are only embarrassing yourself AND your organization here. You really should quit while you're behind and not continue to discredit yourself or your organization any more than you have done already...

vanessac54 wrote:

Sure you have no affiliation LOL. What I said is true. We sent them dozens of timeshares and none were donateable but they were willing to take them for a $1,299 fee. Your statement that they don't profit any money from the sale is funny too, considering that DFC is a charity, allowing them to keep half or more of the proceeds. I wonder what charitable causes get help once money is put into DFC coffers? DFC and Resort Closings are owned by the same owners too. No shame here, I only speak the truth from my own expierence. For you to write what you did with no affiliation is bogus.

Why would any organization take an nondonatable timeshare when some timeshares can't even be given away in this economy and whatever organization takes that nondonable timeshare is then responsible for all future maintenance fees and special assessments until it's sold or changes ownership.

Donating a timeshare to any charity is not necessarily a good thing. The above sounds more like a PCC than a charity since PCC's request a large fee.

As far as Donate For A Cause is concerned, I doubt they are taking many (if any) timeshares at all in this bad economy.

Timeshare ownership was a hot commodity before this rescession, but I don't think the concept of timeshare ownership will EVER recover in the future ... people have learned a hard lesson concerning disposable income and the never ending rising maintenance fees and possible special assessments involved in ownership AND now there are hundreds of timeshare rental outlets where people can rent for the cost of maintenance fees and not be saddled with the responsibilities of ownership.

When we first bought into timesharing there were very few rental outlets out there ... now they're everywhere.

Ken1193, You sound like some sort of political story spinner. I've said what I had to and you've said more than necessary and even resorted to near name calling. You seem to know quite a bit about a company that you have no affiliation with and show alot of concern too. That's fishy. Stop repeating yourself and get over it.

vanessac54 wrote:

Ken1193, You sound like some sort of political story spinner. I've said what I had to and you've said more than necessary and even resorted to near name calling. You seem to know quite a bit about a company that you have no affiliation with and show alot of concern too. That's fishy. Stop repeating yourself and get over it.

Every word I've written on this matter is 100% accurate, even specifically identifying names you probably never even heard of regarding Donate for a Cause. I have nothing to "get over" and there is certainly nothing "fishy" about my having once personally utilized Donate for a Cause myself and, as a result, learning and knowing about their operation from that one direct, first hand donation experience.

You are apparently upset with DFAC because you couldn't just "dump" worthless timeshares on them under the guise of "making a donation". So, you have resorted to maligning DFAC and find it necessary to "bad mouth" a respectable and long established charitable organization. I happen to find your slanderous misrepresentations to be reprehensible and completely lacking in any class or manners whatsoever and I don't hesitate for a moment to say so --- once again.

If you want to continue embarassing yourself and your organization and / or if you wish to engage in a battle of facts, I will be more than happy to accomodate you by continuing to expose, correct and decimate each and every one of your malicious misrepresentations.

I know the names you lil' namedropper, LOL. All I did was state facts regarding my expierence and you had a cow. You have not exposed or corrected anything. All the facts you stated we know already. The fact of the matter is that Property Donation Group can take on "undonatable" timeshares that DFC want's $1,299 for, for half the cost, sometimes even less. You can keep writing all you want, you obviously have alot of free time. Have a nice day and thanks for the conversation.

vanessac54 wrote:

I know the names you lil' namedropper, LOL. All I did was state facts regarding my expierence and you had a cow. You have not exposed or corrected anything. All the facts you stated we know already. The fact of the matter is that Property Donation Group can take on "undonatable" timeshares that DFC want's $1,299 for, for half the cost, sometimes even less. You can keep writing all you want, you obviously have alot of free time. Have a nice day and thanks for the conversation.

As I stated on your other thread, this is simply another postcard company that charges a huge fee then puts your timeshare on Ebay auctions, however if it isn't auctioned, the timeshare may remain in your name with all future maintenance fees billed to you. You might not be as smart as you think you are .... the timeshare may still be in your name.

The statement you made that "this is simply another postcard company that charges a huge fee then puts your timeshare on Ebay auctions, however if it isn't auctioned, the timeshare may remain in your name with all future maintenance fees billed to you" must be in reference to Donate For A Cause because that is NOT the Property Donation Group business model. As a matter of fact PDG guarantees all timeshare transfers or you get your money back. Guess how many refunds we've had to honor? O, that's right, ZERO. So why don't you check your facts before you mislead consumers with your incorrect hypothesis.

I just called DFC to ask about donating a red week at Carlsbad Inn & Beach Resort. They quoted me over $1800 for closing costs. DFC may be a non-profit organization but Mr. Tarpey's other company , Resort Closings, is certainly NOT non-profit!

jimc148 wrote:

I just called DFC to ask about donating a red week at Carlsbad Inn & Beach Resort. They quoted me over $1800 for closing costs. DFC may be a non-profit organization but Mr. Tarpey's other company , Resort Closings, is certainly NOT non-profit!

I have absolutely no affiliation of any kind with DFAC --- and never did --- and I am certainly NOT waving the DFAC flag here. That much very clearly stated, I will still point out that DFAC only charges fees to accept a timeshare "donation" when the prospective "donation" is of so little market value that it may be a long time (perhaps even several years) before they can "unload" it. DFAC is well aware that the owner of record has to pay annual maintenance fees on every "donated" week --- and DFAC doesn't want a stinky albatross carcass around their neck any more than you do. Hence the hefty charges to cover future maintenance fees for low value "donations" which are accepted. For a high value / high demand week donation, those fees are waived entirely (except for a few hundred dollars in closing costs), since DFAC knows that they they won't have to hold onto a decent value timeshare for very long. Not so for low value / low demand "stinky albatross" weeks, however.

Resort Closings, Inc. (as mentioned above, also owned / run by attorney James Tarpey) does the market assessment for prospective "donations" to DFAC. Resort Closings, Inc. is not a "charity" in any way, but their closing costs are comparable with most others (i.e., under $400). To my knowledge, only JRA Services and Timeshare Transfer actually have lower fees, while numerous other closing entities have higher closing cost fees than Resort Closings, Inc.

Personally, my primary "beef" with DFAC / Resort Closings is that they previously circulated completely erroneous info regarding tax deductions for donated timeshares (in truth, the tax deduction is exactly ZERO if the market value of the "donation" is also effectively ZERO). In all fairness, however, they seem now to have ceased distributing (and have removed from the Internet) their previous completely false and incorrect tax deduction information.

I called the American Cancer Society this morning to verify that they recognize DONATE FOR A CAUSE as a legitimate group. DFAC lists the ACS as an affiliated charity.

ACS did not have any info on DFAC and suggested I check out DFAC at BBB Wise Giving Alliance (www.bbb.org/charity.

Donate for a Cause IS NOT listed as a business or charity on the BBB site. The DFAC home page indicates ARDA member and BBB. ARDA site lists complaints.

WHAT'S THE DEAL???????

Ken, I understand. Thanks. But DFC has not stopped using the tax deduction angle as a selling point. It was mentioned it twice in the short conversation I had with them.

marya836 wrote:

I called the American Cancer Society this morning to verify that they recognize DONATE FOR A CAUSE as a legitimate group. DFAC lists the ACS as an affiliated charity.

ACS did not have any info on DFAC and suggested I check out DFAC at BBB Wise Giving Alliance (www.bbb.org/charity.

Donate for a Cause IS NOT listed as a business or charity on the BBB site. The DFAC home page indicates ARDA member and BBB. ARDA site lists complaints.

WHAT'S THE DEAL???????

BBB membership is nothing but a paid membership organization for COMMERCIAL (i.e., FOR PROFIT) entities. ANY commercial entity willing to pay BBB membership fees can "join". Why would DFAC bother to join (and / or PAY to join) BBB in the first place, since DFAC is NOT even a commercial enterprise anyhow?

I guess I'm not at all "getting" the nature of your apparent concern...

jimc148 wrote:

...DFC has not stopped using the tax deduction angle as a selling point. It was mentioned it twice in the short conversation I had with them.

That's unfortunate. I thought they had "cleaned up their act" on that matter since being "called out" on those inaccuracies and removing their incorrect info from some other Internet sites.

In fairness, there ARE some specific circumstances when a timeshare donation CAN be tax deductible, but a formal appraisal of actual market value is required to satisy the IRS that the deducted amount is both legitimate and accurate. Unfortunately, as we all know, many timeshares essentially have NO current market value at all. If a comparable week is selling on eBay for a dollar, there is clearly NO case to be made that MY comparable week at the same place is somehow instead worth thousands of dollars. Sadly, it ain't so...

Sorry YOU"RE NOT GETTING the nature of MY concern. I am seeking info. SORRY I BOTHERED YOU-- won't happen again!!

marya836 wrote:

Sorry YOU"RE NOT GETTING the nature of MY concern. I am seeking info. SORRY I BOTHERED YOU-- won't happen again!!

In response to your vague and general "what's the deal?" question, you received some very clear and specific information in reply. No reason to go into a snit and "take your ball and go home". You could instead just be more specific about your actual question if you didn't happen to "like" the details of the clear answer provided. In any case, it's certainly your own personal choice and prerogative.

who died and made you king??