Minivan Donations Make Maximum Impact

As a family of five, we’ve been the lucky owners of several minivan models over the past 20 years. Our trusty Voyager did time with us in Fort St. John, BC (square tires and all). She saw us through the arrival of all three of our kiddos.

The Voyager (baby-blue, of course!) was followed by our all-time favorite: our Pontiac Transport. That van was perfect for road tripping, and equipment-hauling. Seven bucket seats go a long way for keeping the peace between three boys under 10 years of age.

Our final minivan purchase was a Dodge Caravan. Yup – the very same model that you see scattered through every grocery store parking lot in North America. We hauled dogs, kids, friends, and gear over thousands of kilometers in that forest-green wonder.

When your minivan has seen better days

It was a happy day for us when our family outgrew the need for such a large mode of transportation. The boys pulled out of team sports and then started driving on their own. We made the season of life change to smaller vehicles. And so many more of them. One family of five seems to need a lot of cars!

At the time that we were ready to surrender minivan ownership,  a little research promised us the option to donate the old vehicle to any Canadian charity!

Does the charity get the minivan? Or just the money from the sale?

With so many causes that our family cares about, we would have had opinionated conversations about who could receive the donation outcome from our last Caravan. In fact, years later, our sons did donate their own first car (a plum-purple Ford Escort) — and choosing just one charity was so hard to do!

Donate a Car Canada facilitates the sale of all donated vehicles. This is done by either recycling or re-selling the cars, trucks, vans, and motorcycles. Boats and RVs are occasionally processed through auction as well! The net proceeds from those sales are sent right off to each donor’s chosen charity.

We don’t have a minivan to donate any more, but with the number of drivers in our family (and the number of vehicles we’re sure to go through in the next 20 years) we expect we’ll have another vehicle up for donation soon!

ps: A little update, as of Spring 2021: our family has gone on to donate 2 more vehicles. One of the lads let go of his beloved Avenger. Our Buick Rendezvous also brought in a donation. Inn from the Cold was the recipient of both of those as well!