PAWS is encouraging supporters to send their cars to the dogs—literally. A new program allowing people to donate their cars to PAWS is proving beneficial to the animals of PAWS, and easy for the donors.

“It was incredibly easy to go through, very straightforward,” said Bruce DeYoung, a PAWS supporter who recently donated his 1983 Mercury Zephyr to the program. “I wanted to make a donation to the community and to help animals.”

Many nonprofit organizations have developed sophisticated auto donation programs, taking in hundreds of cars into labor-intensive programs. PAWS’s efforts are considerably more limited. Run by Joe Galbreath, husband of longtime PAWS volunteer Mo Galbreath, the PAWS program has very little overhead, allowing the animals of PAWS to receive the maximum value from the car donations.

“Some of these big-budget operations say that they’ll take cars in any condition, but we can’t do that,” says Galbreath. “We are really looking for cars that are running, and will take little or no work to resell.”

Donors can bring their cars to PAWS, or have Galbreath pick them up. Donors must provide the title to the vehicle. “But we do all of the paperwork, which is usually a great help to the donors,” says Galbreath.

DeYoung agrees. “Joe told me what to do and was very helpful,” he says. “I had little to do except sign the title, and Joe did the rest. It was a great way to help the animals at PAWS.”

PAWS is not only interested in cars, but motorcycles too. “We’ll even consider boats,” says Galbreath.

The auto donation program can benefit potential car buyers as well. “If someone is interested in a particular kind of car, call us, because we can try to match up a car with you,” says Galbreath.

The auto donation procedure is fairly simple. “It all begins with a phone call,” says PAWS’s Kristopher Miner, Associate Director of Development, who coordinates the program with Galbreath. “People just need to call me and I will put them in touch with Joe. He will arrange pickup of the car, and take care of all of the paperwork.” It’s very quick and easy.”

Because the PAWS program is so small, there is little money for advertising. Miner encourages PAWS supporters who work for companies with staff newsletters or e-mail networks to contact him. Miner can provide easily-edited ads that PAWS supporters can have placed in their company newsletters.