The Hidden Value of a Vehicle Donation

CDP data reveal donor engagement opportunities for stations in 2022.

Your station has access to a pool of “hidden gem” donors. Are you nurturing them or letting them drift away? Vehicle donors may represent an underutilized resource for your station, according to CDP data. 

A major finding: Vehicle donation revenue as a percent of membership revenue increased noticeably in 2021. 

The CDP data indicated that over the past 12 months, vehicle donation revenue increased to nearly 9% of revenue from individual giving to radio stations. This ended a four-year trend of vehicle donation revenue hovering around only 5-6% of membership revenue. 

CARS shared these findings during PMWL’s CEO Boot Camp on sustainable revenue in January. 

A line graph showing the vehicle donation revenue as a percentage of membership for radio and tv.

Why are Vehicle Donors More Important to Station Revenue Now?

The pandemic influenced everything, including the used car market. Remember all the talk about chip shortages last year? These shortages—plus other supply chain issues—hit car manufacturers hard. 

With fewer new vehicles to choose from, demand for used cars skyrocketed in 2021. Average sale prices for used vehicles (including donated ones) remain historically high. 

“What we’ve seen at CARS is the average sale price for donated vehicles jump by more than 40 percent since the start of 2021,” says Carol Tran, Marketing Manager at CARS. “This is great for our partner stations. We expect prices to remain strong throughout 2022. Now’s definitely not the time to pull back on promoting vehicle donations.” 

Questions to Consider

After seeing the increase in vehicle donation revenue in the past year, you may be wondering…

  1. How well do vehicle donors retain in the year after their vehicle donation?

  2. What percent of vehicle donors are new to giving to the station?

  3. What percent of vehicle donors are either active or past donors (with a gift in the last five years)?

  4. For existing members who make a vehicle donation, can we consider their gift a “passion indicator” for the station?

  5. How do vehicle donor revenue and retention differ across public media stations? What can we learn from the leaders?

With answers to these questions, you’ll be able to strategize the best ways to engage and retain your vehicle donors. In our next post, we’ll unpack CDP's data on how vehicle donors behave once they’ve donated to your station. 

Make sure you receive these insights about your vehicle donors by clicking here. We’ll send you an alert when the post is published.

CARS is a founding sponsor of PMWL and manages vehicle donations for CDP.

Mike Wallace