About Cars Helping Kids

Why we do this

Every kid deserves to start the school year with a backpack that isn't falling apart. To not be hungry between Friday's last lunch and Monday's breakfast. To have a coat that actually fits when it gets cold. None of that should depend on luck — but for a lot of kids, it does.

So we built something simple: you give us the car you don't need, we handle everything, and what it sells for becomes the backpack, the weekend food bag, the tutoring hour, the winter coat. A rusting vehicle in your driveway becomes a good week for a child who needed one. That's the whole idea, and it works.

What your car actually becomes

This isn't abstract. Here's the chain, every time:

• A backpack that's ready for day one — stocked with the crayons, notebooks, and supplies on the teacher's list, so a kid walks in feeling like every other kid, not the one who came empty-handed.
• Food for the weekend — a discreet bag a counselor slips into a backpack on Friday, so a child isn't counting hours until Monday's breakfast.
• An after-school hour with someone who has time for them — tutoring, so a kid who fell behind gets to catch back up instead of giving up.
• A coat that fits, and a little holiday joy — because being cold and being forgotten in December are two things no kid should have to feel.

You don't have to wonder where it went. It went to a kid.

The honest part — who we are and how to check us

We're a small, real charity, not a billboard. Cars Helping Kids is operated directly by the Fainting Goat Foundation, a Georgia nonprofit recognized by the IRS as a 501(c)(3) public charity, run by an unpaid volunteer board. We're rooted in Georgia and we pick up vehicles in all 50 states — wherever a donor is, the help still reaches a kid who needs it.

Here's the part most "donate your car" ads won't tell you: many of them aren't the charity at all. They're for-profit companies that rent a charity's name and keep 30–60% of what your car sells for. With us there's no middleman to feed. The team that tows your car is the same team that funds the programs — after the real cost of the tow and the title paperwork, the rest goes to kids. That's not a slogan; it's just how we're built.

And you never have to take our word for it. Verify us yourself in two minutes:

Transparency

Like every registered 501(c)(3), we file Form 990 (or 990-EZ / 990-N depending on revenue) annually with the IRS. These are public documents searchable on the IRS Tax-Exempt Organization Search and via independent third parties like ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer.

For donors who want third-party validation:

• IRS Tax-Exempt Organization Search — confirms our 501(c)(3) status and good standing.
• Georgia Secretary of State Charitable Solicitations Division — verifies our state charitable-solicitation registration.
• Candid (formerly GuideStar) — independent profile aggregating IRS and self-reported data.

How to verify any car donation charity (including us)

Three free, public, definitive checks:

1. IRS Tax-Exempt Organization Search — search the charity's legal name (for us: Fainting Goat Foundation). Confirms 501(c)(3) status, EIN, and good standing.
2. Your state's Secretary of State charitable solicitation registry — confirms the charity is legally registered to solicit donations from your state's residents.
3. Look at Form 990 — every registered 501(c)(3) files it annually; it's free and public on the IRS site or ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer.

Contact us

Phone or text: 770-871-9422 (Mon-Fri 10am-5pm ET · Text anytime · Same-day reply; texts answered after hours)
Email: [email protected]
Location: Dawsonville, Georgia, USA
Where we help: Free vehicle pickup in all 50 states. Every donation funds programs that put backpacks, food, and coats in the hands of kids who need them.