Donate Your Timeshare to Your Favorite Charity

Vacation timeshares often sound like a good deal in the beginning, but usually the shine wears off after a while. They can be costly, with maintenance fees, taxes, and the like, and if you want to try a different timeshare or week, it can be difficult to switch with someone else. Adding insult to injury, once you decide to sell, you may find the process expensive, time-consuming and a general pain. If any of this sounds familiar, you may want to donate your timeshare to your favorite charity.

* Donateforacause.org will sell your timeshare and donate the profits to your favorite charity. You get to choose, and get a tax break. Since they were founded in 2004, Donate for a Cause has raised almost 1 million dollars for numerous nonprofits across the United States. They only accept timeshares.

* TheCharityGroup.com accepts a wide variety of items, including timeshares. You choose the charity you want to support, and they get the cash.

* Gifts for Sight (http://www.giftsforsight.org/timeshare/) will sell your timeshare and use the profits to support the Eye Birth Defects Research Foundation, a nonprofit organization. They also take cars and boats and will pick up your donation for free nationwide.

* You can even donate to a charity directly. Visit http://www.timesharetrap.com/charities_that_accept_timeshare_donations.html for a list of seventeen organizations that accept timeshares. These include the American Kidney Fund, International Hearing Dog, National Foundation for Cancer Research, and others.

Of course, if you prefer, you can sell the timeshare your self and make a tax-deductible donation of the profits to your favorite charity. But do the math first. Be sure to account for the time, energy and financial costs of handling the sale yourself. Remember that if you sell it yourself you can only write-off the amount of your monetary donation. But if you donate the timeshare directly, you save yourself a lot of hassle and time, and may be able to donate the value of the timeshare (as opposed to the sale price of the timeshare).

You may be surprised to learn that often, donation makes the most financial sense. It costs nothing for the charity if you donate directly, and you get a simple, fast, and socially-responsible way to get rid of your timeshare. So if your timeshare is more trouble than it's worth, consider donating it to your favorite charitable cause. You'll support work that you admire and get a tax write-off to boot!

"Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws." - Plato