About Vehicles For Change

What Does Vehicles for Change Do?

Making a Visible Impact

Since 1999, Vehicles for Change has provided the tools necessary to achieve financial stability for families through our car donation and reentry internship programs. Whether a family needs a car or an individual needs a new job, we promote respect and independence.

Please continue reading to learn more about our services. 

Our Car Award Program

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A nonprofit organization, VFC receives 99 percent of its car donations from the public. We repair cars that meet our quality standards and award them for as little as $950 to eligible families, who are referred to us by social service agencies.

Since 1999, VFC has awarded 8,000 cars to low-income families, changing the lives of more than 26,000 people. Our 2011 study found that 75 percent of VFC recipients got better jobs and/or boosted their earnings an average of $7,000 within the first year. Learn more.

This video, put together by the Calvert Foundation, features the VFC Program: 

Play Video

We guarantee families’ low-interest car loans—allowing them to build credit—and provide an orientation course to prepare them for car ownership. Their VFC vehicles carry a six-month/6,000 mile warranty, and with proper maintenance will deliver reliable service for at least 24,000 miles or two years. 

VFC car donors gain a substantial tax advantage that’s not available with most other charities. Learn more about the VFC Tax Advantage.

Our Full Circle Training Program

For many men and women, reentry is a time of anxiety. Who will give me a second chance? How can I gain meaningful employment? The lack of the ability to earn a living wage is the number one reason for the 70% national recidivism rate! Full Circle Auto Repair & Training Center trains returning citizens to become skilled auto mechanics and ensures reentry is a time of SUCCESS, empowerment and support. Our interns receive Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) classroom training as well as hands-on training under the supervision of a master mechanic through our advanced training program. At the completion of their internship, many of our program graduates are immediately hired within the automotive industry. 

Learn more about the program here.

Our Auto Outlet, Freedom Wheels

VFC operates Freedom Wheels, a retail used-car lot that is open to the public so that car prices are kept low for recipients. Some donated
vehicles (such as luxury models or cars with a high book value) are repaired and overseen by our Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) master mechanics and Maryland state certified inspectors, and sold through Freedom Wheels, in order to maximize the donor’s tax
deduction and VFC’s financial return. All proceeds go toward
preparing more vehicles for deserving families.

Freedom Wheels, launched in 2005, enables VFC to act as a social enterprise, funding its own operations and growth.