Each year Rawhide Boys Ranch, a home for at-risk youth near New London, depends heavily on vehicle donations from the public to support multiple residential youth programs that they are able to offer.
This year, however, the program noticed a decrease in the number of donations they’ve received, leading them to investigate as to why.
“Multiple other non-for-profit companies were using our service mark of Rawhide Car Donations in their URL,” said Aaron Geitner, Director of Vehicle Donations and Digital Marketing at Rawhide.
That URL would take Rawhide donors and redirect them to another webpage where their donation would be accepted by another non-profit organization. That’s forced Rawhide to take action.
“We have reached out to the companies that have been using rawhide,” said Geitner. “We have obtained a legal counsel for this for a cease and desist. We’ve opened up all of our channels at the 1-800-Raw-Hide telephone number for people to call.”
By calling 1-800-Raw-Hide, they will answer any questions regarding a possible donation, or any other concerns. Geitner says the Rawhide typically receives anywhere from 9,000 to 10,000 car donations each year, and provide up to 83 percent of all of Rawhide’s funds.
“We actually have our boys helping us to refurbish these vehicles that in turn we sell at auctions,” Geitner said of what the cars provide. “Then those vehicles, those proceeds from the sale at the auction, help anything from out outpatient clinics, our youth services, or our adventure camps.”
Rawhide has been accepting vehicle donations since 1983.