May 19, 2026
Kars4Kids might be about to lose 25% of its revenue.
You might know them for their infamous jingle, featuring young children singing the charity’s phone number and asking you to “donate your car today.” (1) A Californian judge just ruled that their jingle is misleading donors and creating “an unfair playing field” for other Californian charities (2).
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The ruling gives Kars4Kids 30 days, or until June 8, to stop showing their commercial in California unless it goes through major changes.
Roughly a quarter of the organization’s revenue comes from Californians, many of whom think their donations of cars, boats and real estate are going toward needy children in their own state (3). Instead, the money the organization makes off of the donated goods largely goes toward older Jewish teens and young adults in New Jersey and New York.
“The organization’s primary purpose is not to help economically disadvantaged children,” Kars4Kids’ COO, Esti Landau, has said previously.
Here’s what to know about Kars4Kids and how to keep yourself from falling for misleading charity marketing like this.
This isn’t the first time Kars4Kids ran into trouble
Orange County Superior Court Judge Gassia Apkarian ruled that the Kars4Kids ads must be changed to include “an explicit and audible disclosure of the organization’s religious affiliation” if they are to continue to air in California (2). The charity also has to stop using images of “prepubescent children” to ask for donations that go toward young adults.
“When a charity generates millions annually through a ‘jingle’ that conceals its primary religious and geographic focus, it creates an unfair playing field for local Californian charities that are honest about their missions,” says the ruling.
Much of the charities’ money goes to its partner organization, Oorah. Oorah provides matchmaking services for Jewish young adults; it also pays for older Jewish teens to travel to Israel. Oorah has also spent money on a $16.5 million building in Israel, according to the ruling.
California isn’t the only state that has come down against Kars4Kids. Investigations in Pennsylvania and Oregon going back to 2009 ruled that Kars4Kids’ advertisements and solicitations were misleading (4). A 2017 report from Minnesota also said that its ads did not disclose the charity’s religious affiliations.
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In addition, there’s a federal lawsuit currently ongoing against Kars4Kids with similar complaints, although it also alleges racketeering (5).
CharityWatch, an organization that reports on charities’ finances and gives them ratings based on overhead, transparency, and compliance, among other factors, gives Kars4Kids a D rating (6). It says that only 41% of the money Kars4Kids spends goes to charitable programs — the other 59% goes to overhead, which is high for a charity. It also says that Kars4Kids doesn’t meet transparency benchmarks.
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How to do your research on the charities you support
Bruce Puterbaugh, the man who filed the California lawsuit, said he felt “taken advantage of by the ad,” saying that he thought his donation of a 2001 Volvo XC would be going to help disadvantaged children in California.
The organization’s homepage does list that it’s a nonprofit Jewish organization — but you have to scroll down to see that disclosure, written in small print (7).
It’s always a good idea to research where your money’s going before donating to a charity. That journey can start on a company’s homepage, but it shouldn’t end there. Using a third-party vetting website like CharityWatch or Charity Navigator can help you get an unbiased look at how the company operates.
Some things to keep an eye on include:
- How much an organization spends on overhead versus programs: The Better Business Bureau’s standards for charity recommend nonprofits spend at least 65% of its expenses on programs (8).
- How much an organization’s executives make: ProPublica says that a super-high executive salary can be a red flag — but so is a salary of $0 (9). That could indicate that the organization is misreporting its expenses to the IRS.
- How transparent an organization is: All nonprofits have to disclose certain financial information publicly (10). If an organization isn’t meeting those requirements, that could be a sign of, at best, disorganization — at worst, it could be a sign of fraud.
You should also make sure you understand exactly where your money is going, as well as what the organization is doing with it.
Article Sources
We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our editorial ethics and guidelines.
YouTube (1); NBC News (2); USA Today (3); USA Today (4); Keller Grover (5); CharityWatch (6); Kars4Kids (7); Better Business Bureau (8); ProPublica (9); IRS (10)
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Kit Pulliam is a DC-based financial journalist with over five years of experience writing, editing, and fact-checking financial content.
