Sisters of the Valley Ministry Launches California Vehicle Donation Program

The new program offers free state-wide vehicle pickup and charitable tax deductions, while funding the training of the next generation of Sisters

MERCED, CA, UNITED STATES, October 8, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The Sisters of the Valley Ministry, a federally recognized 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, has launched a California vehicle donation program in collaboration with Brownfield Auto Auction, allowing residents throughout the state to donate unwanted vehicles to support the Ministry’s work.

The program accepts vehicles that are no longer useful to their owners, including vehicles that may not be running. Brownfield Auto Auction handles the practical side of the donation process, including coordinating free collection of the vehicle anywhere in California, evaluating and preparing it for auction, and selling it. Proceeds from the sale are remitted to the Sisters of the Valley Ministry.

For the Sisters, the program has a very specific purpose: proceeds will help fund the development of a formal training program for the next generation of Sisters. “For more than a decade, we have trained women the way women have taught one another for thousands of years — by working side by side,” said Sister Hilda, who lives and works on the farm in California. “But if this work is going to outlive its founders, we have to document it, organize it, teach it and preserve it. There is something wonderfully appropriate about taking something that has reached the end of one useful life and using the value that remains to help another one begin.”

The Sisters of the Valley began in California in 2015 and have developed their practices through more than a decade of communal work, plant medicine making, ceremony, business, activism and service. The nonprofit Ministry was created to preserve those teachings and make them available to women seeking to pursue the path of Sisterhood, including women who may eventually establish Sisters of the Valley chapters in their own communities.

California is home to more than 36 million registered vehicles, and unwanted or inoperable vehicles are a persistent enough problem that the state has long supported programs assisting local governments with abandoned-vehicle abatement. The Sisters see another possibility for some of those vehicles: turning their remaining value into charitable support.

Brownfield Auto Auction specializes in processing donated vehicles for charitable organizations. Its public auction operation reports that more than 95 percent of its inventory comes from charitable donations.

Under the new program, California residents begin by completing a short online vehicle donation application. Brownfield then works directly with the donor to verify the vehicle information and arrange collection. Towing is free anywhere in California, even for vehicles that aren't running. After the vehicle is sold at auction, donors receive IRS Form 1098-C to claim their charitable tax deduction.

“A car doesn’t have to be beautiful, and it doesn’t even have to be operable,” Sister Camilla said. “It may simply be taking up space because repairing it no longer makes sense and getting rid of it has become one more chore. We can take the value that remains in that vehicle and put it toward preparing women whose work is just beginning.”

The California vehicle donation program is now open.

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About the Sisters of the Valley Ministry

The Sisters of the Valley Ministry is a federally recognized 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization created to preserve, teach and carry forward the spiritual practices, traditions and community work developed by the Sisters of the Valley. The Ministry embraces matriarchal leadership and spirituality, building educational and training programs designed to prepare future generations of Sisters and support the development of new communities.

Sister Kate
Sisters of the Valley
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