The document
A deed and parcel number, or the membership agreement. Photograph both sides if it is a certificate.
Donate a deeded RV site, campground lot or equestrian stall right
Recreation site specialists: (888) 228-7320
Donate a Deeded RV Pad, Campsite or Equestrian Stall
Resort RV lots, campground parcels and stable stalls are sold two ways: as real property with a deed and a tax bill, or as a membership that conveys the right to use somebody else’s land. The first is a straightforward real property gift. The second is a different transaction, and we will tell you which one you are holding before anything else happens.
Tell us about the site
Every property gets a look. Name, phone and email are the only required fields.
Fully IRS Compliant
We Handle the Paperwork
Form 8283 Done Right
501(c)(3) Recognized Charity
A deed and a membership look alike until you read them
Deeded RV resorts sell individual pads as real property. The lot has a legal description, a parcel number, a county tax bill and an owners association, and it transfers by deed like any other parcel. Some are large enough for a park model; some are a concrete pad, a utility pedestal and a patch of grass.
Membership campgrounds sell something else: a contract right to use the grounds, sometimes for a fixed term, sometimes for life, usually with annual dues and a transfer fee. That right may have real value to the holder and still convey no interest in land. Equestrian stalls sit on both sides of the line, sometimes condominium units in a barn, sometimes a long-term right to a stall and a share of the paddock.
Why the distinction matters
A gift of real property and a gift of a contract right are substantiated differently and valued differently. Reading your document first saves everyone from discovering that at filing time.
Why these get given away
Health, mostly, and time. The rig was sold, the horse was sold, the family stopped coming, and the dues did not stop. Annual assessments on a recreation lot are small enough to ignore for a year or two and large enough to resent by year five.
Resale is the other half of it. These lots sell to a narrow local buyer pool, often through the resort office itself, and a listing can sit for a long time. Heirs who inherit one from three states away usually want it resolved rather than marketed.
What to have in front of you
Three things tell us whether this is a deed transfer or a contract assignment.
Dues and transfer fees
The current balance and the annual amount, plus any transfer fee the resort charges. Most charge one.
The resort’s rules
Whether the association has to approve a new owner, and whether it holds a right of first refusal.
Questions about recreation site donations
My campground sold me a membership, not a deed. Can I still donate it? +
Send it over and we will read it. If it conveys an interest in land, it is a real property gift. If it is a use contract, it can still be transferable and still be worth something, but it is substantiated differently and we will say so up front rather than after the fact.
The resort charges a transfer fee. Who pays it? +
That gets settled in the review along with the dues balance. On sites where the numbers support it we absorb transfer costs; on marginal ones we will tell you plainly what we can and cannot cover.
What about the RV or the horse trailer? +
Separate gifts, different program. Cars with Causes takes motorhomes, travel trailers and tow vehicles.
My lot is in a resort that restricts ownership to members over 55. Does that matter? +
It can. Age-restricted and residency-restricted communities sometimes will not accept an entity as owner. Where that is the case the workable route is often a sale to an approved buyer with a cash gift of the proceeds. We find out before you commit to anything.
How is a deeded pad appraised? +
From sales of comparable lots in the same resort, which the resort office usually tracks. Above $5,000 the IRS wants a qualified appraisal with Form 8283 Section B, commissioned by you and paid for by you, which is what makes it qualified.
We do not provide tax or legal advice. See IRS Publication 526, Publication 561 and the Form 8283 instructions, and consult your own advisor.
Related guides
Tell us about the site and we will review it
The resort name and your lot or space number are enough to start.