Harvard E. "Pete" Palmer Jr. is a prominent national authority on promotion and operation of car donation programs for charitable causes. He is "arguably one of the individuals with the broadest knowledge of the far-flung vehicle donation industry." He is a spokesperson for the Vehicle Donation Coalition. His writing includes an op-ed piece in The San Francisco Examiner about how to choose a worthy cause for donating a car, citing California's State Registrar of Charitable Trusts as a source for checking the records of particular charities soliciting in that state. Lobbying actions on behalf of industry In 1998, Palmer joined with other California car donation industry leaders to promote state legislation designed to bring about more transparent donation reporting. Five years later, the General Accounting Office interviewed Palmer regarding the federal regulatory legislation that became part of the Jobs Bill 2004. He was instrumental in forming an industry lobby about that bill. Though that lobby disbanded in 2005, Palmer has helped bring together a new, politically oriented coalition of charities, call centers, auctions, and others to address difficulties associated with the car donation aspects of the Jobs Bill. That work continues today. In 2003, Palmer's organization joined with the National Auto Dealers Association ("NADA"), a major vehicle-information resource, to form a partnership that simplified what was previously a difficult auto-donation process. In 2009, Palmer and some charities lobbied against extension of the federal government's "Cash for Clunkers" program, which had hurt donations for charitable purposes. Palmer's work with nonprofit organizations has raised over $60 million with 800,000 donations for about 400 worthy causes in North America. Such charities include the Polly Klaas Foundation; the Red Cross and the National Kidney Foundation; and other organizations benefiting animals, the arts, children, education, the environment, family services, health, human rights, seniors, and faith-based activities. Development of expertise A San Francisco Bay Area advertising executive since the early 1970s, he had a client who went out of the furniture business and started the vehicle donation program for Volunteers of America. The client turned to Palmer to run some radio ads for that program. Eventually, Palmer and his client joined forces to try to help many other charities with car donation operations. While successfully pursuing more traditional business careers, Palmer and his partner noted the donation legislation when it first came out of Congress in 1986 and hoped they could find a way to use