Special to IFN
RALEIGH — Help Ministries of Troutman President Donna Lambert was pretty skeptical when she was contacted by the N.C. Department of State Treasurer staff with news that the Unclaimed Property Division had identified nearly $13,000 belonging to the local nonprofit.
During a review of the unclaimed property database, commonly called NCCash.gov, staff discovered thousands in PayPal donations to Help Ministries of Troutman that were deemed undeliverable and then routed to the Department of State Treasurer for safekeeping.
“I had no earthly idea at all” the nonprofit was owed the money, said Lambert. “I thought it was a scam.”
State Treasurer Brad Briner recently presented Lambert with a check for $12,829.10.
Due to the unexpected windfall, “We’ll be purchasing food throughout the year for our clients,” most of whom are elderly, Lambert said.
“Help Ministries of Troutman is a shining example of North Carolina’s rich tradition of caring, compassion and community service,” Treasurer Briner said. “This small group of volunteers has been doing good work for a quarter of a century, surviving only through the generosity of donors.”
Currently, the nonprofit serves 40 to 45 families at the food pantry. Teams of volunteers deliver meals to shut-ins three times a week through a lunch box program.
Volunteers in the nonprofit’s Neighbors Loving Neighbors program also do free minor home repairs. A volunteer team cuts up fallen trees to provide supplemental heating fuel in the winter.
“It’s pretty amazing,” Lambert said of the work being done through the volunteer alliance. “It really is.”
Under state law, NCCash.gov is currently safeguarding nearly $1.4 billion in funds that are escheated, or turned over, to DST. The money is awaiting return to the rightful owners after being lost, misdirected or overlooked. It represents 24 million properties statewide, and more than 27.5 million owners are associated with those properties.
Unclaimed assets consist of bank accounts, wages, utility deposits, insurance policy proceeds, stocks, bonds and contents of safe deposit boxes that have been abandoned.
Unclaimed property can result from a person or entity forgetting that they are due money. People might change residence and forget to provide a new address. It also could result from a typing error in a house number or zip code in an address, a name change, or data loss from a business converting its computer system. As society becomes more mobile and steadily moves to electronic transactions, the risk of having unclaimed property has increased.