(Raleigh, N.C.) – “COVID was hard on a lot of teams,” Charlotte Rugby Club Board of Directors President Rebecca Peltzman said of the ongoing financial struggles many organizations are experiencing. That is why she was excited that State Treasurer Dale R. Folwell, CPA, returned missing money that belongs to the club.
Peltzman joined with the treasurer on Friday, Feb. 11, for a check presentation to receive $323 that staff in the Department of State Treasurer’s (DST) Unclaimed Property Division (UPD), commonly called NCCash.com, identified as unclaimed assets belonging to the club. NCCash.com is the repository for approximately 18 million properties valued at roughly $919 million under DST’s custody.
“At the Department of State Treasurer, we are all too familiar with the challenges that families, businesses, civic and nonprofit organizations continue to face due to the coronavirus pandemic,” Treasurer Folwell said. “As keeper of the public purse with oversight responsibilities for unclaimed money and property, I’ve continued to implement tried-and-true as well as new methods to get these assets back into the hands of the rightful owners at a time when they are needed most.”
Peltzman said the Charlotte Rugby Club, a professional sports organization founded in 1971 that has some of the Southeast’s top men’s and women’s talent among its 100 members, is at a financial crossroads.
“We have been working on a number of renovations on our facility,” a European style rugby complex in Northwest Charlotte built in the early 1990s and now in need of plumbing and structural upgrades, Peltzman said.
“We’ll most likely be using this newly found money towards additional repairs,” Peltzman said. “We have donors, and our members pay dues, but that doesn’t even cover half of our expenses let alone upgrades and operational expenses” such as practice equipment and game balls, hiring referees and medical trainers for games.
“We were surprised to find out that there was over $300 at the Department of State Treasurer with our name on it,” Peltzman said. “Every penny counts.”
“On behalf of my staff, I wish to congratulate the Charlotte Rugby Club as it prepares to celebrate its upcoming 50th anniversary season providing a fun and healthy opportunity in an inclusive sport whose members include teachers and firefighters, engineers and salespeople of all physical shapes and sizes,” Treasurer Folwell said.
For the fiscal year through Dec. 31, UPD has paid 86,106 claims totaling about $50.1 million from NCCash. Part of that total has been disbursed through the new NCCash Match program, a no-hassle, expedited system that eliminated paperwork processing. As of Dec. 31, DST paid 54,960 claims totaling nearly $19.1 million.
Under state law, UPD receives and safeguards funds that are escheated, or turned over, to DST. The unclaimed property consists of bank accounts, wages, utility deposits, insurance policy proceeds, stocks, bonds and contents of safe deposit boxes that have been abandoned. More information, including how to find out if you are owed money, can be found at https://www.nccash.com.