Post Provided By David Hodgkins, Jr - CEO, Dream Strategy, LLC

Are There Millions of Unclaimed Scholarships
Available Each Year?

This myth has been circulating in our school systems for years.  There are several books written each year touting there are millions of dollars of unclaimed scholarships each year… This is totally false.

I want to put this myth to rest for good. 

Non-profit and for-profit organizations do distribute millions of dollars in scholarship funds each year, based on certain criteria.  These funds are distributed to needy and/or talented students.  However, the funds are only given out as long as the donor’s investment portfolio is adequate to distribute the funds.

There are scholarships given out by Rotary Clubs, Churches, Men/Women Groups, etc. as well.

During the years of  2001 to 04′ many of these organizations stopped or cut back on these scholarships because of the down-turn in the market.

Also, these funds are given out on a very competitive standpoint and the average high school student who shows no need or talent (academically, etc.) will not qualify for most of these scholarships.

So, if most of these non-profit and for-profit organizations are giving out all the money they can, where are all the millions of dollars in college scholarships going unclaimed?

Most of the unclaimed scholarships come from employee benefit programs under IRS regulation Section 127 Educational Assistance programs.  This assistance is mostly available to employees of corporations or small business owners.

Let’s look at what the IRS says about this program: 

If the employees do not take advantage of this free money, they go UNCLAIMED.  Plus, if the student is not an employee of the company, they cannot receive these college funds.

For more details visit our website at http://www.dreamstrategy.com/