There’s $140 billion in unclaimed federal benefits and assistance for households in need.
That’s a mountain of money.
Why is it unclaimed? Sometimes it’s because folks just don’t know it exists. Often it’s because the process of applying for it can be daunting – especially for the people who need it most.
Enter Starlight, a New York based startup helmed by Catherine Xu and Shreenath Regunathan, both tech veterans.
Starlight’s aim is to catalog the available monies, make a database that’s easy to search and create tools to make it easy to apply for monies.
What’s in it for credit unions? Think about it. Help a member find monies that will let that member live better and move up the economic ladder and at least two things happen: the member will have strengthened loyalty to the credit union that assisted and that member also may qualify for more credit union products, maybe a car loan or a credit card.
How cool is that?
Four credit unions already are signed up, more are in the queue and TrueStage (nee CUNA Mutual) is an investor.
This conversation started back at the CU 2.0 live event in Phoenix that co founder Cat Xu attended and it had to become a podcast because it blends geekiness with doing social good.
