Can the hashtag #FreeBillionDollarMan get back a billion dollars for California for free?

I was shocked by the extent of the devastation caused by the Californian wildfires so I wanted to see what I can do to help. I predict that with so many people affected it will now no doubt disrupt their state’s economy.

As I am adept at finding unclaimed money I went to the Californian unclaimed money website to see who I could find unclaimed money for and started a list.

My list so far has $1.2 million for NFP’s charities, $1.4 million for actors, musicians, celebrities, etc and $15.1 million which totals $17.8 million

The website is one of only a few US government websites that shows the actual amounts that are unclaimed. California has a total of $13 billion unclaimed dollars.

My idea is simple… advise people of their unclaimed money and ask in return that they advise other people to also search, so it would be a word of mouth campaign. If it is a business they may be able to use the money to offset lost business income in the areas affected by the fires or just donate their windfall onto help those affected. If those same businesses also advise all their staff (in all states) to search for themselves as well as their family them the ripple effect starts to amplify.

I have also found funds for not for profits, charities and foundations who may be able to also use their windfall to fund the recovery program. Again if these same organisations also advise their staff to do their own searches for family and friends the amplification affect continues.

Hollywood will take time to recover. When I was doing my midwifery training in 1991 I was living with the actor Steve Bastoni who at the time was on a popular TV series called Police Rescue. Despite this gig he was still waiting tables to no doubt cover the periods when not acting. I have also compiled a list of Hollywood actors, musicians, singers.

If these celebs were to use their following to also spread the word encouraging everyone to also search then the ripple effect turns into a tsunami of good will, with many people then searching and then sharing their stories of an unexpected windfall.

This would of course require celebrities to admit that they had, like everyday people do, lost track of some of their funds (my wife used the analogy that its like getting people to admit they use a plastic surgeon and asking them to endorse the surgeon).

If enough people share their stories via the hashtag #freebilliondollarman and post their stories about finding money then its conceivable that it could achieve an impact of just 8% of the Californian total which would see one billion dollars reclaimed and much of this could be used to help California out in their time of need.

I need help to implement my list by that i mean letting people know. I have been emailing the agents of some of the celebs without sucess and I would love to get onto Joe Rogan if anyone can help then that would put the campaign on steroids.

If you are wanting to search other states in the USA, a good place to start is the US governments combined unclaimed money websites at www.unclaimed.org or at www.missingmoney.com both are free.

If you want to learn more about the ins and outs of finding all the places to search in the USA, then I recommend you read my nursing colleague Mary Pitman’s book the “Little Book of Missing Money”.