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Bankruptcy hits nonprofits in San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara counties

January 6, 2026

Flipcause founder Emerson Ravyn

By KAREN VELIE

A California-based fundraising platform filed for bankruptcy reorganization while owing $29 million to nonprofits, including 20 located in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties. Many of these organizations are now struggling to pay their bills and support their causes.

Started in 2012, Flipcause is a fundraising platform for nonprofit organizations. The Oakland startup handles donations and provides online storefronts and ticketing for nonprofit fundraisers.

Flipcause charges its nonprofit clients a yearly subscription fee of $1500 to $2400 dollars for their services, according to court records. In addition, the platform charges clients 6.9% of each donation plus 30 cents.

Millions of donor dollars flowed through Flipcause to nonprofits focused on a multitude of social issues. Even though Flipcause payments were contracted to be sent out within five days of receipt, about two years ago they began to slow roll payments, multiple clients told CalCoastNews.

Earlier this year, Flipcause stopped paying its clients.

One of those nonprofits is 805UndocuFund, which Flipcause owes $352,500. Providing services to undocumented immigrants in San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura counties, 805UndocuFund’s mission is to provide short-term financial relief to undocumented residents during disasters while engaging the undocumented immigrant community to advocate for long-term systems change.

Currently, 805UndocuFund is best known for training community members to organize against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). They also provide information on Department of Homeland Security’s criminal enforcement, with volunteers blowing whistles to warn undocumented immigrants law enforcement is in the area.

Another local nonprofit, 17 Strong in Pismo Beach, provides victory trips to young adults who have battled life-threatening illnesses.

In this case, the treasurer noticed the late payments two years ago and warned the board, which then limited the number of donations going through the fundraising platform. Even so, Flipcause owes 17 Strong $12,000, according to Steve Teixeira, 17 Strong’s board president.

“Flipcause has done a lot of harm to us,” Teixeira said. “We saw the writing on the wall and fought them for two years. We got most of our money.”

Another local nonprofit that noticed the slow roll in payments and limited donations going through Flipcause, The Boys and Girls Club of South San Luis Obispo County, is owed $7,500, said board member Stacy Korsgaden.

Following complaints from multiple nonprofits including 17 Strong, on Nov. 12, the  California Attorney General’s Office filed a cease and desist order against Flipcause regarding the following violations:

  • Failure to register with the Attorney General’s Registry of Charities and Fundraisers
  • Failure to remit donations
  • Failure to file annual fundraising reports

On Nov. 11, less than 100 of the 3,895 nonprofits Flipcause owes money filed a punitive class action against the fundraising platform.

Flipcause filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Dec. 19, listing 3,635 nonprofit creditors. The donation processing company listed assets of $20,228,513 and liabilities of $30,527,260, according to the bankruptcy filing.

The list of Flipcause creditors in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties include:

  • 17 Strong, Pismo Beach
  • Boys and Girls Club of South San Luis Obispo County, Oceano
  • Central Coast Veterans Helping Veterans, San Luis Obispo
  • 805Undocufund – Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura counties.
  • Empowerment Avenue, Santa Barbara
  • Empowerment Works, Santa Barbara
  • Ernest Brooks Foundation, Santa Barbara
  • Eva Ulz, esquire, San Luis Obispo
  • Hannah E. Murphy, esquire, Grover Beach
  • Haven Family Resources, Santa Barbara
  • History Center of San Luis Obispo County, San Luis Obispo
  • Home Storytellers, Santa Barbara
  • Jasper L. Ozbirn, esquire, Santa Barbara
  • Knowing You Matter Inc., Arroyo Grande
  • Mission San Pedro, Santa Barbara
  • North County Christian School, Atascadero
  • Paititi Institute, Santa Barbara
  • Race Matters SLO County, San Luis Obispo
  • The Pacific Coast Conservation Alliance, Paso Robles
  • Unite to Light, Santa Barbara

On Monday, the  California Attorney General’s Office filed a motion to appoint a trustee in the Flipcause bankruptcy.

“The record in this case, although small, has established ongoing mismanagement and commingling of funds, dishonesty, self-dealing, and potential fraud,” according to the California Arrorney General’s request for a bankruptcy receiver. “Debtor has utterly depleted its financial resources to the detriment of charity. It would be in the interest of debtor’s 3,200 charitable clients to have the few remaining assets in debtor’s possession be controlled and administered by an impartial third party.

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I’m coming out loud and clear that I am DONE with Non-Profits. We have had to utilize their ‘services’ for my daughter who is autistic and friends and neighbors who are elderly and in need. So far I have had no good or even fair experiences. There is not enough oversight and transparency and professional grant writers seem to know just what to write to get government grants (taxpayer money) but these organizations do not deliver anything useful to it’s clients. Let’s start with Wilshire that made headlines last year when it closed after 40 years in this county. There was such a mismanagement of money it is criminal. The Director was getting paid $250,000.00 per year and had hired family members at $100,000.00 salaries for doing nothing. My friends utilized their services and one of their ‘unpaid volunteers’ committed financial elder abuse against them. Law enforcement and County Adult Protective Services opened an investigation. Who vets these volunteers? Moving on to NCI Affiliates and Pathpoint who are supposed to help special needs children and adults. Both failed horribly causing my daughter trauma and set her back emotionally and developmentally. Their employees are underpaid (they can make more working at McDonalds) so obviously they are at best incompetent and at worst outright vindictive. At every level from the director to the ‘job coaches’ everyone is only interested in covering their own asses with no care as to actually helping the clients. I do not know what the answer is but the state of non-profits in California is dismal. I just read that the CEO of St. Judes Hospital earns $1.85 million per year. When I say I am DONE I mean I will not donate one more penny to any non-profit. If you see someone handing cash or a ziplock bag with snacks and toiletries, to a homeless person with a sign, that’s probably me. At least I know I’m actually giving to someone who is asking for help and I can hear them, say “Thank You.”


4

Not sure how this became a left vs. right thing. Let’s face it: when money is involved, greed takes over. The best I can figure out is that I check out charitynavigator.org before I give money to any organization. I specifically check it how much the CEO makes. I stopped giving money to some organizations, such as the ASPCA, because the CEO makes way too much money for a supposed charity organization. The biggest grifters here: academia. The money you donate academic organizations goes to bean counter salaries and hiring more people to find more money; very little of those donations trickles down to students.


22

Yep. I used to donate to the Red Cross, until they went off the rails with salaries and non-emergencies. I also used to donate heavily to the Boy Scouts, until they, also, went off the rails of the very purpose Lord Baden-Powell instituted.


I now donate exclusively to the USO. While their executive makes about 120+K per year, the USO works daily, every day, all year, to get supplies, support, and exclusive entertainment to deployed service members anywhere on the planet. Recall, this is not a government organization, but their AFR is less than 30%, which isn’t bad….not great, but not bad. Anything that is shipped on military aircraft, must be paid freight, no freebies “just because”. Otherwise, it must be shipped commercial. So the AFR bothers me hardly at all.


Since I have had, personally, many years of USO support, they have a special place in my wallet :)


13

As a very fine and intelligent woman once said: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other peoples’ money.”


25

What honest ones? All NGO’s getting a majority of their money from the “G” not the “Non” have proven to be inherently corrupt, far worse than the less-than-efficient G itself. Wilshire Health ($500,000/yr no-show director), CAPSLO, I’ll stop there for now. Then the intermediary gathers take their cut of the “Non’. I never got United Way, a very fine place to (not) work I’ve heard. Why not donate directly? They even got there nose into employer-based employee giving programs including major corporations and government agencies. I see there are a couple new ones that have popped up lately in the area.


26

Mr. Ravyn and the folks at Flipcause were just utilizing the Democrat Party business model – Cheating, Fraud and Thievery.


46

“NGO” is just a code word for illegal governmental agency. Skirting the rules and spending taxpayer money where it shouldn’t.


63

  1. are non_profits transferring local, state or federal grant funds through this network and paying this organization and its affiliates with those funds as well?

  2. does this network allow anonymous donations to the various non-profits?

  3. Are records within this organization maintained that account for and track where funds came from and where they go?

  4. Hopefully the DOJ and feds are aware of this and investigating.


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