Numerous nonprofits are saying Oakland-based donation processing platform, Flipcause, mishandled their funds, costing them thousands of dollars. The company currently has 81 unresolved Better Business Bureau complaints.

In an exclusive report, KGO’s Dan Noyes spoke with various nonprofits across the country, which say that although Flipcause promises delivery of funds to clients’ accounts within 7 to 10 days, the company has significantly delayed its distributions — or failed to send them altogether — over the past year and a half. Clients’ ongoing attempts to recover their funds are usually met with no response.

According to a recent Reddit thread, "tens of thousands" of nonprofits have been impacted by Flipcause’s mishandling of their funds. Users whose nonprofits have been with Flipcause for a decade previously boasted about the company’s top-notch platform — until it began delaying distributions and removed its dedicated customer service phone line in favor of a chatbot.

Morgan Schauffler of Marin County’s Youth in Arts told KGO that Flipcause stopped paying them in March, and it currently owes the nonprofit $22,000, per KGO.

Julia Wyson of the Shakespeare Youth Festival in Los Angeles told KGO, "I have to tell my staff, I'm sorry, guys, you're gonna have to wait for your paycheck, because we're waiting for Flipcause to pay us our money."

Some have even considered closing their nonprofits due to the delayed or missing funds. Tammy Clark of Homeless Hands in Zanesville, Ohio told KGO that although she ended up receiving all of her funds, she still lost dozens of donors due to the delay.

McKenna Sellars of Montana Renewable Energy Association told the station, "We don't have a lot of staff. And so, trying to dedicate a person to go and manage what's going on with Flipcause on a daily basis is just taking away from the mission."

A Redditor said in addition to still owing their nonprofit $180,000, Flipcause won’t let them transfer their recurring donors to a new platform, which is typically a complimentary service on other platforms. “We would be very happy to join a class action lawsuit!” they concluded.

Other Redditors said they received partial payments after constantly hounding the staff, including the company's sales team.

"I am going to quit over this issue. The way it is being handled is horrendous," a disgruntled salesperson at Flipcause told KGO. "Not even we as employees are getting any real answers or timelines on what the (expletive) is going on."  

"... I genuinely believe they mean no harm, but I can no longer sell this product in good faith," the employee continued.

The Better Business Bureau said it first became aware of Flipcause in 2015, but the majority of the complaints and reviews appear to be from the past year and a half. The page states that Flipcause has received 89 complaints in the past three years, 81 of which have gone unresolved.

Image: Donald Gruener/Getty Images