April 2026 

Flipcause, a for-profit fundraising platform that had promised much lower processing fees (1.5%) than other similar companies, owes $29 million in charitable funds to over 3,200 nonprofit organizations nationwide but does not have the cash on hand to make good on its commitments. For impacted Pennsylvania nonprofits there’s likely not much that can be done to collect funds due to your organizations, but we’ve provided a roadmap below for steps you should take – and we offer some insights for our legislators and the sector at large to help mitigate risks of working with online fundraising platforms, professional solicitors, and fundraising counsel.   

In December 2025, when Flipcause filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy (the kind that allows for reorganization and continued operations while the debts are managed and some portion of what is owed is paid out over time to creditors under court supervision), the company had only $70,000 in cash and valued itself at $20 million, including its $15 million valuation for its website platform, which it sold for only $400,000. For more details, see this series of articles authored by Rasheed Shabazz published in the Oakland Voices, which broke the story on September 11, 2025; see also, the Nonprofit Quarterly article Nonprofits in Limbo as Flipcause Bankruptcy Unfolds (dated March 13, 2026), which has helped raise national awareness about this situation.  

Impact on Pennsylvania nonprofits. In Pennsylvania alone, according to the information gleaned from the bankruptcy filings and charted by Shabazz, 134 organizations are owed a total of $956,410.81. Affected organizations are from places all over Pennsylvania (Harrisburg, Lancaster, York, Reading, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Paradise, etc.) and most dollar amounts due to these nonprofits are in the thousands. Over 25 organizations are owed amounts over ten thousand dollars (and many more than a few of those are owed amounts in the tens of thousands of dollars). One organization in Pittsburgh is owed over $108,000.  

One Pennsylvania organization, which is owed about $50,000, reports that this loss amount is more than half of its total assets. The organization is a small nonprofit that provides grief counseling to parents who have lost babies to SIDS and the founder started the organization after losing her own child. She now believes the organization will have to dissolve this year. 

Even if regulators are able to claw back about $3 million that was paid to a few top executives in the year before the bankruptcy filing, many organizations are expected to never see the funds that were collected by Flipcause for their causes. That $3 million would go to secured creditors first; and the nonprofits are all unsecured creditors. 

A roadmap for impacted organizations. If your nonprofit is one of the 130+ organizations in Pennsylvania (or one of the 3,200 organizations nationwide) reeling from this news and impacted by this loss, check out our free guide summarizing steps you can take to try to recoup the loss, to help ensure your concerns are heard, and to help ensure that any rights your nonprofit organization may have are preserved best they can be, given the circumstances.  

What else can be done? The impact of these losses is significant and calls for more accountability of fundraising platforms. More regulatory enforcement is needed, but charities can also help the situation by staying vigilant.  

  • Organizational vigilance is so important. Here are a few tips: 
  • Nonprofits should always do their due diligence and confirm that any fundraising platforms they are using are registered in Pennsylvania. Professional Solicitors, including all fundraising platforms, are required to register in Pennsylvania, and all Pennsylvania nonprofits should search Pennsylvania’s database (this is the same database listing charities registered to solicit charitable funds in Pennsylvania; click on the drop-down arrow on the left under the word ‘Category’ to search for professional solicitors and professional fundraising counsel) to confirm that fundraising platforms and professionals they are using/working with are registered.  
  • Nonprofits should immediately report any unregistered fundraising platforms to the Pennsylvania Attorney General and to Bureau of Charitable Organizations. 
  • Nonprofits should also stay on the lookout for red flags (such as delayed payments). 

For more steps your organization can take to proactively look out for itself and its donors, use this scorecard to assess your organization’s fundraising risks.  

  • Legislative and regulatory reform is also necessary. Like many other jurisdictions, Pennsylvania already has a law governing charitable solicitations and fundraising entities, though clearly more early awareness and enforcement is needed.  
  • Pennsylvania’s charitable solicitation statute, The Solicitation of Funds for Charitable Purposes Act, 10 P.S. § 162.1 et seq. in Act 202 of 1990 (last amended and effective February 20, 2018), has provisions and definitions applicable to this situation (see, for example, the definition of “Professional Solicitor” and provisions re criminal and civil penalties), but a fresh review and perhaps another amendment is needed to ensure its efficacy. 
  • Pennsylvania’s Attorney General and Bureau of Charitable Organizations could also do more, including making the database of registered entities more publicly accessible (it takes quite a bit of clicking around to locate the database and it’s not immediately apparent that the database includes professional solicitors and fundraising counsel, as the focus is on cataloging registered charities). Adding links to each of the pages discussing the rules governing charities, professional solicitors, and fundraising counsel and highlighting ways to report concerns would go a long way to encouraging organizations and donors to remain vigilant.