Flipcause touts Oakland as its headquarters on its website. Yet the fundraising platform accused of withholding millions from nonprofits nationwide appears to have no physical presence here or anywhere.
Oakland Voices visited the 101 Broadway address listed on Flipcause’s website. The space belongs to Port Workspaces, which leases co-working spaces at three Oakland locations.
On four separate visits since July, Oakland Voices found no signage, directory, or staff acknowledgement of Flipcause at the Jack London Square location.
Port Workspaces did not respond to emails seeking to confirm Flipcause’s tenancy. Other tenants told Oakland Voices they had never heard of Flipcause.
Flipcause did not respond to a request for comment.
Corporate documents, public filings, and old photos show Flipcause once used a nearby live/work loft and later an office space. The office closed right before the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. It’s unclear if Flipcause ever used the coworking space.
‘They ain’t been there in over two years’
Some local nonprofits said part of Flipcause’s appeal was that it was homegrown with accessible local headquarters.
“I could drive up there if I wanted,” Mark Gaskins told Oakland Voices this summer.
In 2016, the company was nominated for an Oakland Indie Award as an “Innovative Newcomer.”
Almost a decade later, Flipcause is at the center of a federal lawsuit. The Latino Medical Student Association-Northeast claims Flipcause defrauded nonprofits. The lawsuit seeks class-action status and damages exceeding $5 million. The civil summons for the lawsuit lists Flipcause’s 4th Street address.
Several organizations have also filed complaints with the California Attorney General. The state oversees charity fundraising platforms. The Department of Justice administers the Registry for Charities and Trusts. Flipcause is not registered to collect donations in California. The Attorney General’s office would neither confirm or deny if an investigation is afoot. The registry also lists Flipcause as located on 4th Street.
Local nonprofits said they haven’t seen any employees there.
“It ain’t like you’re going to roll up on Mr. Wheeler,” Amelah El-Amin said about Flipcause’s CEO, Sean Wheeler. El-Amin is the executive program director of Oakland-based Mu’eed. The organization provides meals for unhoused residents and other people experiencing food insecurity. She said Flipcause owes her organization more than $30,000.
Flipcause was once responsive to her calls and emails, but no more. For her, going to the Broadway location to seek the money makes no sense. “They ain’t been there in over two years,” she said.
From growth to remote: No sign of Flipcause
Founded in 2012 as Wecause Group in San Francisco, Flipcause rebranded and relocated to Oakland in 2013 or 2014. The company incorporated in Delaware, a state that requires all corporations incorporated in that state to file an annual report and pay a franchise tax.
By 2014, co-founder Emerson Ravyn (then known as Christopher Emerson Valiao) listed Flipcause’s place of business as 311 Oak St, Ste 110, a live/work loft in the Sierra, a complex in Jack London Square. Flipcause used the loft until 2017, according to corporate filings and an analysis of Flipcause Instagram posts.
By 2018, the startup raised nearly $3 million and moved from the “cozy” loft to the Allied Paper Building at 283 4th Street.
Flipcause staff once hosted office tours for youth and community visits. On Instagram, staff photos with their pets and Halloween costumes at the office. The last public staff picture at the 4th Street location appears on Oct. 31, 2019.
By early 2020, citing Bay Area costs, Flipcause closed its office and relocated to a co-working space, according to a report by an Oklahoma news outlet.
“As a software company that works with nonprofits and trying to offer the lowest-cost product and services, we found that our costs overall just weren’t keeping pace with the inflation of the Bay Area,” Valiao (Ravyn) told the Tulsa World at the time.
In corporate filings since, the company has since listed a mix of addresses for executive leadership in Brooklyn, New York, New Mexico, Florida, Oakland, and Sacramento.
Flipcause’s leadership transition
It’s unclear exactly when Sean Wheeler became Flipcause CEO. Wheeler’s Linkedin profile has listed him as “Director of Client Services,” since April 2013. On Linkedin, co-founder Emerson Ravyn lists himself as Flipcause CEO through June 2021. He relocated to Brooklyn and founded Ravyn Society and Lockwell, a cybersecurity company that later partnered with Flipcause.
A March 2025 filing with California’s Secretary of State lists Wheeler as CEO and used a Hawaii address. The filing lists Ravyn as Secretary and Chief Financial Officer. A follow-up April 2025 filing by Wheeler lists himself as CEO, Secretary, and CFO. While the business address is still 101 Broadway, the mailing address is the Sacramento address of Northwest Registered Agent, a company that registers foreign corporations in California.
Flipcause’s current City of Oakland Business License lists 101 Broadway Floor 3 as its address. A business tax staff member said they could not discuss Flipcause’s account with Oakland Voices.
Disclosure: Amelah El-Amin graduated from Oakland Voices’ 2019 class. She contacted the author after our first Flipcause story. Mu’eed, Inc. was previously owed $44,000.
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