## Facts

- United Way of the Bay Area (UWBA) provided back-office donation-processing services for charities, including receiving donations, issuing receipts, and transmitting funds to designated charitable recipients.
- Network for Good (NFG) operated a website through which donors could contribute online to nearly any U.S. charity.
- NFG contracted with UWBA for donation-processing services for gifts made through NFG’s platform.
- In 2000, UWBA formed PipeVine, a nonprofit subsidiary, to conduct UWBA’s donation-processing work, including work tied to NFG’s account.
- UWBA transferred more liabilities than assets to PipeVine, leaving PipeVine undercapitalized at inception.
- PipeVine, unable to meet obligations with available funds, used new incoming donations to pay older debts and operating expenses rather than timely distributing the donations to the intended charities.
- UWBA and PipeVine did not operate at arm’s length; they shared office space and administrative functions, including legal and accounting resources, had overlapping board participation, and frequently transferred employees.
- UWBA did not take effective steps to correct PipeVine’s financial condition or ensure it could perform its duties to process and transmit charitable funds.
- After approximately three years, PipeVine ceased operations and entered receivership.
- The receiver determined PipeVine had received but not distributed $17.7 million in donations, including nearly $3 million connected to gifts processed through NFG’s website.
- To reduce harm to recipient charities and meet donor expectations, NFG paid $2.36 million of its own funds to the charities that should have received donations routed through PipeVine.
- NFG sued UWBA in San Francisco Superior Court (Case No. 436186), seeking reimbursement and arguing UWBA was responsible for PipeVine’s unpaid obligations based on alter-ego/veil-piercing and related causes of action.

## Issues

1. Whether UWBA could be held liable for PipeVine’s unpaid obligations to NFG by treating PipeVine as UWBA’s alter ego and disregarding PipeVine’s separate corporate existence.
2. Whether UWBA was liable to NFG on NFG’s substantive theories arising from the failure to transmit donations (including contract-based and restitutionary theories tied to UWBA’s control over PipeVine and PipeVine’s handling of funds).
3. Whether NFG was entitled to punitive damages based on UWBA’s conduct connected to PipeVine’s underfunding, operations, and collapse.

## Decision

- After a bench trial, the San Francisco Superior Court (Judge Robert L. Dondero) issued findings of fact and conclusions of law (following an October 2007 tentative decision and a November 2007 decision date reported by multiple sources).
- The court determined UWBA and PipeVine functioned as alter egos and that fairness required holding UWBA responsible for PipeVine’s obligations arising from the donation-processing arrangement.
- The court awarded NFG approximately $4.7–$4.78 million in compensatory damages.
- The court denied punitive damages.

## Legal Principles

- A court may disregard the separateness of a corporation (alter ego/veil piercing) where (1) there is a unity of interest and ownership such that the separate personalities of the entities no longer exist, and (2) treating the acts as those of the separate entity alone would produce an unjust result.
- Facts supporting unity of interest can include undercapitalization at formation, shared office space and departments, overlapping governance, employee interchange, commingling of operations, and intercompany dealings not conducted on standard commercial terms.
- Alter-ego principles can apply in the nonprofit context; formal nonprofit status does not bar a court from imposing liability on a controlling affiliate when separateness is not maintained.
- Punitive damages require a heightened showing under California law; even serious mismanagement or misconduct supporting compensatory relief may fall short of the proof needed for punitive damages.

## Conclusion

In Network For Good v. United Way of the Bay Area, the San Francisco Superior Court held that UWBA could not avoid responsibility for PipeVine’s failure to transmit charitable donations because PipeVine operated as UWBA’s alter ego, and the court awarded NFG roughly $4.78 million in compensatory damages while denying punitive damages.


Network For Good v. United Way of the Bay Area, Case No. 436186 (2007)