A finance and communications practice built for small nonprofits.

Lamplighter is a consulting practice for small nonprofits — organizations with real financial obligations and a real story to tell, but without the budget for full-time finance and communications staff. Most fractional services are priced and shaped for much larger institutions. Ours is built for organizations working with an annual operating budget of roughly $100–500K.

On the finance side we set up and clean up QuickBooks, manage day-to-day bookkeeping, payroll, reporting, and audit preparation, and train boards and staff so the numbers feel less like a mystery. On the communications side we produce authentic photography and short-form video, and act as a strategic thought partner in planning and executing a digital communications strategy.

The two disciplines are not separate projects. A clear internal financial picture is what lets a board make decisions with confidence, and a well-told external story is what turns that confidence into funding, partnerships, and trust. Lamplighter exists to hold both at once.

The practice is led by Casey Hayes-Deats, who holds an MBA from George Washington University and a certificate in nonprofit financial stewardship from the Harvard Kennedy School. She has worked as a finance consultant to charter schools and nonprofit arts organizations, as a nonprofit administrator across finance, development, and education, and is currently earning an MFA in Film and Media Arts with a documentary focus at American University. She is a fellow of AU's Community Voices Lab, which produces films that capture the voices of marginalized storytellers with an ethos of collaboration rather than exploitation.

Everything is billed hourly, scoped with clear deliverables and an estimate up front, with no lock-in retainers.