Our Approach

At Lifeboat Accounting, we believe in practical, transparent, and personalized accounting for nonprofits. Every organization we work with is unique — so we take the time to understand your operations, reporting needs, and goals before we begin. We strive to meet all FTC regulations for safety and security of your data by using a secure portal.

During our first few months of working together, we will review your chart of accounts, finance operations, policies, and more in order to make suggestions and build in efficiencies. From there we will work together with you to create a work plan and set deadlines to meet your board meetings. Clients can choose to present items themselves or have one of our staff attend and present on their behalf.

As you set sail with our nonprofit crew, we will ensure you have functional expense reporting, grant reports that you don't need to generate on a separate system, and that your budgets are not as stressful to prepare as they used to be. Staff can receive training and education to be successful or to do as much in-house as possible, and the boards can breathe a little easier receiving information that is helpful to them to govern. The Executive Director can sleep better at night not having to ask for budget vs actual reports or feel like they are on an island on their own.

Transparent Services & Pricing

Annual Tax Filings (Form 990 Preparation)
For nonprofit organizations, we prepare and file your federal and state Form 990s and related schedules. This service includes an annual presentation to the board so they are aware of what types of items are disclosed publicly on IRS Form 990.
Typical Fee: $1,250 per filing year
State forms are an additional fee of $250 per state.

Financial Support
We help nonprofits stay on course with monthly bookkeeping , reconciliations, and reporting.

We do not offer flat monthly fee subscriptions as we encourage all organizations to take advantage of technology to streamline their books. We feel strongly any savings on our time should be given back to the mission vs our pockets. Financial support clients also receive unlimited CPA access at this discounted rate.

Please note the first 15 days of the month deadline reports are waitlist only at this time.

Typical Rate: $150/hour

Consulting

Meet with a CPA for one-off consulting or support with your nonprofit organization. Do you only have a few questions or just need a half or full day meeting without a full support contract? Do you have a capacity building grant and just need some new policies and guidance? No problem. Typical rate: $200/hr

    Strategic Compasses

Have a crewmate from Lifeboat Accounting walk your stakeholders through a 2-hour mini strategic session. These sessions will build a 1-2 page strategic compass for the organization. Strategic compasses are more affordable and shorter term than a full strategic plan.

-          Workbooks alone: $35

-          Crew-led session $500

-          Crew-led session and creation of compass: $1,000

Requests for Proposals (RFPs)

We don’t respond to RFPs — and here’s why.

We can spend time responding to the hundreds of RFP requests we receive a year or we can spend the time helping as many organizations as possible.

We believe choosing an accountant isn’t about bidding; it’s about building a relationship based on trust, communication, and shared values. RFPs rarely capture that. Instead, we invite prospective clients to start a conversation with us. Tell us about your organization, your challenges, and your goals — and we’ll be happy to share what it might look like to work together.