About
The team Grey Mirror built to finish nonprofit work.
Philanthropy by Grey Mirror is a service of Grey Mirror LLC, a company of engineers and operators who solve organizational problems with disciplined execution, technology, and AI.
Nonprofit leaders kept bringing us the same situation.
Important work. Real funding ambition. And no capacity to carry the load that sits between jobs.
Grey Mirror was built as a growth and solutions company that executes rather than advises. When nonprofit executives started handing us their stuck lists, the work kept proving the same point: the fastest way to help a mission is to take real work off leadership's plate and finish it.
More than 100 nonprofits worked with and advised, from small organizations to one moving over nine figures a year in donations.
Most of those names stay private, on purpose: discretion is part of the service. And this is not a separate firm. The team on this page is the team Grey Mirror draws from, with institutional funding as the natural starting point.
The people in the work.
Engagements are staffed like internal capacity, not like a project bid. You retain the team; Grey Mirror routes the disciplines your work needs. Backgrounds are stated plainly so diligence is easy.
Leadership & delivery
Jake Proffitt
Direction & architectureSets direction, works hands-on in engagements, and personally reviews every inquiry.
Jake founded Auguster Event Trading, where quantitative systems he built generated eight figures in documented gains across its private member community. He then built Grey Mirror with Ethan Furgione into an AI-powered growth and solutions company. His academic background is in electrical engineering at Georgia Tech.
Ethan Furgione
Delivery & client operationsLeads delivery, client coordination, and the operating cadence that keeps engagements moving.
Ethan joined Auguster's leadership as Jake's partner, then co-founded and built Grey Mirror with him across strategy, systems, and execution. He runs the firm day to day: operations, priorities, and follow-through, keeping nine people moving as one team. His academic background spans engineering and economics at Vanderbilt.
Finance & strategy
Nicolas "Nico" Hull
Finance & strategyBrings finance, valuation, underwriting, and diligence judgment to budgets, forecasts, award terms, and the financial side of funded work.
Nico's experience spans exchange markets, investment banking, and private equity, including Kalshi, Goldman Sachs, Lexington Partners, and Halle Capital. His academic background is in philosophy at Vanderbilt.
Technology & systems
Mickey Paulus
TechnologyArchitects the technical side of execution: models, memory, tools, evaluation, and reliability.
Mickey is a technical founder, product builder, and researcher. He co-founded Portal Labs and built the Portal Laptop, co-authored research published in Scientific Data, and helped develop cardiac-signal annotation software. His academic background is in computer science at Georgia Tech.
Alec Hance
Systems integrationConnects fragmented software, communications, files, records, and workflows into infrastructure a team can actually run on.
Alec's work spans consulting, software delivery, and technical leadership, including Accenture, senior development roles, and engineering leadership at Georgia Tech. His academic background is in computer science at Georgia Tech.
Partnerships & development
Joshua "Josh" Strong
Development & relationshipsDevelops the relationships among leaders, advisors, capital, and strategic partners that engagements draw on.
Josh's experience includes Roark Capital and investment leadership at the Georgia Tech Student Foundation, alongside work across venture and private-equity environments. His academic background is in industrial engineering at Georgia Tech.
Ethan Monforton
PartnershipsBuilds the partnerships and trusted referral networks around the work.
Ethan combines investment analysis, operating experience, and relationship development, with a background that includes Bitterroot Capital Advisors and Grey Mirror. His academic background spans economics, human and organizational development, and data science at Vanderbilt.
Counsel
Charles "Barney" Ford
Governance & confidentialityBrings judgment around permission, confidentiality, authority, evidence, and governance, and coordinates counsel oversight where it is required.
Barney brings an in-house counsel perspective focused on corporate structure and governance. His academic background is in law at The Catholic University of America.
Matthew Monforton
Structure & authorizationSupports corporate and transaction structure and keeps public promises aligned with authorized work.
Matthew's legal career spans prosecution, legislation, appellate work, and corporate counsel. He served as a Los Angeles deputy district attorney, represented a Montana district in the state House, and served as counsel on a petition before the U.S. Supreme Court. His academic background is in law at UCLA.
One accountable group. The right disciplines in the work.
Finance questions reach finance judgment. Data and infrastructure problems reach the people who build systems. Questions of permission and governance reach counsel. That routing happens inside Grey Mirror, so your team talks to one group and the right disciplines show up in the work.
We don't pretend everyone is on your account full time. You retain the team, and the work gets whatever it needs.
Confidentiality and responsible access.
Nonprofit work runs on sensitive information. Access is scoped deliberately with you, never assumed.
Agreed at the start of every engagement
- What the team can see, and what it cannot
- Where work product lives
- How access ends when the work ends
- Donor records, financials, program data, and personnel matters treated as what they are: yours
Boundaries that hold throughout
- Legal, accounting, and audit judgment stays with the appropriate licensed professionals
- We execute and coordinate around that judgment, never substitute for it
- Clients are never named publicly without express permission
Put this team on your work.
Tell us what isn't getting done. You have met the people who would carry it.
No schedulers, no sales sequence. A short note is enough.