We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Crystal Gonzalez a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Crystal thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?

This was definitely on my top 5 hardest things about starting a business. I spent months tossing around ideas because I was so worried I’d settle on a name and want to change it after a year or something would change where it would no longer resonate with my mission. Thanks to some pretty awesome friends in my life (who were also colleagues in the nonprofit industry with me, which is what my business focuses on) I shared my list of ideas, received feedback, and chose a name that I’m still over the moon happy with 6 years later – RevComm Consulting. This is a fun question to be asked because I haven’t thought about my original list of potential names in years! I was able to find an email with a list of contenders and I am still confident I chose the right one. Here are a few that made the list: 1. TransComm Consulting: Transforming communities through philanthropy (this sounds like a transportation company!)
2. CommRev: Community revolution through philanthropy (how RevComm started…)
3. Crystal Visions Consulting (crystal visions= clear = clear visions = direct solutions) (great song, could never compete)
4. Crystal Waters Consulting (crystal waters = clear = clear visions = direct solutions) (great singer, again, could never compete!)

I’m sure a few other ideas were tossed around, but the “tagline” really helped develop what ended up becoming by business name. At the very root, I knew I wanted to include something about communities – changing communities, supporting communities. I liked where I was starting to go with “Community revolution through philanthropy” but CommRev didn’t have a nice ring to it. I recall a few conversations with people mentioning that revolution can sometimes have a negative connotation which was 100% something to consider; HOWEVER, I firmly believe that passionate nonprofits do exactly that. The nonprofit sector is made up of people doing the hard work and who are looking to truly change the world. It may be little wins in their own backyard, but they often bring impactful change and meaningful movement. So are nonprofits revolutionary? Hell yes they are, and I wanted to highlight that. After a few more weeks of tossing around ideas, “RevComm Consulting – Revolutionizing Communities through the power of Philanthropy” was born. I am so happy with this name to this day and I hope when people hear the name and understand our mission, they take a moment to celebrate the revolutionary work they do within the nonprofit sector, and for those looking in from other sectors I hope they take a moment to recognize the sacrifices and hard work that nonprofit employees and consultants put in to making their communities brighter.

Crystal, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I started my professional career working in the nonprofit sector and never looked back. My first “big girl” job was working with at-risk youth in the City of Perris providing direct service case management; as rewarding as that job was, I had a really tough time separating work from home, and I carried the stories of my kids with me every day (and still think about them often). I knew I wanted to stay in nonprofit, but I needed to find something that was pulled slightly away from direct service but a role where I could still feel and see the impact I was making. My hat goes off to all direct service workers – it’s HARD WORK.

Soon after, I jumped into community relations and fund development, and would go on to work in operations management, program evaluation, and ultimately oversee all programming for a $7 million agency in Orange County. After nearly a decade in the industry, I started thinking about consulting and how I could become my own boss while also making a positive impact in the community. My husband and I also wanted to start growing our family, and when I got pregnant in early 2017 my career goals shifted in an instant. I didn’t want to clock in ever again and I didn’t want to miss any of my kiddos milestones, so I started dreaming of what a consulting business could look like. It wasn’t (and still isn’t!) easy – every day is a new challenge, and I don’t think I’ll ever stop growing and evolving. I still face imposter syndrome and have moments of self-doubt, but I continue to grow more confident in who I am as a social entrepreneur each day.

RevComm Consulting is a passionate and growing Latina-owned nonprofit consulting business that aims to revolutionize communities through the power of philanthropy. We are passionate about social justice, and creating a community where children thrive, and adults succeed. RevComm Consulting services empower nonprofits to meet the highest needs of the community while always keeping their mission and values at the heart of the solution. Services offerings include Grant Funding, Web Development, Creative Design, 501c3 Formation, Data Solutions, Program Design & Evaluation, and Business Planning. While a large majority of our clients are in the Southern California region, RevComm Consulting has supported agencies all across California and beyond. We pride ourselves on being “mission-agnostic”, meaning our clients serve diverse backgrounds with focus areas ranging from mental and behavioral health to racial justice and domestic violence support. At it’s core, we support nonprofits in raising dollars through grants to continue doing their good work, we help them in building a solid infrastructure whether that be in operations and program development or systems and design, and also help nonprofit founders secure 501c3 status and bring their mission and vision to life.

In late 2020 we added a 501c3 entity to our own work in an effort to support nonprofit organizations still in their infancy stage. By adding our own nonprofit entity (which is 100% volunteer-led by our dynamic and growing Board of Directors!) we’re hoping to help start-up nonprofits establish a foundation and secure the resources and funding needed to sustain services, leading to more opportunities for individuals and families in need. To anyone reading this, please remember to Do Good//Be Good – our world depends on it.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

The largest source of new clients for RevComm Consulting has been direct referrals. I am very fortunate that we have not had to pour a ton of money into marketing and outreach to build new clientele. Over the years, of the 40+ clients we’ve been able to serve, over 90% came from direct referrals from current clients, former colleagues, or connections I’ve been able to make within the nonprofit community. There are a lot of consulting companies out there, but very few that focus entirely on the nonprofit sector. We are based in Riverside, California, and the number of nonprofit consultants are even more limited here in the Inland Empire community. Because of the limited competition and the amazing relationships I’ve been able to build within my network, I am grateful for all the direct referrals we have received over the years.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

Well this is a fun one, because my business partner is also my husband! We met through a mutual friend and saw each other here and there during our party years, but never really talked or got to know one another (we were also both in relationships, so it was a timing thing). A year after we had sort of informally met, we were both single and formally met at a rave of all places, and the rest is history! Yes, we were little rave heads in our younger years and our relationship has blossomed into marriage, parenthood and partners in business.

When I started RevComm Consulting in 2017, my husband Daniel was in support of my dream from the very beginning and often believed in me before I believed in myself. He helped me when I needed it during the early years, but he also very much recognized and honored that this was my business and my dream. Fast forward to 2019, right before the pandemic, I started getting so busy that I needed more of his time. Additionally, we started getting requests for services outside of my expertise but in his, so it only made sense for us to talk about him coming to the business full-time. It was incredibly scary to even think about us both being self-employed, but after years of busting our butts and putting all this time and energy into scaling the business, we were ready. In January of 2020, Daniel officially became my business partner and we were able to expand the business by offering web development, systems/IT, and creative design. When the pandemic hit, we were terrified that we were both self-employed and didn’t have security to fall back on – we even joked it was time to freshen up our resumes just in case the ball dropped. Fortunately, the ball never dropped and the business continued to expand. We are grateful to our clients who trusted us during such a tumultuous time and allowed our business to grow, while we continued to drive impact in our community and do good, important work.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.revcommconsulting.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/revcomm.consulting/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RevCommConsulting/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/revcomm-consulting/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BjZib4OuwM