We were lucky to catch up with R Perry Monastero recently and have shared our conversation below.

R Perry , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s talk legacy – what sort of legacy do you hope to build?

RPM Consulting Group is built on three core values: integrity, quality methods, and a strong personal service to our clients. We work with nonprofit and business leaders to help build sustainable strategies and funding streams for their organizations. We hope our legacy is to provide our clients with the tools necessary to scale their impact and achieve their mission.

R Perry , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My interest in nonprofit work began at a young age after volunteering with local organizations. Today, I help organizations overcome strategy and fundraising challenges to sustainably scale their operations and impact.
Some career highlights:
• Built the grantmaking structure for what became the nation’s fourth largest private funder of nonprofit work.
• Developed the programming and fundraising of a Philadelphia-based community organization as its first executive director.
• Led the marketing, communications, and fundraising teams at one of the nation’s leading LGBTQ medical, legal, and social service organizations, substantially improving its revenue and branding.
After 25 years in the field, I launched RPM Consulting Group in 2019. Since our inception, we have partnered with over 60 nonprofit boards and executive leadership teams to sustainably scale their operations.
Key to our success is our unique approach to strengthening and growing nonprofit organizations. We make recommendations on strategy and fundraising that put nonprofits in a stronger position in the competitive marketplace for funding. Our dedicated team has worked with organizations of all sizes, from small to international nonprofits and for-profit businesses that dedicate time and money to supporting charitable work and community investment.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

I laughed at this question because, when I started, I had no idea that someone would provide capital for a startup such as mine. Today, I know otherwise, but I also think my “bootstrap” approach was extremely helpful in getting me to focus on the highest-level priorities at any given time. Not having much help in the beginning really makes you focus on what will move your business forward.

For example, the pandemic began after just five months of being in business, and everything came to a screeching halt. Since then, thanks to my team and clients, we have grown incrementally while developing ways to sustain our own growth.

That being said, our firm may be open to partnering with either an investor or larger partner should they match our values and aspirations.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

While studying at Penn, my professors introduced me to the work of Michael Porter (Competitive Strategy, 1985) and Rosabeth Moss Kanter’s utopian group formation classic (Commitment & Community, 1972). I combined these two approaches to strategy and created my own proprietary process for doing environmental scans and market analysis.
Total #nerd here.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://rpmconsulting.group/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RPMConsultingPA
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/perrymonastero/