About Us

Founded in 2001, Easy-Ware is a developer of cost effective constituent management solutions for small businesses that are powerful, fully scalable and fully featured, yet easy to install, learn and use. Easy-Ware solutions are available in both single and multi-user, networked solutions. Written for Microsoft Windows®, Easy-Ware solutions can also run on a network of Apple Macintosh® computers using a Windows Terminal Server-based solution.  Easy-Ware solutions can also run directly on a single Macintosh computer using Microsoft's Virtual PC software for OS X.

Charlie Frankel, President and Founder

Charlie has nearly twenty years of business software experience, encompassing systems engineering, product design and leading large-scale development efforts as well as broad sales and marketing experience.

Most recently, Charlie was President of Fourth Bridge, an Internet company which provided the nonprofit community with a suite of integrated Internet-based solutions to help them achieve their program, organizational, and financial goals with less effort and lower cost. Fourth Bridge connected a nonprofit organization’s website and e-mail with a web-based constituent management system enabling them to better communicate with their constituents and to build an active online community. Fourth Bridge also provided online donation as well as event and walk-a-thon registration capabilities.

Prior to Fourth Bridge, Charlie served as President of New Century Information Services, a market-leading retail software company. Prior to NCIS, Charlie was Vice President, Group Product Manager at CCC Information Services where he led the design and development of the software that powers the $250 million company today. Prior to CCC Information Services, Charlie served as a consultant with The Boston Consulting Group in Chicago and Booz Allen & Hamilton in London.

Charlie has served on several nonprofit boards including the Inspiration Cafe, the Lookingglass Theatre Company, the Friends of Battered Women and Their Children, the Lyric Opera Auxiliary Board and the Steppenwolf Theater Auxiliary Council, holding various positions including those of president, secretary, treasurer as well as a variety of committee chairpersonships. For more than 15 years, he has been an active volunteer with many nonprofit organizations in the Chicago area, including the Inspiration Cafe where has been a regular Friday breakfast cook since 1992. As a nonprofit executive, Charlie has participated in all aspects of starting and managing a nonprofit organization, including: executive director searches; personnel policy development; volunteer management; board development; computer systems/Internet infrastructure; constituent databases; accounting systems; government and foundation grant writing; and many major fundraising events.

Charlie holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1983) and a Masters in Management degree from Northwestern University's Kellogg Graduate School of Management (1990). In addition, Charlie is the lead inventor on three patents for two different software applications.

Nonprofit Board Memberships:

  • Lookingglass Theatre Company, 2001-present
  • Inspiration Cafe (Treasurer) 1996-2003.
  • Center Theater Ensemble (Secretary, President) 1994-2001.
  • Friends of Battered Women and Their Children (Treasurer) 1990-1999.
  • Lyric Opera Auxiliary Board, Executive Committee 1999-2003.
  • Steppenwolf Theater, Governing Member, Auxiliary Council, Executive Committee. 2000-2003.

Ross Peplow, Vice President

Ross loves streamlining office and business processes. In his work in the non-profit and for-profit arenas he has always strived for efficiencies achieved through better paper flow and most importantly through integrating technology into office processes. Before joining easy-ware, Ross worked with The AIDS Foundation of Chicago where he streamlined such processes as donation processing, donor acknowledgment, state funding reimbursement, and financial procedures. Prior to that Ross served as the Director of Development Applications at The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. This position allowed him to train, provide support, and develop solutions for JDRF chapters across the country. Before crossing into the non-profit arena, Ross worked as an implementation specialist providing training and support to Lotus Notes, ACT! and Maximizer clients.

Cliff R. Benzel, West Coast Manager

Trained as an engineer at MIT and worked in the aerospace industry as a senior electronics engineer before deciding to enter the nonprofit service sector. He has held the position of Vice President of Administration and Finance for one of the largest international nonprofits (which included management of the computer and database systems) and Executive Director of two national nonprofits. He has overseen the development of several nonprofit database systems and has a passionate commitment to the development of excellence in nonprofit management.  He presently serves on the boards of two national nonprofit agencies.

Ryan Brewster, Customer Service Manager

Since 1998 Ryan has worked with a number of arts organizations as a Musical Director and Pianist. Some of the companies he has worked with include Noble Fool Theatricals, Cupid Players, White Horse Theatre Company, and Boxer Rebellion Theatre (Chicago, IL), Metropolis Performing Arts Center (Arlington Heights, IL), ArtBridge (Guatemala) and Weathervane Theatre (Whitefield, NH). Ryan is a company member of White Horse Theatre Company and was nominated for a Joseph Jefferson award for Musical Direction in 2006. He holds a BS in Aeronautical & Astronautical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2003).