About Us

"Helping the people who are helping humanity"

Founded in 2001, Easy-Ware's mission is to help our nonprofit customers achieve their missions with less effort and lower costs by providing technology solutions that improve staff productivity, meeting their diverse information management and reporting needs as well as by delivering outstanding and timely support to our customers.  We will always listen closely to our customers and continually improve our products and services.

We will strive to keep our prices as low as possible and as simple as possible and to provide the most features which combine to deliver the highest value solution and the lowest lifetime costs to the nonprofit community.  We stand behind our products and services with a no-questions-asked, ninety-day, money-back guarantee. 

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 18 years, he has been an active volunteer with many nonprofit organizations in the Chicago area, including the Inspiration Cafe where he has been a regular Friday breakfast cook since 1991. 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 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).

Jon Heuring, Performing Arts Business Manager

Jon has spent his entire professional career working in the non-profit world.  He has lent his hand to nearly 200 theatrical productions in his career in all aspects of production, most notably nine years as production manager of Tony Award recipient Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago.  He is also a charter member of the Joseph Jefferson Awards Arts & Technical Committee.  He currently sits on advisory boards with TimeLine Theatre and Premiere Theatre & Performance.  Along with the countless number of theatres he’s worked in, he volunteers with numerous Chicago-area non-profits, including Inspiration Corporation, Chicago Canine Rescue, Chicago Cares and Preservation Chicago. 

Erica Weiss, Sales and Support Specialist

Erica Weiss has spent her career in the performing arts as both a theatre artist and administrator. She was previously the Audience Services Manager for American Theater Company, a Total Info client, before joining Easy-Ware in 2008. In addition to her work with Easy-Ware, Erica is a director and dramaturg for new plays and freelances under the title of The Playwright Whisperer. She was the founding Artistic Director of Hypatia Theatre Company from 2005 to 2008. In addition to her work with Hypatia Theatre, Erica has served as a director or dramaturg at Victory Gardens, Stage Left Theatre, American Theater Company, Chicago Dramatists, Northlight Theatre and others. She holds a BFA in Theatre Studies from the Theatre School at DePaul University.