Blog

Yesterday at DMAW’s Digital Day, Ashley Hansen of Frakture and Mary Getz of MESG Marketing gave a presentation on data warehousing 101 as well as how to use a few of the most popular business intelligence tools. The slide deck was fairly short, so here is an audio and video recording of the session. Outline …

First of all we want to note that this post is for a select group of people who have DBAs on staff. If you don’t, feel free to talk to Frakture about our data warehousing services. I want to move my database to the cloud, what are some things I should consider? Congratulations, moving your …

When it comes to organization-wide reporting, you need a data warehouse to produce timely and standardized reports. As NGOs become more data-driven, they’re looking for ways to communicate and visualize data for all types of stakeholders, from donors to executives. Data visualization tools crossing channels and departments are essential to telling a story across the …

Last month we launched Frakture Console, a new user interface to help you visualize your whole data environment, from CRM to email to data flow and more. Now you will have a real-time view into all the activity Frakture Bots are doing on your behalf via Console. Want to learn more? We’ve got you covered. Our …

We’re launching a user interface!  While most of the groups we work with value the “just gets it done” aspect of Bots, over the last year we’ve realized that there is a lot of value in visualizing your whole data environment — your CRMs, your email and mobile providers, your online ads, your automated data …

Leverage big data in your organization to make better decisions.   There has been a lot of talk about big data over the last few years. With it comes conversations about data management, data mining, reporting, business intelligence, metadata… it’s overwhelming and enough to make you feel like it’s too complicated or it might just …

Frakture Client Case Study with PBS A few years ago PBS faced the same issue many national federated organizations experience: with hundreds of member stations, how do you work with the diversity of the organization and still have unified data to deliver a seamless and consistent experience to your members? Faced with a data management …

Are you experiencing brain fog, strained eyes or overall fatigue from staring at your computer screen? Are you, running routine reports, uploading them, checking the data only to find out something is not quite right and you have to rerun the data? Is this killing your resolutions to stay out of the weeds and keep …

How are you? My name is Frakture Bot, I’m sometimes called Bot for short. I live in the cloud, but my bosses are in Washington, DC.   I have been so good this year. I have helped attribute millions of dollars in transactions, automate data for agencies so nonprofits get their fundraising reports faster, pick …

It’s that time again! It’s back to school, but it’s also voting time. If you live in a primary state, please, please go vote. But for everyone, voting to create the agenda for the 2019 Nonprofit Technology Conference is in full force! Frakture submitted 3 sessions for #19NTC and we’d love your vote today! Automating your Data …

Me: “I’m going to hear Shankar Vedantam speak!” Friend: “Who’s that?”   Me: “What?” I take a deep breath. “You don’t know who he is? He’s the host of ‘The Hidden Brain’ on NPR.”   I’m clearly a big fan and I proceed to tell my friend why they should listen to Hidden Brain, which …

Curious about Frakture? Here’s a webinar with our CEO and Founder Chris Lundberg talking about Bots, Data Warehousing, Attribution, and Cross Channel Targeting. Don’t have time to watch the whole webinar, you can jump ahead with these cliff notes.   1:38 min – What is Frakture and why we exist 4:35 min – What are Bots …

When we’re out and about, we often hear. “Oh yeah, Frakture! I’ve heard of you, you do integrations and have bots!” Yes, both are true. Frakture does integrations, but they are a bit different than traditional system to system (also called point to point) integrations you’re probably familiar with. Let me explain. All of the …

Have constituents in the EU? Worried about GDPR? Use Warehousing (and bots) to achieve compliance! Are you a nonprofit operating in the EU? Are you an organization in the United States who has constituents in the EU? Have you been selected as the DPO (Data Protection Officer) at your organization, you’re still not sure what …

Every now and then I run across an organization that is convinced that it’s not really a candidate for automation. ‘What we do is too custom, too complicated, for automation.’ What they’re saying is that the time and energy spent automating processes would exceed that already being spent on the work … that automation would actually …

It should come as no surprise that we think we’re on to something revolutionary with Frakture.  Not only does Frakture pull together your data from multiple systems – fundraising, social, digital acquisition, advocacy, and much more – and give you full access to it; we also allow you to do integrations between systems, target the …

Has this ever happened to you? You’ve spent days, maybe even weeks, perfecting a client’s end of year fundraising report. You’ve pulled together email data, fundraising data, Facebook, Adwords and other acquisition data. You’ve analyzed the numbers backwards and forwards, you’ve put together takeaways and recommendations for your client. You’re READY to present the report …

Sometimes we’re in meetings where we’re chatting with really good engineers, and we’ll get comments such as “Well, we’re pretty good engineers — what you’re doing doesn’t seem that hard, in fact we’ve done a lot of the work already”. Totally fair point, and often even true.  Frakture, and more generally automation, really isn’t super-secret …

You may have heard that at Frakture, we have a lot of bots. Good bots. And you’d be right – we add a new system bot about once a month, and we are continuously teaching old bots new tricks (like merging duplicates, uploading groups, etc). The spotlights shine on our system bots, those daring collections …

Is your data causing you headaches? Are reporting requests coming at you so fast that you have trouble processing them all in a timely fashion? Are you collecting a ton of data, but it’s in a billion different places? Do you have a smart technology and data team, but their time is already stretched thin? …

The ubiquitous magic of spreadsheets has a way of infiltrating operations because they’re just so darn handy. But their propensity to multiply ungoverned for many little tasks makes them liable to bury one like the sorcerer’s apprentice when they’re needed in tandem. How did our ads do in Q2, the board asks, and a hundred ad …

Our Bots do a lot of pulling and pushing data around, and there’s one rule we learned pretty quickly: Point-to-point (P2P) integrations suck. For a while we thought it was because we just weren’t smart enough, or good enough, or gosh darn it, people didn’t like us. After some Bot-assisted therapy (don’t ask), though, we …

Summary: The non-profit SOS Children’s Villages wanted to build an email welcome series for its’ supporters, but technical issues and cost had always gotten in the way. With Frakture’s help they are now following best practices in digital communications and able to immediately communicate with new supporters interested in their work. Background: SOS Children’s Villages …

Summary: Have you ever had the experience of trying a new product and once you experienced it, you don’t know how you ever lived without it? That’s what Amnesty International is experiencing right now. With Frakture, useful, actionable and accurate data is available quickly, automated reporting and data management is saving staff hours upon hours …

The revolutionary possibilities for automation ought not distract from their palpable everyday benefits. Robots’ broad chrome shoulders will not disdain the burden of minor everyday CRM management tasks that drain hours from the overtaxed NGO’s weeks and color from its staffers’ hair, and their talent for uncomplaining repetitive tasks can turn the impossible into the indispensable. LuminateBot …

What do my kindle, cell phone, air conditioning, coffee, and Frakture have in common? They are all things in my life that before they were there, I didn’t even know I needed them. A perfect example is my cell phone.  I remember delaying getting a cell phone, because I didn’t feel like I needed to …

You rocked that project! You are really good at your job! You are amazing!  It feels so good to get a compliment. Have you given any out today? If not, we would love you to give one to us by voting for Frakture’s proposed panels at the 2018 Nonprofit Technology Conference in New Orleans! Voting …

Ahh, summertime! I’m looking forward to BBQs, berry picking and vacation. But somehow, my growing to do list didn’t get the memo that it’s summer. Apparently more daylight does not equate to more hours in the day and the work doesn’t stop! Frakture’s clients have found the smart solution to their growing pile of work. …

“In my time we didn’t depend on high-tech gadgets like you do. We didn’t need a mechanical washing unit to wash our clothes. We just used a washing machine.” -Fry, Futurama (season 2, “Mother’s Day”) Arthur C. Clarke famously observed that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic but he forgot to add that …

Does this sound familiar? You’ve just purchased a license for an awesome data visualization tool that you hope will change your life.  (Well, at least your life at work.) The possibilities are huge – it promises to pipe in data from a variety of sources and display it in a visually appealing way. Then you …

Last month Frakture’s Bots and Humans attended the 2017 Nonprofit Technology Conference. We saw old friends, met many new, and were thrilled that there was so much buzz about Frakture’s Bots. Here are a few of our highlights, what were yours? From #17NTCdatadriven: Data is our friend and data health is vital to the success …

We’ve been thinking a lot lately about nonprofit’s access to their own data and came across a white paper published by Blackbaud in 2009 titled “Set Your Data Free”. Even though it’s 8 years old, the information is even more important today than it was then. Here are our thoughts on some of the points …

In tonight’s NCAA hoops final, there’s every chance that a three-point shot will determine a champion. After all, 3 > 2 … and that makes the three-pointer, in the words of Citadel coach Duggar Baucom, a “game-changer”, the long-range bomb that can hasten a comeback or swing a result. Yet only with the rise of …

On Tuesday, we had a blast sharing with an engaged group on what Frakture has been up to with Data Warehousing and Automation with Bots. Chris Lundberg, Frakture’s co-founder, touched on 5 things Frakture’s Bots make possible. Bringing your data together Reaching new markets Automating your marketing Integrating strategic information Producing up-to-date, accurate and amazing reports …

Frakture Bots work in chunks of effort known as “jobs”.  It’s how we monitor what they’re doing, track errors and retries, etc.  While each type of job is slight different, we try to structure jobs to be the equivalent of about 20 minutes of dedicated human effort.  For example: Log into a CRM, schedule and …

In 2017, many forward-thinking nonprofits are sure to turn their eyes towards bots — the good kind, whose innovations are reshaping the digital experience from households to the Fortune 500. Welcome to the future! Frakture has been the pioneer in nonprofit bots for over three years, and we’re eager to introduce you to the fleet …

Dear Santa, This year I’m only asking for one thing. Will you please bring me a robot to help me with my job and life? There’s so much more I could do if I had a robot helper. I’ve been really, really good. Here’s what the robot needs to do: Clean up all the spreadsheets, pivot tables …

Does this sound familiar? Your boss or leadership asks you for information about your fundraising or marketing program that would be really great to deliver….But you had to tell your organization or company that you can’t get to the data, or if you can, you can only do that report once a month because of …

Here at Frakture, we’re all about using Bots and automation to solve real-world problems that expand what nonprofits can do with their technologies to raise money, spur advocacy, and make change happen. Not surprisingly, the most frequent question we get when we talk with people about Frakture’s Bots and data warehousing solution is, “So what can …

Why are so many organizations looking into data warehousing and reporting suites? The answer is deceptively simple. The dream of just one database – and that elusive 360 view: The dream (and the marketing hype) would have you believe that Salesforce or Raiser’s Edge or Team Approach or any number of other database players is the …

On April 23, 2015, the Frakture team presented a highly informative webinar on The Path to Having a Data Informed Communication and Engagement Strategy. Presenters: Chris Lundberg, CEO and Michael Cervino, Chief of Client Development Why is data important? Data can inform how we communicate and motivate people to make the decision we want. To …

Join us Thursday, April 23rd @ 2pm EST for a webinar. REGISTER NOW Data and Analytics are all the rage these days and the appeal to use data to inform comms strategy is coming from all sides. You’re collecting data everywhere. In your CRM, in your offline database, from your direct mail programs, from your social media, …

Today, New Media Ventures announced that Frakture is among six startups they are providing financing to via their Innovation Fund. We couldn’t be more pleased to have such thoughtful investors in our seed round who care deeply about the organizations we serve and invest in more than just the bottom line — they invest in impact. …

So, your team finally decided that you’ve got the skills, you’ve got the people, and you’ve got the time to build out an in-house data warehouse. Or, you’ve already got one built out (congratulations!). Once well fed, your Warehouse Beast – as commanded by your team – will start producing fantastic insights, great reporting, and …

By Kathy Powers In our recent webinar, ‘Focus on Message; Not Machinery: 7 Tips for Working Smarter with Data’, Frakture’s Chief of Client Development, Michael Cervino, offered a tip of ‘Being a Source Code Fanatic.’ This led me down a reminiscent path of many different source code schemas I have seen in my career and …

On January 7th, 2015, Frakture’s Michael Cervino offered seven tips on how you can work smarter with data in our webinar, “Focus on Message; Not Machinery: 7 Tips to Work Smarter with Data”. Here is a quick overview. To get all 7 tips, download the deck here. Nobody can argue that we’re overwhelmed with technology …

By Chris Lundberg As we’ve been going through dozens of demos and presentations, we’ve been heartened by the response. It’s been fun to see people’s jaws drop and the look of excitement as Frakture promises to solve real, hard problems that both organizations and companies are facing today. There’s also been some amount of healthy …

By Kathy Powers Did you see our Data Analyst Looking for Work… post? The one with the ‘sexiest job of the century’ caption on the image? We wanted to revisit this to let you know an even sexier career is emerging. While analysts are still around and in high demand, we are seeing the evolution of …

By Kathy Powers Some organizations are diligent about setting up funnels and source coding systems and compiling multiple reports to provide insights into ‘The Other’ revenue that comes in. Most organizations just see that a (smaller) percentage of their revenue came in response to email and the remainder came in ‘over the transom’. Identifying ‘The …

Heard that recently? Not likely! Here at Frakture, we have tremendous respect for all the data geeks out there and think it’s a good thing that they are in extremely high demand these days. We see first-hand, organizations struggling to get a handle on their data across all their channels and think the inclination to …

By Kathy Powers A head-turner. She sashays into the room quietly, her turquoise attire catching your eye, a spring in her step. Her hairstyle exudes confidence and makes you remember days gone by. She has a lot to say – a lot – but keeps her conversations short – very short – and to the …

By April Pedersen One of the most common questions we get from our “Gamma Cohort” and potential clients and partners is “When are you launching?” Part of me wants to give them a date and announce a great big launch party (everyone who knows me knows how much I love to throw a good launch …

We had an interesting question come up in a presentation the other day regarding permissions. “Frakture Bots have access to different systems, and thus the users of those Bots basically inherit those permissions, right?” Yes. This can work in good ways and bad ways — and in general the bad ways are fixable. For example, …