Last Updated on 9/30/22
Review Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, and Community Guidelines here.
What is Frank?
Frank is a private digital organizing platform for unions, worker centers, and labor organizations to connect with workers, build organizing efforts, and track data efficiently and effectively. We offer best-in-class tools built specifically for Organizers and Workers to map the workplace, build solidarity, chat and organize securely, and ensure the private group stays private.
We want to empower both unions and the workers they support with the tools they need to connect quickly, securely, and efficiently with purpose-built tools for collaboration and chat. We don’t want to disrupt or change the battle-tested methods Organizers use — we just want to make it more efficient and easier to connect with workers where they are, all while capturing the valuable data you need to win.
Bosses, HR departments, legal teams are all using tech tools to monitor workers and prevent them from organizing. We fundamentally believe workers deserve their own tech tools, too — instead of using a patchwork of other tools and platforms to organize. Frank allows you to plan, chat, organize, and take action — all in one place.
Who can use Frank?
At this time, we offer two versions of Frank: Frank for Organizers and Frank for Workers.
Frank for Organizers is our primary focus and is built for unions, worker centers, and labor organizations. Organizations use our software to help connect them to potential members, capture and track data more efficiently, and effectively organize using best-in-class digital tools.
Frank for Workers is our free product for workers to explore the platform and build up an early-stage organizing effort. Because 100% of our focus is on building and supporting Frank for Organizers, the free trial version simply has less functionality, tools, and product support — so if you are interested in using Frank for your organization or your organizing, we encourage contacting us for a demo. And, when ready, we can help introduce you to a labor partner to advise you and help you take your organizing to the next level.
Regardless of which Frank you use, we are built for any type of worker in any industry, so long as you share our mission of increasing worker power in the workplace.
Does Frank compete with unions?
No. We are a software provider for unions and our mission is to enable greater accessibility and efficiency to organize workplaces. We are a proud supporter of the labor movement. We are not disruptors, nor trying to invent a new (or lesser version of a) union.
Is Frank a union?
We are not a union. We’re a provider of software to labor organizations. While our mission is to help labor organizations grow, we are unable to represent or advocate directly for workers.
We make products for workers at any stage of the organizing journey — including early-stage efforts where workers are determining their path to power. We know you might not have a union or worker center partner to work with yet. We are proud to partner with unions and worker centers across the county and would be honored to help you find the right fit when the time is right.
What is management or the Employer’s role with Frank?
None. Management is prohibited from using Frank. There is no involvement, participation, or product for management. The only involvement management may have is if workers decide to use Frank to send management their demands or authorization cards.
Management is defined by Frank as anyone with direct reports, responsibility in hiring or firing, or in an HR, Legal, or similar role. If a manager is found to have accessed Frank, Frank will support a Partner in pursuing all available penalties, both legal and financial, as outlined in our Terms of Service.
We will never partner with, take money from, or provide data to workers’ companies in any way. Ever. The only interaction Frank has with other corporations is a small number of vendors we utilize to run our service. We have a thorough vetting process with all vendors, including legal review and security audits, and we limit data access so that no vendor has more than required to perform necessary functions.
Is Frank safe?
Frank is for workers only. No management allowed. But there are risks when organizing at work — no matter what security or features we put in place, it must be acknowledged that there is risk when organizing and, thus, when using Frank.
We know this risk is very serious for Partners and workers alike, so we offer customizable security settings for Partners to use to ensure worker security to the best of their ability. Frank enables Organizers to offer secure anonymous chat, secure inviting and sharing tools, data and privacy protections, and more. Each Partner has the ability to manage access to private groups, and tools to manage chat, and campaigns. Additionally, Frank provides our partners with Terms of Service that explicitly ban management and outline legal and financial penalties for anyone interfering with protected organizing activity.
What kind of organization is Frank?
Frank is a Public Benefit Corporation and a Certified B Corp. This means we are a for-profit with a legal charter and commitment to the following public benefit to: “Empower workers to have a voice in collection action to improve their workplace.” We hope to build a small, focused, and sustainable company that has one customer — the worker. Our backgrounds as a team are from the software and tech industry — this is what we know. We didn’t (don’t) have access or connections to large donors or foundations that typically provide grants or funding to operate as a nonprofit. But we do have background, network, and access to investors that fund tech/software companies — and we recognize our privilege in the ability to secure funding for a mission that most investors, frankly, wouldn’t touch.
Is Frank free?
We provide our software to unions, worker centers, and labor organizations for a subscription fee. Our pricing is available on our website and you can reach out to us here for a demo. We have no other sources of revenue streams (such as advertisements or selling data). We do not seek to access, share, or monetize worker data for any purpose other than operating our software for our partners.
Who are your backers / investors?
The early days of Frank were self-funded by the co-founders. In November ’19, we raised money from local (Chicago) tech and political tech investors on what is called a SAFE note (Simple Agreement for Future Equity). This means that if Frank raises more capital in the future, the funding would convert to equity ownership (a non-controlling stake).
Our privilege and our backgrounds in tech made it possible to raise funds for this product’s mission — but it wasn’t easy. We held meetings with over 150 potential investors — from venture capital, to impact focused investors, unions, and private individuals.
Our lead investors are Hyde Park Venture Partners, Starting Line, Hyde Park Angels, and Higher Ground Labs. Note: Our investors have no influence or access to internal data, nor to any worker or group information. All activity on Frank is confidential. All data collected by our Partners (unions, worker centers, and labor advocacy orgs) is owned by the Partner.
—
Feedback and additional questions welcomed: frank@getfrank.com
