Oct. 2, 2025

This piece is sponsored by Click Rain Inc.

Serving others means using your talents in a way that improves their lives. Oftentimes, service looks like volunteering or helping another with a task.

But what about an approach that’s more subtle?

Brady Fopma, director of development at Click Rain, serves in the “behind the scenes” of the digital world. He leads a team of developers who conceptualize and code websites. While their work is often in the background, they create sites that speak to the user and improve a business’ digital presence.

Click Rain is a marketing agency that employs a cross-functional team to deliver high-power, high-performance websites and other digital media.

Fopma and his team develop websites with the user experience in mind. They program functional websites so that everyone can explore them with ease.

“We are going to do things the right way, which will require more time and a bunch of different moving parts. But it’s always worth it if we’re providing a website that works for the end user,” Fopma said. Through stewardship and high standards, thoughtfulness and intentionality are seen on every page.

Impact of effective technology

Websites are a service sold to clients, who in turn use them to serve their customers. If the development team delivers a website that isn’t built around the user experience, customers may have difficulty navigating it. This, in turn, can cause it to lose its ranking on search engines as fewer people use it, resulting in a weakened digital presence for the client. Because of this, Fopma pushes for excellence in everything he and his team do, ensuring that their websites can withstand the volatility of the digital marketplace and serve users effectively.

“When you visit a site developed by Click Rain, you should just know,” Fopma said.

The fluidity of jumping from page to page should be noticeable, where the user can feel that they’re on a site that’s different from the rest. Fopma wants to create sites that serve the user and make their life easier. That’s why he encourages his team to think through every site they code, considering the purpose behind every page, so they can be confident in what they’re creating.

James Krueger, partner and chief marketing officer at Click Rain Inc., notes Fopma’s strength in service and resilience in leadership.

“Brady is the embodiment of putting others first. He’s someone who is always willing to help out and is the first to offer up a solution should an issue arise. He is truly a ‘servant leader’ and would do anything to see his team excel,” Krueger said.

Fopma cares about his team both professionally and personally. By serving them, they in turn serve the user, creating a site that reaches Click Rain’s standard of excellence.

Serving outside the office

Technology can drastically improve the situation for people outside of business. Fopma has seen that firsthand with people in other countries.

He has played an active role in various service trips to Nicaragua, where he assisted schools and other organizations with technology. Anything from setting up Wi-Fi to programming, Fopma and other volunteers dedicated their talents to serving others. In the end, he was the one who felt a change of heart after the experience.

“Seeing the world through a different lens than my everyday life here in Sioux Falls — that’s a priceless thing. It really changed my perspective on life, impacting me in a way that was far deeper than expected,” he said.

Witnessing the complexities of poverty and how an internet connection can make a significant difference has made Fopma think more critically about his own life and what he’s grateful for. This has helped him channel his purpose into improving lives through his talents.

Mark Drzycimski, senior developer at Click Rain who has worked alongside Fopma for 14 years and joined him on many service trips, notes how he has seen Fopma’s servant heart manifest.

“I’ve had the pleasure of accompanying Brady on a few service trips to Nicaragua, and observing his leadership in sometimes uncomfortable and uncertain situations made clear his heart to help and serve those around him,” Drzycimski said. “He is cool under pressure and thoughtful, always thinking about others first.”

Fopma continues to serve others within his own community of Sioux Falls. Once a week, you’ll find him at the LSS Center for New Americans, teaching English to people seeking refuge.

Makings of a good website

So what makes a website truly serve its users? For Fopma and the Click Rain development team, it comes down to one word: excellence.

Excellence shows up in accessibility, ensuring that people of all abilities can navigate a site with ease. That means concise content, high-contrast design and back-end programming free of bugs.

“The big picture: It’s serving a diverse audience. That’s the ‘why’ behind what we do,” Fopma said. For people who have trouble seeing or reading, a site that is adjusted for their needs can make all the difference.

Secondly, a developer can put hours into a website, but if the content management system it’s built on can’t keep up, the site may struggle to reach that excellence standard. At Click Rain, the developers use Craft CMS. Fopma champions it for two reasons.

Flexibility: There are no limitations in content structure, design or development. The entire team can customize a site to fit the unique needs of every client.

The ease of content editing: Craft makes it easy to create and edit pages, so the client doesn’t have to get into the technological weeds of the website’s code in order to make changes to the content.

“If a CMS has made it hard to edit content, then it failed at its job. Craft does a really good job of making it clear how to do it, and it protects the content editor from mistakes,” Fopma said.

While Craft is not as popular as other content management systems, Fopma said that’s actually to its advantage. This means websites built on Craft are less likely to be targeted by hackers or bots, making their security track record noticeably better than larger competitors.

Lastly, before a website goes out into the world, Fopma and his team put it under rigorous testing to make sure it can rise to the occasion. They check for things like functionality, usability and how it appears in different browsers and screen sizes.

“Performance and accessibility are a big thing, but it does come back to excellence,” Fopma said. He and his team are driven to code a high-performance website that meets and may exceed the user’s expectations.

Balancing technology with humanity

Artificial intelligence is undoubtedly making waves in our world. It provides functions that streamline many processes for businesses across industries. For the development team at Click Rain, AI has created some efficiencies in their work such as their code editing process.

However, Fopma notes that AI is never perfect, and its outputs should be reviewed independently.

“We can use technology in many different ways, but we need to weave through what is healthy and what isn’t,” he said. That’s why most of the development team’s work is still done by the team, but they will use AI to fill in some gaps.

You need to be a human to serve a human. Fopma knows that while technology is making leaps and bounds, it will never surpass the necessity of human thought.

Timelessness of stewardship

Technology is constantly changing. Whether it’s with breakthroughs in AI, new coding tools or even changes in accessibility laws, nothing ever stays the same in Fopma’s role. But one thing is for certain: Applying stewardship to every facet of his job is a skill that never loses cruciality.

“We take the stewardship side to heart. We want to manage the budgets that clients have in an honorable way,” Fopma said.

In his position as a developer, Fopma often is the liaison between clients and his team. Much of the work they do is billed hourly, so ensuring that the team can fulfil the client’s goals in a timely manner while keeping within their budget is an essential part of Fopma’s job.

Not only does he apply stewardship to his client relationships, but also Fopma serves his team in a similar fashion.

“I’m the least important; my team members are the most important. Wherever I can lead with service, compassion, listening and advocating — that’s the most fulfilling,” he said.

Drzycimski said Fopma’s effectiveness as a leader is unmistakable.

“Brady is an inspiring example of genuine, humble leadership. After years of working with Brady, I don’t believe I’ve ever had a conversation with him, work-related or personal, where I didn’t come away a better person. He equips and motivates us all to excel in our work and to be true to our clients and each other.”

While the world may be changing constantly, and even more so in the digital landscape, keeping others’ needs at the forefront and practicing stewardship along the way will never lose value.