Building Decarbonization Coalition
BDC × ChangeEngine · Quarterly Business Review

Building Decarbonization Coalition
Quarterly Business Review.

A retention-focused review of BDC's communications strategy. We'll look at what's currently live in ChangeEngine, key engagement insights, recent progress, and opportunities to strengthen onboarding, manager enablement, employee retention, and maximize the value of existing programs and content.

1,186
Work emails delivered
77%
Overall open rate
23%
Click-through rate
320
Slack posts 267 · Work emails 40 · Slack 1:1 11 · Personal emails 2

Executive summary

A shift from growth to retention and optimization.

Building Decarbonization Coalition is a fully remote, mission-driven nonprofit advancing building electrification policy across nine-plus states. BDC is not currently scaling headcount — recent hiring has been role-specific rather than broad, and the organization has been through a round of layoffs.

That context changes the right recommendation. Rather than continuing to invest primarily in growth-oriented programs like onboarding and referrals, this QBR pivots the conversation toward retention, manager enablement, recognition, and getting more value out of the tools already built.

Company context

Fully remote nonprofit

National coalition advancing building electrification and heat-pump policy. Hubs across California, New York and Washington.

Awarded employer brand

Named a Best & Brightest Company to Work For in both 2024 and 2025, with a strong benefits package as a core retention story.

Post-layoff context

Went through a round of layoffs — remaining employees are more likely to be evaluating trust, workload, and job security than in a typical growth year.

Strong external voice

Monthly newsletter from the Executive Director, staff quoted in press, events like Electric Happy Hour — with no internal equivalent yet.

Current state in ChangeEngine

What's live today — and what isn't yet.

BDC's active programs are concentrated almost entirely in the onboarding and milestone space.

Onboarding

Welcome series (Pt 1 & 2), First Day, 30/60-day check-ins for employee and manager, Glassdoor/referral ask, swag claim, compliance training, new-hire manager reminder.

See communications →

Manager Enablement

A single Manager Coaching Guide send — a foundation to build a recurring habit on.

See communications →

Gaps to Close

Offboarding/exit journeys, recurring open enrollment or benefits reminders, recognition beyond milestones, promotion/role-change triggers, and pulse survey automation.

Engagement trend over time

High opens.

Delivery-weighted open rate has hovered near 78% since early 2024 (79.4% in 2024, 77.1% in 2025, 78.0% YTD 2026). A mild soft patch mid-2025 has since recovered. Click rates are the signal to watch — many recent sends carry no CTA, which reads as informational rather than actionable.

79%
2024 open
77%
2025 open
78%
2026 YTD
Area of opportunity
Elevate click-through rate

Opens are strong, but clicks lag. Add a clear, single CTA to every send so content shifts from informational to actionable and engagement compounds.

Quarterly open & click rate

Q1 '24 – Q2 '26

Deliveries by quarter (volume)

Last 6 quarters

Volume is steady and modest — most departments receive 1–2 messages per person per month. No broad over-mailing.

Where engagement varies

Not every team hears you the same way.

People & HR — the team driving most of the comms strategy — currently has the lowest open rate. That's essentially one heavy recipient's numbers, but it's worth naming.

Open rate by department

Delivery-weighted

The rest of the departments are above 80% open rate.

People & HR49.5%

People & HR has the lowest departmental open rate of any team (45.7%) — notable because this is the team driving most of the comms strategy. That said, while this department appears to have a lower score, the result is heavily skewed by a single recipient (fschieber, 81 sends, 40.7% of total volume). Department-wide open rates are actually improving over time, indicating healthy engagement.

Managers open, don't act3.3% CTR

Managers open at nearly the same rate as employees (79% vs 78%), but click far less (3.3% vs 8.3%).

Untagged headcount27%

About 22 of 80 people have no department tag, so department cuts describe roughly 73% of the org. Fixing tagging would sharpen every future analysis.

Fatigue watch-list

1st vs. 2nd half open rate

Departments where open rate has fallen between the first and second half of active months.

Partnerships shows the biggest slide (-33 pts), followed by BDC Brand (-25) and State & Regional Mobilization (-23). Worth an audit of subject lines and cadence in these teams.

New hires vs. tenured staff

First 90 days vs. 90+ days

A clear positive story — new hires click roughly 5× more than tenured staff.

Onboarding comms are landing well. The click decay is a tenured-staff problem, not a company-wide one — which is exactly what the retention pivot is designed to address.

Channel signal

Culture posts land. Benefits posts don't.

On Slack, cultural and heritage-month content — Black History Month, Pride Month, Lunar New Year — pulls 25–38 reactions per post. Benefits and survey content pulls 0–2. That's not a content problem so much as a channel/tone mismatch worth designing around.

25–38
reactions per post
Cultural / heritage posts
0–2
reactions per post
Benefits & survey posts
267
engagement moments
Slack posts (period)
40
campaign sends
Work emails (period)

The strategic shift

From growth-mode plumbing to a retention program.

BDC's current priorities have shifted from growth to strengthening the existing workforce. This makes retention, re-engagement, and rebuilding trust the areas where ChangeEngine can deliver the greatest value moving forward.

01

Turn Coach Cards into a manager habit

BDC already has a 56-card Practical Coaching microsite with an AI assistant. Nothing in ChangeEngine currently drives repeat traffic. A biweekly nudge that surfaces one card at a moment that matters — feedback, a 1:1, a difficult conversation — turns a one-time asset into an ongoing enablement program.

02

Total Rewards & EAP awareness

The Benefits microsite (100% health coverage, unlimited PTO, EAP) is a strong retention asset that's likely under-used outside of enrollment windows. After a layoff, remaining employees often under-value what they still have. A recurring one-benefit-at-a-time campaign — with visible pointers to the EAP — reinforces both retention and wellbeing.

03

Recognition beyond milestones

BDC generates strong external recognition (staff quoted in press, photographed at the Electric Happy Hour), but none of it surfaces internally, and the existing peer-recognition Slack post barely lands (2 reactions). A “team in the news” or field-moments spotlight journey would connect existing content to a real engagement gap.

04

Match content type to channel

Since cultural and identity-based content dramatically outperforms benefits/survey content on Slack, consider moving lower-performing email content (like benefits or survey reminders) to Slack, or adopting some of the same visual/tone elements that make the high-performing posts work.

05

Redesign the Buddy Program around the drop-off point

Given the sharp decline after the welcome message, the two check-ins and wrap-up should be reviewed for timing, format, and channel — potentially moving them to Slack, where BDC's engagement is naturally much stronger, rather than email. The program can also be automated so the buddy no longer receives the communications directly; instead, the employees who need them (new hires and their assigned buddies at each touchpoint) receive them automatically at the right moment.

06

Add a respectful offboarding journey

Following the recent layoffs, a structured and thoughtful offboarding experience can help support departing employees while reinforcing trust and care among those who remain.

Leverage what's already built

Three AI-assisted microsites, waiting to be used.

BDC and ChangeEngine have already invested in three AI-assisted microsites. The near-term opportunity is driving adoption of these, not building new ones:

Without traffic and AI-assistant activity data, we can't tell whether these tools are working or just built and forgotten.

Manager enablement

Coach Cards

Manager coaching library plus an AI assistant for management questions — feedback, 1:1s, the SBI framework.

Visit microsite →
Policy & people

Employee Handbook

12 core policy areas and 17 state guides, with an AI assistant for policy questions.

Visit microsite →
Total rewards

Benefits Guide

Full medical/dental/vision/life/disability/EAP breakdown with an AI assistant and enrollment guidance.

Visit microsite →

The roadmap

From onboarding growth to
retention, at cadence.

A phased plan that turns the strategy shift into shipped programs — sequenced so each phase compounds on the last, with clear success metrics tied to the analytics we're requesting.

  1. 01Next step 1

    Turn the Coach Cards microsite into a recurring manager habit

    BDC already has a built “Practical Coaching for Busy Managers” microsite (56 cards + AI coaching assistant), but nothing in ChangeEngine currently drives repeat traffic to it. A biweekly nudge surfacing one card at a time — tied to real manager moments like giving feedback or running a 1:1 — turns a one-time asset into an ongoing manager-enablement program. Better-equipped managers are one of the highest-leverage retention levers after a layoff.

    • Launch a biweekly nudge that surfaces one Coach Card at a time, tied to a real manager moment (giving feedback, running a 1:1, a hard conversation).
    • Route managers into the AI coaching assistant for follow-up questions so the microsite becomes an ongoing enablement loop instead of a one-time asset.
  2. 02Next step 2

    Run a total rewards & EAP awareness campaign

    Reinforce what remaining employees still have after the layoff

    • Highlight one benefit at a time — 100% medical/dental/vision, unlimited PTO, 16-week paid parental leave — in a recurring cadence.
    • Include a visible, repeated pointer to the EAP in every send to support wellbeing under added stress.
    • Drive traffic to the Benefits microsite outside of enrollment windows so it stops going dormant.
  3. 03Next step 3

    Expand recognition beyond birthdays and anniversaries

    • BDC already generates strong recognition material externally — staff quoted in the press, photographed at events like the Electric Happy Hour.
    • None of that surfaces internally, and the existing Slack peer recognition post barely gets engagement (2 reactions).
    • A “team in the news” or spotlight journey that celebrates external visibility and field moments would connect existing content to a real engagement gap.
  4. 04Next step 4

    Match content type to channel

    Move lower-performing content off email and onto where BDC already engages

    • Migrate benefits and survey reminders from work email to Slack, where cultural and identity content dramatically outperforms.
    • Adopt the visual and tonal cues from the highest-performing Slack posts on lower-performing topics.
  5. 05Next step 5

    Redesign the Buddy Program around the drop-off point

    Rescue a program with a strong start but sharp decline after the welcome message

    • Review the timing, format, and channel of the two check-ins and the wrap-up.
    • Test moving the check-ins to Slack, where BDC's engagement is naturally much stronger than email, and keep only the welcome as an email moment.
  6. 06Next step 6

    Add a respectful offboarding & alumni journey

    Signal to the remaining team how BDC treats people on the way out

    • Build a structured offboarding sequence for the current layoff wave and any future departures.
    • Include a light-touch alumni follow-up so former staff stay connected to BDC's mission and public events.
    • Coordinate offboarding timing with manager Coach Cards so managers are supported through the conversations.

Ready when you are

Let's align on the Q3 program shifts and the analytics we'll pull to measure them.

Schedule the working sessionChangeEngine · Customer Success