Energy and Climate Action Committee hears Mass Energize pitch; members discuss $1,000 membership to boost resident outreach

The Energy and Climate Action Committee on Tuesday heard a presentation from Mass Energize on tools designed to help small towns engage residents in climate actions, and members discussed whether the town should buy a Mass Energize membership.

"We help you engage your local neighbors to accelerate climate action," said Megan Sullivan, a volunteer and board member with Mass Energize, introducing the group’s three core product streams: a community‑of‑practice network and training, a white‑label action website with ready‑to‑use templates, and targeted outreach campaigns. Sullivan described how she started a local group in Medfield and later connected with Mass Energize for operational support.

Arevika, a Mass Energize colleague who led the product demonstration, outlined the Social Media Magic toolkit that delivers ready‑to‑post graphics and captions (built in Canva), schedules posts for review and can post directly from a town’s official accounts. She said the group runs cross‑community event sharing and supports Mailchimp integration for email outreach. "We deliver posts at least two weeks in advance to your workspace so you get enough time to review," she said.

Arevika also described community campaigns and gave Melrose as an example: Mass Energize ran a three‑month social campaign tied to a local heat‑pump coaching program and reported roughly a 400% increase in engagement metrics after the campaign. Presenters said they maintain an impact report and will share a 2025 impact report and the slide deck on request.

Committee members asked how Mass Energize is funded and how it measures outcomes. Presenters said the organization has four paid staff and relies primarily on grant funding for campaign work while product operations and network membership are supported by membership revenue and individual donors. They described survey follow‑ups for webinar participants and a data tool developed with an academic partner to estimate heat‑pump, solar and EV adoption from state data, and offered to help the town run local permit‑based checks to measure uptake.

Members pressed on costs and funding. Presenters described tiered membership levels and said the small‑community membership is about $1,000 a year; committee members discussed one‑time setup costs (for example, Mailchimp onboarding) that may be additional and said the town has appropriated $100,000 for the climate action roadmap that could provide funding if town leadership supports the purchase. Committee members identified the assistant town manager and the communications director as officials they would brief before the committee makes any recommendation.

Several members urged caution about long‑term administration and volunteer bandwidth, noting that a Mass Energize site still requires local review and someone to approve or edit scheduled posts. Committee members suggested visiting a current Mass Energize client town to see the platform in operation and invited the presenters to provide written confirmation of membership pricing, a sample service agreement and the 2025 impact report.

The committee agreed on next steps: reach out to the mayor and put a recommendation to join Mass Energize on the ECAC July agenda after briefing relevant town staff. The meeting adjourned by voice vote.

What’s next: presenters will share the 2025 impact report and the slide PDF; committee members will seek written pricing and a vendor agreement and plan a town briefing prior to any purchase decision.