Change.org shocks staff with abrupt closure of office

Change.org, a platform that enables users to start and mobilise public support for petitions is closing its Kenyan offices after two years.

It cites stagnation in Kenya and a number of its operations in Africa.

The US-based company said it has witnessed little brand or growth marketing expertise with the Kenyan office not having enough resources to create a "more powerful product."

In a notice to employees last week, the firm informed them that Thursday, October 19 would be the last working day for most of them. However, some staff would stay on longer to assist with the transition.

Employees who spoke to The Standard termed the notice as having "come out of nowhere" and was also short, giving them just a few days before they were rendered jobless.

The company says it has made the difficult decision to reduce its footprint and shift from campaigning to marketing expertise as it parted ways with its Kenyan staff.

"Despite our potential for impact over the past two years, our core metrics - including victories have declined by an average of 50 per cent. This reality calls for a different strategy than the one we've been pursuing - one focused on increasing the power of petitions through a more powerful product, and increasing the number of petitions through brand and growth marketing," the organisation told its employees last week.

"The final day for most impacted staff is October 19, 2023."

Other markets

It added that alongside Kenya, it would also shut down its offices in other markets like Nigeria, South Africa and Russia.

"In response, we've made the difficult decision to make the following... changes, reducing our geographic footprint. We are suspending in-country support in our lowest usage markets (Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, India and the smaller "Latino" markets)."

It added that other changes include a shift from its current approach of campaigning to marketing and that it is "parting ways with campaigns staff who do not have the marketing or communications expertise we believe is needed to deliver on our strategy (and) parting ways with some staff supporting our global teams: We are parting ways with some of the staff on our operations team who have been supporting our global footprint."

Change.org, however, said it is financially stable despite a flat growth in its Kenyan revenue growth.