Sustaining and increasing attention to catastrophic risk https://grants.dudleytdoughertyfoundation.org/proposals-2021/sustaining-and-increasing-attention-to-catastrophic-risk-1 https://grants.dudleytdoughertyfoundation.org/@@site-logo/sitelogo-75x75.png

Sustaining and increasing attention to catastrophic risk

Additional Information
Used for	The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists respectfully requests $10,000 from The Dudley T. Dougherty Foundation to sustain and increase attention to catastrophic risk. The grant will be used to: 1. Significantly increase newsletter subscribers and individual magazine subscriptions - Our newsletter growth is directly related to magazine subscription growth – newsletter subscribers are devoted readers, and, once give the benefits of our new subscription model, they are converting to magazine subscribers in growing numbers. 2. Engage New Audiences - The Bulletin will commit resources, time, and expertise to promote a public, outward-facing presence by connecting the Bulletin’s experts to an engaged audience.
Benefits	With civic activism strengthening and growing, and with considerable global political change, the Bulletin is assuming an increasingly important role in combatting mis- and disinformation, maintaining focused attention on the changing nuclear landscape, and providing fact-based coverage of existential threats. The Bulletin’s legacy as the journal of record on catastrophic risk and our continued focus on 21st century threats is driving millions of new visitors from around the world to engage with Bulletin content. It is well-poised to play an increasingly important role despite very real headwinds, including growing global skepticism over the role of science and expertise.
Proposal Description	The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists respectfully requests $10,000 from The Dudley T. Dougherty Foundation to sustain and increase attention to catastrophic risk. Bulletin Mission The Bulletin equips the public, policymakers, and scientists with the information needed to reduce man-made threats to our existence. At our core, we are a media organization, publishing a free-access website and a bimonthly magazine. But we are much more. The Bulletin’s website, iconic Doomsday Clock, and regular events equip the public, policymakers, and scientists with the information needed to reduce man-made threats to our existence. The Bulletin focuses on three main areas: nuclear risk, climate change, and disruptive technologies. What connects these topics is a driving belief that because humans created them, we can control them. The Bulletin is an independent, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization. We gather the most informed and influential voices tracking man-made threats and bring their innovative thinking to a global audience. We apply intellectual rigor to the conversation and do not shrink from alarming truths. Grant Overview With civic activism strengthening and growing, and with considerable global political change, the Bulletin is assuming an increasingly important role in combatting mis- and disinformation, maintaining focused attention on the changing nuclear landscape, and providing fact-based coverage of existential threats. The Bulletin’s legacy as the journal of record on catastrophic risk and our continued focus on 21st century threats is driving millions of new visitors from around the world to engage with Bulletin content. Despite research from the Tow Center for Digital Journalism that shows sixty-five permanent newsroom closures and thousands of journalists experiencing pay cuts, furloughs, or lost jobs in the wake of the pandemic, the Bulletin has strengthened its position, financially and editorially. It is well-poised to play an increasingly important role despite very real headwinds, including growing global skepticism over the role of science and expertise. With significant support from The Dudley T. Dougherty Foundation, the Bulletin has seen traffic jump from an average of 240,000 to 450,000 pageviews per month comparing 2019 and 2020, and an average 60% increase in monthly editorial views from January-October 2021. We have experienced a greater than 25% increase in our compounded annual growth rate in all outwardly focused measures over the last 5 years. The world-wide recognition and longevity of the iconic Doomsday Clock is the greatest example of how successful the Bulletin can be at instantly capturing the attention of millions during the annual statement announcement. The 2021 Clock announcement drew more than 7,000 media mentions and stories including the New York Times, NPR.org, CBS News, The Guardian and many other national and international outlets. One young TikTok influencer posted a highly relatable explanation of the Doomsday Clock to her over 10 million followers – adding to a reach of over 700M readers on social media. The Clock tells an urgent story and calls out for action. That sense can feel fleeting after a month as other headlines demand our attention. The Bulletin’s priority is creating an urgency and call for action across all the issues we cover and maintaining the attention of the Doomsday Clock announcement audience throughout the year. This focused attention to communications and outreach has helped the Bulletin’s audience grow 250 percent over the last five years – with half of our audience younger than 35, and our gender demographic shifted from 25% to 35% female. The Bulletin’s significant outreach efforts, including technical advancements, platform expansion, and social media investments, as well as key staff additions to the communications team, provide the necessary platforms and tools to reach our growing audience. The Bulletin is now well positioned to focus efforts in the next year on significantly increasing newsletter subscribers and individual magazine subscriptions, and engaging new audiences in creative ways and through new platforms. These efforts are built on the belief that experts, reinforced by large engaged publics, can drive policymakers to call for policies that promote a safer and healthier planet. Our proposed investments will create an outsized advantage in successfully advocating for policy change. With news that the MacArthur Foundation is sunsetting its nuclear giving in 2024, the Bulletin has begun the process of identifying replacement support and calculating what is needed to sustain and bolster its existing growth trajectory. The Bulletin’s strategic plan calls for an increased need of $1.25 million per year over the current budget, inclusive of MacArthur’s departure, within three years. Our planned growth will include staff, both development and programming, to meet these new realities. But we will increasingly rely on established supporters like The Dougherty Foundation to help sustain our work. The Bulletin is also working with a number of different like-minded organizations including Global Zero, Beyond the Bomb, the Stimson Center, and NTI among others to envision the future of the nuclear field in the face of declining resources. The Bulletin’s role as a core organization in the nuclear space will become ever more important as fewer outlets remain to amplify important ongoing policy work and debate. As the Bulletin connects its materials to more people, and engages stakeholders more directly, its funding base is continuing to grow. The Bulletin established a strategic reserve in 2017, which has put the organization on a healthier footing. Individual giving is now 40% of total revenue. Given the concern that people around the world are expressing about the Bulletin’s issues, the timing of the Bulletin’s efforts is propitious, the work will require constant attention, cultivation, and dedicated resources. Activities Supported by the Grant 1. Significantly increase newsletter subscribers and individual magazine subscriptions For an organization devoted to educating, engaging and mobilizing the public, audience size is an important measure of engagement. Our website traffic is robust and growing, but we continue to be focused like a laser on growing our newsletter and magazine subscriptions because such numbers measure not just fleeting interest, but engaged and active audiences. Our newsletter growth is directly related to magazine subscription growth – newsletter subscribers are devoted readers, and, once give the benefits of our new subscription model, they are converting to magazine subscribers in growing numbers. Through social media channels, and improved search engine optimization (SEO), the Bulletin’s newsletter circulation has grown from 20,000 in 2015, to 40,000 in 2019, with a goal of 80,000 by 2023. As of October 2021, the Bulletin’s newsletter reaches over 70,000 inboxes twice weekly, meaning we are well ahead of our goal, with even greater growth achievable. Such growth is time intensive as we are currently testing social media ads, searching for new popular news platforms, and developing new algorithms to ensure that readers who want to find us can do so easily. As for our bimonthly magazine, we are proud that our magazine’s publisher Taylor and Francis ensures the Bulletin is available to faculty and students in over 10,000 universities around the globe, and since assuming control of individual subscribers and investing in new subscription and data base platforms and software, we anticipate significant subscriber growth in the years ahead through the implementation of new technologies and outreach efforts. Our goal for monthly magazine subscription revenue in the first year was $16,666. We have greatly exceeded that goal and currently earn $38,165.61 in monthly subscription revenue, and nearly tripled our individual subscriptions to 650 paid subscribers, off the admittedly small base provided to us by our publisher. 2. Engaging New Audiences The Bulletin continues to commit resources, time, and expertise to promote a public, outward-facing presence by connecting the Bulletin’s experts to an engaged audience. That is, we are committed to the inside (expert) and outside (general public) game. The Bulletin recently established the staff position of Program Manager to lead and coordinate public engagement opportunities. This new offering requires seed-funding until we can attract corporate sponsorship, which is our long-term goal. The Program Manager works closely with the communications team to identify opportunities, create compelling programming, and execute marketing and communications strategies. Since inception in March 2020, we have attracted 4,000+ registrants from around the world to our public programs. Along with widely successful Zoom interactive events (11 in the past year), partnerships and collaborations are being developed with local and national organizations and academic programs to connect with audiences in new ways and link arms institutionally with leading organizations with similar goals. Bulletin news stories have long been used in classrooms of all ages. Leading climate scientist Katherine Kayhoe mentioned recently that she regularly assigns Bulletin articles to her students because “they go that one level deeper while remaining accessible” to students. We hear such feedback regularly. New multimedia offerings such as Susan D’Agastino’s, “Nuclear bomb detectors reveal hidden blue whale population,” that incorporates a recording of whale calls, Robert Del Tredici’s photo essay, “How do humans make sense of the bomb?” and Elisabeth Eaves’ investigative report on “Why is America getting a new $100 billion nuclear weapon?” are examples of efforts the Bulletin is undertaking to make our offerings more accessible. The Bulletin’s 75th anniversary featured a highly successful anniversary celebration that served as both a fundraiser and friend-raiser, with program highlights that included inspiring words from former Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of the Environment, Yoriko Kawaguchi, and remarks from former California Governor Jerry Brown and former Secretary of Defense William Perry. The Bulletin also published “Now, Then, and the Future: The Bulletin Turns 75,” featuring nearly 400 pages of some of the most influential and critical articles across the years – the anniversary book grew from the Bulletin’s 75th anniversary special magazine issue. The Bulletin’s anniversary is also the anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the Bulletin released critical statements on those attacks and hosted special Zoom interactives discussing the implications and ongoing risks stemming from the extraordinary death and destruction of those attacks. “Amnesia Atomica,” a new creation by the renowned Mexican artist Pedro Reyes and developed with curator Pedro Alonzo, was originally conceived through a partnership with the Bulletin, at the NSquare Cohort II convening at the Rhode Island School of Design in 2018. The year 2020 marked the 50th anniversary of the groundbreaking Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). This new art installation is intended to serve as a potent symbol for what is at stake if our leaders continue to fail us in reducing and eventually eliminating nuclear weapons. Prior to the pandemic, it was intended to serve as a visual for media covering the NPT Review Conference, an event that leaders will hope is ignored and may well be if we do not provide an alternative narrative. After several postponements of the NPT Review Conference and a newly scheduled date in January 2022, a date poorly suited to outside viewing and programming, we are finalizing the date of September 2022, in conjunction with the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons for the Times Square installation. We intend to organize a two-day “mobilization festival” that will attract counterpart organizations in the disarmament and arms control community to engage local audiences. We are partnering with a class at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago to create an augmented reality experience around the sculpture to allow the experience to continue on social media after the exhibit is complete. This experience was piloted on August 7 at the Henry Moore sculpture in Chicago, a site commemorating Fermi’s splitting of the Atom. It accompanied a moving dance performance by MacArthur genius awardee Eiko Otake on the anniversary of the dropping of the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Amnesia Atomica debuted in Mexico City to commemorate the 53rd anniversary of the Treaty of Tlatelolco. “Amnesia Atomica,” is the latest example of collaborations that reach a broader audience and engage them on the issue of nuclear risk. The Bulletin recently partnered with the National World War II Museum in New Orleans on an Electronic Field Trip program focusing on the Manhattan Project. The interactive trip, broadcasted live online, reached over 80,000 students in 12 countries. It has been nominated for a 2021 Daytime Emmy. In addition to such activities, the Bulletin is actively engaged in expanding its social media following. In January 2021, we brought on a social media coordinator who is designing engaging GIFs and features to increase our visibility on LinkedIn and Instagram, with TikTok our next targeted growth area. The young TikTok influencer described above, who posted a powerful Doomsday Clock explainer, is just one example of why the Bulletin believes it is simply not true that the younger generation is disinterested in nuclear risk. They just don’t have the right allies engaging them. We are fixing that. Conclusion The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists serves as an authoritative guide on issues of existential risk. To reinforce this position, we are building a young, well-informed, global audience and connecting them to leading experts in formats that are engaging and accessible. We are continuing to invest in infrastructure and capacity, while strengthening editorial and public programming for our eager and growing audience. We are grateful to The Dudley T. Dougherty Foundation for their support.