2015 DSSG Data Fest: Team Australia

Summary

The video discusses how the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) fought against the government's attempt to delist the Tasmanian wilderness as a World Heritage site for logging, which ultimately failed. The ACF, an environmental advocacy group, uses email campaigns to mobilize political action. The script explains how a new project with ACF aims to make these email campaigns more effective by modeling constituent behavior and email features to boost engagement and activism. The goal is to optimize email practices, increase political action, and protect the environment through data-driven strategies.

Takeaways

• 🌍 The Australian Conservative government attempted to delist the Tasmanian wilderness as a World Heritage site for logging.
• 🌳 The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) led a massive campaign to stop the delisting, and the bid failed.
• 📧 The ACF is an environmental advocacy group that uses email as an efficient means of mobilizing political action.
• 📈 Until recently, ACF could only track email performance on an aggregate level, like how many people opened emails.
• 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 The ACF is now working to analyze individual user behavior throughout the email interaction pipeline.
• 🔮 ACF’s new strategy involves predicting how constituents will act based on past behavior and demographics.
• 📊 The project aims to increase the number of people taking political action by improving email campaigns.
• ✉️ A model is being developed to assess which email features (e.g., subject lines, content themes) affect open and click rates.
• 🧪 The ACF tests these models by running experiments to see which email changes lead to better engagement.
• 💼 The goal is for ACF and other nonprofits to use these insights to improve their email practices and drive political activism for environmental causes.

Q & A

What was the Australian government's initial plan regarding the Tasmanian wilderness?

The Australian government initially planned to delist the Tasmanian wilderness as a World Heritage site so that it could be logged.

How did the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) respond to the government's attempt to delist the Tasmanian wilderness?

The ACF mobilized a massive campaign against the government's move, which ultimately resulted in the failure of the bid, keeping the Tasmanian wilderness protected.

What type of organization is the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF)?

The ACF is an environmental advocacy organization that works to protect the environment when it is threatened.

How does the ACF typically engage with its constituents?

The ACF engages with its constituents primarily through email, encouraging them to take political action when environmental issues arise.

Why does the ACF use email to communicate with its constituents, despite it not being the most effective method?

The ACF uses email because it is the most efficient method for reaching a large number of people quickly.

What is the project being undertaken with the ACF this summer aimed at improving?

The project aims to make the ACF’s email communication more effective by modeling both the constituents and the emails to increase political action.

What kind of data is used to model the behavior of ACF's constituents?

The model uses data on the constituents' past behavior and demographics to predict how they are likely to act in the future.

How does the ACF test the effectiveness of different email features?

The ACF tests email features by running experiments where they send out two emails that differ only in the feature being tested, such as the type of action requested.

What is the ultimate goal of the modeling and optimization process being developed with the ACF?

The goal is to increase the number of people moving through each stage of the email pipeline (from receiving to taking action) to boost political activism and protect the environment.

How does the project’s email model help other nonprofits besides the ACF?

The models developed are general, meaning they can be adopted by other nonprofits to optimize their email campaigns and increase engagement with their own supporters.