Moishe House Outreach

How do you reach people, and particularly new people, with MH programming?

Below is a top 5 list I've developed from my experience in MH Portland.

1. Run excellent programs. Like a quality product, good programming markets itself. If you consistently churn out good events, than people will keep coming back and they will tell their friends and family about it as well. There is no better marketing tool than a quality product or service.

2. Repeat your message. People are bombarded by dozens or in many cases hundreds of messages a day. For yours to get through, they must be repeated regularly.

3. Diversify your channels. Different people like to receive communications in different ways, and by mixing up your communication channels you can both hit people multiple times without them feeling overwhelmed or annoyed. You can also create a feeling of energy and momentum by being "everywhere." At MH Portland we use an email list, a website and facebook. We haven't made use of twitter yet though we should, and there are probably many other channels that we haven't explored. We'd love advice.

4. Never interact with a young Jewish person without getting their contact information. MH is providing a great service to the community. Don't be shy about building up your list. Its critical.

5. Ask regulars to recruit new people. The best messenger is always a close friend. If you want new people to come, have those closest to them make the invite.

Obviously there are lots of ways to pursue an outreach strategy, but these are some basic lessons that we have learned and try to employ at MH Portland.

MH Chicago's Outreach Efforts

We have been surprised by the number of new people that show up to our Shabbat dinners every time. It seems that people hear about them through our email list, and we have gotten many newcomers to our Shabbats that way. Those are the events where we have the most turnout, probably because Friday nights are when young Jews most want to celebrate their faith, but do not have another space to practice. For events that we hold during the week, like happy hours, we get fewer people. We have discussed why that is, and we believe that people are shyer about coming to smaller events and are also busier in the middle of the week. However, we are developing a solid group of repeat attendees—people who came to one event, such as Shabbat, and have come to lots of other events after. We have found that these people are often new to the city or had been actively looking for a Jewish community, so that when we reached out to them, they felt welcomed and excited to come back again.

While our email list, our Facebook events, and other technological forms of communication have brought us new people, we have found that word of mouth is the most powerful tool for getting people to become a part of Moishe House. People have repeatedly told us that a friend told them about the last house, and they decided to check it out. And the people who we draw in come back with friends who in turn come to another event. Our friends from around Chicago, coworkers, and acquaintances make up a big part of all our events, too, which just reinforces to us how our chatting about our positive experience with the Moishe House can lead to new participants. We are going to try in the coming months to mimic some of the other houses’ expansive Facebook groups, but we will continue to rely on good, old-fashioned people-to-people networks that have, so far, produced the best results.

MHSeattle, Neal Schindler, 1/1/2009

In the last few weeks alone, I've been impressed by how many different kinds of people find their way to Moishe House Seattle, and how many ways there are to end up here. One person found us on Facebook and decided to stop by after giving Jconnect (an organization connected to Hillel and targeted at a similar post-college, pre-family demographic) the old college try; my impression is that she won't stop attending Jconnect events but simply wants an alternative for times when Jconnect isn't serving all her Jewish social needs. MH Seattle also seems to have enough staying power in people's minds that they come back to us, even if they've been out of town for months. What others enjoy about our community is fairly simple: unforced fellowship, genuine warmth, and the kind of rich, stable home environment that can be hard to find between college and marriage. It's not that any of this is news, just that I start 2009 with renewed appreciation for it all. As my life begins to change in certain ways -- a likely new job, a return to (the terrifying and exciting world of) dating -- I'm grateful for a home that supports and nurtures my development, personal and professional. And of course for my housemates, who are worth more than their weight in gold, or latkes. (Speaking of which: I think I've had about enough latkes.)

Our calendar for January offers the triumphant return of "Jews on Ice," albeit this time at a proper rink rather than the rinky-dink specimen we found last month at Seattle Center. (Though the sight of little kids skating with "walkers" -- don't worry, they weren't actually disabled, just unsure of themselves on the ice -- amused us all, I think it's safe to say.) We'll also be bringing back the Havdalah-and-Spicebox combo event that Snow-mageddon '08 managed to spoil in December (Spicebox is a belly-dancing event that a number of MH Seattle regulars are into). There'll also be a couple of Shabbatot, including our signature Russian Shabbat, and I'll be leading an excursion to Town Hall Seattle's "Jewish in America" series -- specifically, to an event on Jewish film and music that will include live performances and the screening of four short movies. With the new year come changes, but MH Seattle's certifiable awesomeness remains delightfully intact.