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.

Outreach in Moishe House Boston

The blog's prompt for this month asked about outreach/turn-out/recruitment to Moishe House Boston events. How do we attract new faces?

Before I became involved in the Moishe House community in Boston, I would have guessed that the best way to reach out to Bostonian Jews was through Web 2.0 technology. Send out to email lists! Post it on our Moishe House website! Announce it at local Gesher City events! Put it on Facebook.

Well, these communication forms are undoubtedly important and serve as an effective "heads-up" to the community members about upcoming events. Indeed, we send out a weekly email on Mondays that list all the upcoming events for the next two weeks, as well as maintain our own website and Google calendar so people can see for themselves what is going on.

But, in all honesty, we don't count on this technology as our major recruitment tool. Rather, we rely on good old-fashioned relationships. In our opinion, receiving one, or even two emails, isn't going to be enough to catch someone's attention, unless they are actively looking for things to do. The way we see it: everyone in our community is part of a network of relationships. The best way to get someone to an event is to have a friend ask him or her to come. (Think of the parties you go to-- or even family gatherings....it's all in the people you know). So, for any given event, we first set our goal for turn-out. Then, we ask all those involved in planning the event to identify and call a set number of people. So, for example, we have an upcoming housing justice event planned. We want to make sure that around 30 people come-- so the 7 people helping to plan it each committed to bringing 4 people. This, combined with the weekly email announcements and web advertising, has been a very successful recipe!

We also use our Shabbat dinners as a way to introduce Moishe House to new faces. Generally, our dinners need little specific turn-out effort, since, by now, word-of-mouth is enough to get a solid 50 people. So, we see Shabbat as a time to welcome new people, gauge their interest, and give them a little "taste" of our community. One way we do that is by having a "dvar tikkun" at Friday night after services-- a brief overview of a specific social justice project that someone in or allied with our community participates in. This introduces a concrete project that anyone in our community can get involved with, and perhaps more importantly, sparks conversations throughout dinner about other events/social justice intiatives/etc that we have on tap.

Finally, I would say that the most effective way to get someone to turn out to an event and stay engaged with the Moishe House community is through involving them in the planning process for the event. This is a surefire way to up the investment level, sense of ownership and pride, and feeling of community. Even giving someone a small task can increase his/her excitement level exponentially, since they now feel "part of something." I challenge you to try this within your community. I would love to hear what happens!

Happy Thanksgiving!
--Michelle, Moishe House Boston