Tribefest survey: Many attendees were federation first-timers

SAN FRANCISCO (JTA) — New data shows that Tribefest met its goal of drawing many federation first-timers to the recent Young Leadership conference in Las Vegas, federation officials said.

“We’re not only satisfied, we’re thrilled,” said Joe Berkofsky, spokesman for the Jewish Federations of North America, which organized last week’s gathering.

Nearly 1,300 Jews, mostly in their 20s to early 40s, showed up for three days of lectures, workshops and performances devoted to Jewish politics, religion and culture.

It was a first step in what federation officials say is a new outreach strategy for the national federation organization that is aimed at bringing in new blood along with the committed donors that were targeted by previous Young Leadership conferences.

Results from 150 participants who took a post-conference survey showed that 30 percent of them were not already federation donors. Forty-two percent said they had never participated in or helped organize a program at their local Jewish federation and 45 percent had ever served on a federation committee. Sixty-two percent said Tribefest was their first national federation conference.

Berkofsky said that because these are only the initial survey results, and probably come from the most involved participants, who are typically the first to answer such surveys, “The later numbers should show even more people not previously involved, which is what we hoped to see.”

Follow-up is a major part of the federations’ outreach effort. As participants entered each event, their badges were scanned and their identifying information was electronically stored. Those details will be given to their local Jewish federations for concerted follow-up.

“We want to keep the momentum going, to capitalize on the energy,” Berkofsky said.