SFJAZZ

SFJAZZ is a recognized international leader in jazz creation, presentation, and education. It is committed to celebrating jazz and making this art form accessible to all ages in in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. In 2008 SFJAZZ received funding from the Wallace Foundation to create and implement new programming in the efforts to better engage younger audiences and increase the proportion of younger adults (ages 18-34) attending their programming.

In the spring of that year, SFJAZZ engaged WolfBrown to conduct baseline audience research in connection with its Wallace funded Discovery Lounge Program. The initial scope of work consisted of two tracks of research: in-venue surveying a cross section of concerts during the Spring Season and Fall Festival and a series of focus group discussions with audience members ranging in age from 18-34 years old.

In-venue surveying work conducted by WolfBrown continued from 2009-2011, through the life of the Wallace Excellence Awards grant that SFJAZZ received. The survey questionnaire was adjusted all consecutive years with the most significant changes made in the Fall 2011. It was determined that changing the sampling plan would greatly improve the overall research and evaluation efforts and allow SFJAZZ to re-establish baseline values for audience age. This shift in the surveying was important as it provided enough of a range of data to create multiple analysis groups for comparison each season

As a result of the multi-year study, SFJAZZ gained a significant amount of knowledge about its audiences and initiated new programing to inspire higher attendance among younger patrons, who continue to be a focus of SFJAZZ’s audience development efforts.