Started a community group? Congratulations! Forming a community coalition might be the next step after your community group is established and running successfully. A coalition can increase your likelihood of positively impacting your community.
And with an objective in mind - passing a particular piece of legislation, environmental justice, or stopping the building of a new waste disposal site - coalitions have limited lifespans until the objectives are achieved.
Coalitions are tremendous agents of change. They can make the difference between finding success or getting ignored. Develop a coalition with a range of effective partners, and increase your likelihood of positively impacting your community.
What are the benefits of building a coalition
A primary reason coalitions are built is that by working together, groups can accomplish more together than they would on their own.
Avoid duplicating efforts, eliminate competition for resources, and improve communication within the community.
Each member group will have the opportunity to broaden its base.
Partners in a coalition can learn new tactics from each other.
There will be more people to work on the campaign, requiring less bandwidth from each organization.
Creates a more diverse base of support to increase credibility. A diverse coalition makes it difficult for the initiative to be written off as a special interest.
What challenges can a coalition face?
When forming a coalition, there are challenges to overcome. Most have to do with maintaining clear lines of communication between members, such as:
Making decisions
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Maintaining trust
Encourage all members to be open about their concerns.
Coalition messaging
Create and agree on talking points. Organizations are often specific about messages they are willing to align themselves with.
Conflicting priorities
It's natural that different groups will have different priorities. Sometimes, those priorities may conflict. What's important is that all members agree to put differences aside and work towards the coalition's goal.
Resolving disputes
Create a clear and accepted method of resolving conflicts within the coalition set up in advance of any potential problems.
Sharing workload
Ensure all members pull their weight.
Receiving credit
Coalition partners need to receive the credit they deserve.
Who should you recruit?
Don't write off anyone as an opponent.
Questions you may ask yourself include:
Are there any schools, colleges or universities nearby?
If yes, you may want to ask the student associations, local school boards, parent-teacher associations, and teacher unions to join a coalition.
Are there medical facilities?
If there are places where immunocompromised people frequent, such as health clinics, hospitals, assisted living facilities, or nursing homes, you may find allies.
Are there any local environmental advocacy organizations?
If you can get in touch with representatives from these organizations, you can build your credibility within the community while also drawing on local resources they may already have access to.
Are there locally active political groups?
If you can recruit political groups from diverse standpoints, your coalition will be strengthened.
Would this issue negatively affect local businesses?
Chambers of Commerce and local small business associations could be powerful coalition allies.
Would this issue affect local property values?
Look to real estate and homeowner associations.
Don't write off anyone as an opponent.
You may be surprised who could be your ally for a particular cause.
How do you reach out to potential members?
Once you have identified your potential coalition members, it's time to strategize on how you will reach out to them.
Frame your argument accordingly
Each organization has a purpose for existing. Your pitch to join the coalition needs to target those specific concerns. For example, your message to a small business association will be very different than to a parent-teacher association.
Offer multiple levels of commitment.
This allows the overworked groups to participate, adding to the coalition's diversity.
Be clear about the time and effort expected
from each commitment level.
Ask each group to suggest other organizations
that might be able to serve on the coalition.