Coalition Building for Beginners - Getting Your New Alliance Off the Ground

Today's policy environment is challenging - it is increasingly difficult for a single organization to achieve policy change alone. Whether because of the increase in the number of third party organizations, or because of growing partisanship, it is rarely enough for one organization to push policy change by themselves. Because of this, organizations are increasingly looking to partner with other groups that might share their policy goals.

Putting together a productive partnership or coalition can be daunting. However, I have found several different strategies that can help get a coalition started with clear and achievable goals and a plan to keep the coalition together during the process of campaigning.

To begin building a coalition it is essential to understand the universe of potential players and to identify players that are would be interested and useful as partners in the movement. There are four basic techniques I use to build this universe and fill it with potential partners.

1. Develop a one sentence thesis of the coalition's campaign goal. This thesis should be relatively broad. For instance, a thesis that specifically says, “We want to pass Bill 123,” is likely too specific to build an entire universe of players around. At the early stage it is more useful to have a broad thesis will be inclusive of every possible player in your universe.
   

2. Identify all organizations, individuals, or other groups that are interested in your thesis. This will create as broad as possible a list of potential players. Thinking outside of the box when you develop your universe list is critical to being sure that the ultimate coalition that you form will be varied and have strengths in a variety of areas to support your coalition campaign goal.
   

3. Identify the positions you will need for your coalition to be a success. Campaigns usually need to employ a range of tactics to ensure their success. When building a coalition, it is important to know exactly what tactics you need and to think through the features that an organization should have to be able to best deploy those tactics. Clearly being able to identify what kind of rolls are critical for success will make it possible to easier prioritize individuals that should be invited to join your coalition.
   

4. Prioritize potential coalition members and begin outreach. Now that you have a list of organizations, and a list of the necessary roles, it's time to begin matching organizations to roles and conducting outreach to gauge interest. Critically, beyond presenting the thesis goal of your coalition to potential members, you should also share with them why you are reaching out to their organization. This should include the potential role that you see them for filling the coalition. Defining a role in broad strokes helps an organization better visualize what the commitment is, and can also help them see how how joining the coalition could benefit them.

While the initial steps to start a coalition can involve a lot of research and background work, they can lead to a more efficient and successful coalition. Broad, well-balanced multi-skilled, coalitions are capable of effectively implementing campaigns that create real policy change for their direct constituents and beyond.

Successful coalitions are diverse, multi-talented, and full of passionate people.