Coalition Building

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Coalition Building

• One wind turbine isnt enough

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Brainstorm What is a coalition?
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Objectives

• In this training, participants will
• Learn the different types of coalitions
• Recognize the pros and cons of building
  coalitions
• Understand how to determine who to approach and
  how to approach them
• Plan how to approach another organization in your
  school/community.

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What is a Coalition?

• A collective of groups working together for a
  common purpose/goal
• A coalition is about building power to accomplish
  change that no one group could have accomplished
  on its own

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Coalition Membership

• What are you asking members to do?
• How will membership benefit them?

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Types of Coalitions

• Endorsement
• A list of supporting organizations
• May do little beyond lend credibility
• Associate
• Members play a small but active role in campaign
• Decision making still rests with you
• Partner
• Decision making is shared
• Two types
• Collective--Reps meet frequently to shape
  campaign
• Separate Org.--a new Org. is formed to run
  campaign

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Brainstorm Why Join a Coalition?
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Why Join/Build a Coalition?

• Pros
• Build power
• Broaden support
• Increase resources (time, people, money,
  connections, etc.)
• Increase legitimacy
• Synergy
• Diverse perspectives

• Cons
• Hard to act quickly
• Decision-making can be slow and difficult
• Lowest common denominator politics
• Time and effort intensive
• Distract from other work
• Not all members deliver

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Principles of Coalition Building

• Choose Unifying Issue(s)
• Agree to Disagree
• Understand and Respect Institutional
  Self-Interest Internal Processes
• Help Organizations to Achieve Their Self-Interest
  
• Recognize that Contributions Vary
• Structure Decision-making Carefully
• Achieve Significant Victories
• Distribute Credit Fairly
• Urge Stable and Senior Leadership at Meetings
• Play to the Center with Tactics

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To Build or Not To Build

• BE STRATEGIC
• Dont just build a coalition for a coalitions
  sake, make sure that it is strategic for your
  campaign
• Building a coalition is a TACTIC to achieve your
  goals

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Steps to Build a Coalition

• Determine which model to use and set goals
• Make a list of organizations to approach
• Prioritize list, think about what they could
  bring (credibility, non-traditional allies, etc.)
• Contact target groups
• Attend their meetings, get to know their issues,
  look for common ground
• Get a commitment
• Maintain Structure Communication
• Use Coalition to further campaign
• Announce coalition with press release

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Meetings with Potential Partners

• Key tips
• Be friendly and professional (on time, dressed
  nicely, etc.)
• Know who youre meeting with
• Know your goals
• Know what you can offer
• Have a plan
• Follow up!

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Vague Meeting Agenda

• Introduce yourself who you and we are, what
  were doing
• Thank them for meeting with you
• Build the relationship - Ask questions! Find out
  what their priorities are! Chat!
• Explain your campaign in more depth
• Make your ask
• Listen and answer questions - the 50/50 rule!
• Establish Next Steps
• Thank them again

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Meetings

• So, youve scheduled a meeting with Pastor Tim in
  Nashua to talk about presenting at the church
  picnic in June.
• Whats your goal for the meeting?
• What are your asks?
• What else should you be prepared to say/do?

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Q A

• What remaining questions do you have?

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Debrief

• What did you learn?
• So whats the one take home lesson?
• Where do you see yourself taking this knowledge?

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Feedback

• Please send all feedback the good, the bad, the
  interesting to trainings_at_ssc.org