Jonathan Poisner presented on building and sustaining effective coalitions. He discussed best practices for launching coalitions such as determining core members, assessing interest through one-on-one meetings, and answering questions about purpose, type, governance, priorities, and resources. He also covered sustaining coalitions through effective communications, consideration of power dynamics, planning systems, and coalition behavior regarding transparency, credit, and disputes. Personal relationships are important for coalition success.

1. Building and Sustaining
Effective Coalitions
Presented by Jonathan Poisner
For the State Environment
Leadership Program
April 2011

2. A BOUT J ONATHAN P OISNER
S TRATEGIC C ONSULTING
Services:
 Strategic and Campaign Planning
 Facilitation
 Coalition Development
 Fundraising
 Communications
 Organizational Development
 Executive Transitions
 Executive Coaching

3. W HAT WE ’ RE GOING
TO COVER
 Best practices for launching
 Different types of coalitions
 Best practices for sustaining

4. W HAT WE ’ RE NOT GOING
TO COVER
 Why coalitions
 Details on governance
 Differences between large and small
coalitions
 Many other topics that could turn this
into an all-day webinar

5. W HAT IS A C OALITION ?
 My plain english definition:
 A coalition is a set of organizations
that have chosen to work together for
some shared purpose.

6. H AVE YOU EVER BEEN IN A
MEETING WHEN SOMEBODY SAID :
“We should form
a coalition!

7. B EST PRACTICES FOR
LAUNCHING

8. D ETERMINE THE CORE
 This is the list of people who need to be in
the launch meetings.
 It’s not your ultimate coalition
membership, but it’s the essential players

9. TAKE THE C ORE ’ S
TEMPERATURE
 Series of 1 on 1 conversations to
take the temperature
 Prefer 1 on 1 because you want
candor and no group-think and peer
pressure
 If there isn’t enthusiasm, be
prepared to pull the plug

10. I F IT ’ S STILL A GO , MEET TO
ANSWER 5 KEY QUESTIONS
 Not a single meeting
 Could be anywhere from 2-4
meetings

11. Q UESTION 1:
W HAT ’ S THE PURPOSE OF
THE COALITION ?
 Is the coalition about a specific piece
of legislation, or an ongoing issue
where the group wants to make
progress over time?
 Is the coalition about building the
capacity of its members separate from
any specific policy goal?

12. Q UESTION 2:
W HAT TYPE OF COALITION
MAKES SENSE GIVEN THE
PURPOSE ?
 More on this in a minute
 It can be good to put the answers to
Questions 1 and 2 in writing.

13. QUESTION 3:
GIVEN THE PURPOSE
AND TYPE OF
COALITION, WHAT
SYSTEM OF
GOVERNANCE MAKES
SENSE?

14. Q UESTION 4:
W HAT ARE THE INITIAL
PRIORITY OR PRIORITIES
FOR ACTION ?
 Don’t come together if there isn’t at least
some initial action item for you to
collectively take over the next 1-12
months

15. Q UESTION 5:
W HERE DO YOU GET THE
RESOURCES FOR
COLLECTIVE WORK ?

16. M ORE ON Q UESTION 2:
W HAT TYPE OF COALITION
DO YOU WANT ?

17. FIVE TYPES THAT
ENVIRONMENTAL ADVOCACY
GROUPS TYPICALLY USE
 Networks
 Associations
 Coordinated Project
 Campaign Coalition
 Ongoing Partnership/Strategic
Alliance
Adapted from materials created by Institute for Conservation Leadership

18. N ETWORKS
 Groups coming together
 Primary purpose is sharing
information
 Ad hoc help where interests overlap
 Decrease duplication of effort
 Very informal governance

19. A SSOCIATIONS
 Membership-type alliance
 Primary purpose is to serve the
long-term interests of the
membership
 More focused on capacity building
than policy goals
 Tends to have formal governance
and separate incorporation
 Example: SELP

20. C OORDINATED P ROJECT
 The primary purpose is a specific
project.
 Examples: passing legislation,
stopping a bad “thing”,
creating/publicizing a report
 Coalition members tend to take on
specific tasks within the project
 Rarely involves formal governance
or separate coalition finances

21. C AMPAIGN C OALITION
 Primary Purpose is a specific action
you want some outside entity to take.
 Such as voters passing a ballot measure,
the legislature passing a bill, or a
corporation to take some action.
 Usually with an end-date (election
day?)
 Shared, written plan for what needs to
happen e.g. the campaign
 Usually a pooling of resources into
single campaign budget

22. C AMPAIGN C OALITION
Continued
 Usually centralized staff or volunteer
campaign leadership who’re
accountable to the campaign, not
individual member groups
 Tends to have own governance, bank
accounts, and campaign-specific
fundraising

23. O NGOING PARTNERSHIP /
S TRATEGIC A LLIANCE
 Longer-term around an issue or goal
 Example: Reduce use of toxic
chemicals in Oregon over the next 5
years.
 Shared “strategic” planning
 Tends to develop Campaigns or
Coordinated Projects as appropriate
to meet long-term goals

24. HOW DO YOU DECIDE
WHICH IS APPROPRIATE?
 Identify the potential coalition parties
 Identify why the coalition is being
proposed
 Pick the most appropriate type of
coalition collectively; don’t prejudge
before you talk to potential coalition
partners
 Be flexible – don’t feel you have to
pick one of these; you can create your
own model

25. WHY DO SOME
COALITION LAUNCHES
FAIL?
 Number one reason: Lack of
individual leadership!
 That’s why the temperature
taking is so important.
 I’ll give you two examples from
my own experience.

26. G ROW O REGON
PARTNERSHIP
 Started with a general meeting of
folks interested in sustainable food
systems after a series of 1 on 1s
 Brought in outside facilitator to talk
about whether to form an agenda to
pursue a common legislative agenda
 Did 2 more meetings that formalized
the coalition governance and
selected initial priorities
 The Partnership is thriving.

27. SMART GROWTH
COALITION IN A STATE
I WON’T NAME
 Had me facilitate two meetings of a
set of individuals/organizations who
were interested
 The participants agreed upon
forming the coalition, its purpose of
the coalition, its governance, and an
initial policy priority
 But then it fell apart.

28. W HY DID IT FAIL ?
B ECAUSE NOBODY WAS
PREPARED TO STEP UP
AND LEAD .
 The group instigating the initial meeting
wasn’t prepared to lead
 They just hoped somebody would “step
up.” Had not done 1 on 1s to take the
temperature.
 Nobody wanted to be chair of the
coalition or make it a major focus

29. S USTAINING C OALITIONS

30. F OUR K EYS :
 Communications
 Power
 Planning
 Behavior

31. C OMMUNICATIONS
 Failure to communicate can lead to
schisms
 Insiders and outsiders
 Systems to make sure that those not
in the core know what’s happening
 Enough meetings for all to feel
engaged. But not so many that
things bog down.

32. P OWER
 Coalition partners aren’t all equal
 Especially if the coalition has groups
of dramatically different size
 Acknowledge and think about this
openly when setting up the
governance.
 There is no one right solution to
power imbalances.

33. P LANNING S YSTEMS
 Failure to plan can lead to problems
 Just like with organizations
 Really important to agree upon
strategies
 Not all the organizations in the
coalition will have the same
strategic thinking
You may have coalition partners who mostly
pursue legal strategies in with partners who
mostly pursue grassroots strategies.

34. P LANNING S YSTEMS
Continued
 Need a conscious plan/strategy regarding
coalition membership
 Before growing, ask why you want a
larger coalition membership
 The “why” should tell you who to invite,
if anybody
 Need to build in planning processes that
engage coalition members if you want them
to invest in the coalition
 Can be long-term strategic plan
 Short-term campaign plans
 And everything in between

35. B EHAVIOR
 Transparency
 Share information broadly within the
coalition
 Don’t mask disagreements within the
coalition
 Confidentiality
 Keep plans of individual groups
confidential
 Don’t air dirty laundry

36. B EHAVIOR
Continued
 Taking and sharing credit
 Dispute resolution procedures
 Codes of Conduct as potential
mechanism.

37. PERSONAL
RELATIONSHIPS ARE
YOUR TRUMP CARD

38. TO CONTACT ME :
 www.poisner.com – for email newsletter signup
 Twitter.com/jpoisner
 Via phone: 503-490-1234
 Via email: jonathan@poisner.com