Coalition Building and Maintenance

You may not need a highly formal coalition to win, but it will add credibility if you can get a diverse array of organizations and businesses to endorse your policy proposal. Why? Simply because decision-makers are influenced by coalitions. Demonstrating the breadth of support for your issues can done clearly with a formal sign-on letter. See sample sign-on letters below for restricting youth access to supplements and reducing digitally altered ads.

Coalitions make it easier for lawmakers to satisfy many organizations at once rather than having to satisfy each of those organizations one by one. A powerful coalition list is one that anticipates and answers the toughest questions about your policy proposal. Visit our Coalition List for a few examples. Consider recruiting four types of coalition partners:

1. Organizations/businesses that share your mission
2. Organizations/businesses that share your vision
3. Organizations/businesses with a self-interest that is advanced if you win
4. Organizations/businesses that have a positive connection to your key decision-makers

Download our worksheet to help map out your coalitions.

Our job is to make it easy for these partners to be advocates for policy change. Providing them with customizable fact sheets, talking points, newsletter articles, and including their relevant message points in your communications to lawmakers, the media, and grassroots advocates are great ways to engage multiple messengers for your policy change needs.

If you are leading the overall campaign, part of your job is not just to recruit these coalition partners, but to maintain some regular communication with them throughout the campaign. That could be regular in-person meetings, but it can also be regular email updates, invitations to grassroots training webinars, lawmaker visits, and sharing relevant news and information. Many of the coalition partners you want to engage will have other priorities so try to make it easy for them to participate. Assign one or two people to serve as the main point person dealing with coalition partners so your partners will have a clear sense of their go-to person for the campaign. Download our organizer’s checklist for effective coalition meetings.

Finally, review our tips for some helpful tips to keep in mind when building and managing a coalition – no matter how loose.

Advocacy coalitions are groups of organizations that come together to achieve a common policy goal. Member organizations may have nothing in common but this one campaign goal and may, in fact, oppose each other on other issues, but they put that aside to work together on a shared advocacy goal.

Here is an example:

Patient advocacy groups and health insurers may be at the same coalition table pushing to increase an excise tax on sugary drinks and to use the new tax revenue to fund Medicaid expansion. Yet those same patient groups and insurers are on opposite sides of the fight to mandate certain health coverage provisions. If this seems awkward or hypocritical, it’s actually quite common. Seasoned public health professionals are used to standing side-by-side and going toe-to-toe with the same organizations – often during the same legislative session. You’ll get used to it! Like people, organizations are complex being with multiple agendas and expectations.

Make it easier for lawmakers to satisfy many organizations at once rather than having to satisfy each of those organizations one by one. You may not need a highly formal coalition to win, but it will add credibility if you can get a diverse array of organizations and businesses to endorse your policy proposal. Why? Simply because decision-makers are influenced by coalitions. Demonstrating the breadth of support for your issues can done clearly with a formal sign-on letter. See sample sign-on letters below for restricting youth access to supplements and reducing digitally altered ads.

Coalitions make it easier for lawmakers to satisfy many organizations at once rather than having to satisfy each of those organizations one by one. A powerful coalition list is one that anticipates and answers the toughest questions about your policy proposal. Visit our Coalition List for a few examples. Consider recruiting four types of coalition partners:

1. Organizations/businesses that share your mission
2. Organizations/businesses that share your vision
3. Organizations/businesses with a self-interest that is advanced if you win
4. Organizations/businesses that have a positive connection to your key decision-makers

Download our worksheet to help map out your coalitions.

Our job is to make it easy for these partners to be advocates for policy change. Providing them with customizable fact sheets, talking points, newsletter articles, and including their relevant message points in your communications to lawmakers, the media, and grassroots advocates are great ways to engage multiple messengers for your policy change needs.

If you are leading the overall campaign, part of your job is not just to recruit these coalition partners, but to maintain some regular communication with them throughout the campaign. That could be regular in-person meetings, but it can also be regular email updates, invitations to grassroots training webinars, lawmaker visits, and sharing relevant news and information. Many of the coalition partners you want to engage will have other priorities so try to make it easy for them to participate. Assign one or two people to serve as the main point person dealing with coalition partners so your partners will have a clear sense of their go-to person for the campaign. Download our organizer’s checklist for effective coalition meetings.

Finally, review our tips for some helpful tips to keep in mind when building and managing a coalition – no matter how loose.

Policymakers can tap into two kinds of coalitions to drive a winning policy campaign. (1) An outside coalition of organizations led by one or more interest groups most closely tied to the outcome of your campaign. You will work directly with the lead organization for that coalition, sharing information, planning events, and positioning your issue favorably with leadership. And (2) an inside coalition of fellow policymakers who are willing to coalesce around this issue. This inside coalition may require more work from you because it may require you to initiate “Dear Colleague” letters of support, to host issue briefings, and to tap into the existing caucus structure if one exists, and securing a caucus endorsement for your policy proposal. For example, caucuses for the following types of legislative caucuses might be good allies: women and children, mental health, Black and Latino, school health, etc. See sample sign-on letters below for restricting youth access to supplements and reducing digitally altered ads.

As a policymaker, you know that your colleagues are going to ask you about the organizations that support this effort. Don’t be afraid to let your lead interest group know what kinds of coalition representation might matter most to your colleagues – and encourage them to recruit such organizations. A powerful coalition list is one that anticipates and answers the toughest questions about your policy proposal. See below for a few examples. A few examples of how a powerful coalition list anticipates and answers the toughest questions about your policy proposal

• Legislation to keep so-called “body-building” supplements out of the hands of kids will be more persuasive if the coalition includes representation from youth sports organizations, coaches, athletic trainers, etc.
• Legislation to keep diet pills out of the hands of kids will be more persuasive if supported by youth-led organizations such as student government, scouting groups, civic organizations, youth empowerment groups,  and others to demonstrate peer-to-peer youth support and leadership.
• Legislation to provide incentives to businesses that do not use digital distortion in advertising and imagery, would seem more credible if supported by actors, models, photographers, and members of the communities whose images are most often distorted such as Black/African-American people, women and girls, and older people.

Check out the STRIPED Policy & Advocacy Campaigns page for customizable fact sheets, talking points, and newsletter articles on our model legislation, including their relevant message points for your communications to other policymakers, the media, and public agencies.