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Section Two
Examining Coalitions

"Louie, this looks like the beginning of a beautiful friendship."
Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca

Overview of Section

This section provides an overview of coalitions and seeks to distinguish them from other types of operating partnerships. It provides a list of traits from successful coalitions and provides an opportunity for some coalition developers to describe their experiences.

B. Setting up a Coalition

When to Avoid a Coalition

As important as it is to learn how to set up a coalition and how to use it fully, the question might first be asked whether you need a coalition.

• Don’t set up a coalition if the agency or company contemplating sponsorship of the coalition has the resources of time, money, and people to do the job by itself.
• Don’t set up a coalition if those groups that would be the natural partners for the group have a history of non-cooperation and competitiveness.
• Don’t set up a coalition if there is little likelihood of the resources becoming available in the near future.
• Don’t set up a coalition if a simpler, less complex organizational structure will get the job done.

Is It a Coalition?

Here are four examples of collaborating organizations

1. In a large metropolitan area of Florida, the public and private colleges and universities with the aid of a small grant have put the catalogue of all their library holdings on-line. Each has made these books and journals available to all students attending any one of these institutions. Each library operates independently of the others in ordering materials, processing requests, and assigning staff.
2. In a large Midwestern city, a foundation funded a partnership between an arts and cultural organization and four elementary schools. The purpose was to find ways to reduce teacher isolation, improve total school planning, and open up the cultural and academic resources of the community to teachers and students. The organization and schools jointly provided support for innovative activities suggested by teachers for working together, provided an opportunity for school principals to plan together, and exposed the students to certain artistic and cultural venues considered rich in educational opportunities.
3. In a suburban community on the West Coast, the director of a neighborhood community agency is offered a grant of $3500 to start a coalition for increasing asthma awareness in the community. She takes the grant and asks her only other staff person to take on the assignment of getting the coalition started. He is a paid 40 hour a week employee who usually works 50 hours. The Director tells him to free up 1 day a week to work on this project and recruit others into the coalition.
4. In another large Midwestern city, a University and a social service agency worked with neighborhood leaders in an African-American community and developed a partnership to attack the problem of asthma in an urban setting. The partnership aimed at developing a base to educate people in this setting of the serious problem of asthma and to support activities designed to provide both preventive care and management of the ailment for those already afflicted. Several federal grants supported the program as well as funds provided by a pharmaceutical company.

Example one appears a useful partnership but it is not a coalition. The partnership has worthwhile benefits to its members but does not require any commitment to any broader goal. The libraries do not substantially change; they merely extend to a wider number of students and faculty what they previously had done for a smaller number.

Similarly, in the second example, the benefits represent activities that are new and innovative. Financial support and other resources of time and personnel are provided to allow teachers and principals to learn new skills and function with a fresh understanding of their roles. However, the purpose of the partnership is to communicate these skills and attitudes quickly so that the lessons may be learned and the partnership concluded.

The third example is hardly yet a partnership. It contains a concept, not yet a plan, of developing a coalition. In time, with successful execution and more resources, it may become a coalition. Its future is too much in doubt to call it a coalition.

The fourth example meets our test for a coalition. All the required elements are present. Different groups come together for a common purpose. What they are establishing is something new and different. It represents the formation of a coalition, the creation of a new entity. If any one of the partners to the coalition was capable of achieving the work assigned to the coalition, then the coalition would be superfluous. Indeed, if the coalition is wisely put together and is capable of obtaining all the resources it needs to succeed, then there is no reason why over time the coalition might not outlast one or all of the members.

Traits of Successful Coalitions

Some excellent research studies have been done in the past decade on the characteristics that have marked successful, effective coalitions. Additional studies have been conducted on partnerships and have described the benefits that will accrue to a successful organization or group of organizations that enter a coalition. ⁷

TIPS FOR NEW COALITIONS

1. In setting up the first meetings of a new coalition, spend as much time thinking about the setting of the meetings and the atmosphere you want to create as you do on the agenda.
2. Make sure everyone is introduced and recognition is given to individuals and organizations.
3. Introduce people with their appropriate title.
4. Don't challenge anyone at a first meeting but let people know they will be asked to contribute.
5. Come away from the meeting knowing what others’ expectations are.

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