coalition_building v1.0.0

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name: "coalition_building" description: "Build and run a working coalition across organisations: map who should be at the table with a partner sheet and power map, write shared asks every partner can sign, set meeting and decision rules and credit sharing in a working agreement, recruit through one-to-ones, and keep partners active between moments with a contact rhythm and health check. Use when several groups need to act together on one goal, when a coalition is stalling, drifting, or losing partners, or when starting a joint campaign, table, or alliance."

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Coalition Building

Purpose

Get separate organisations to act as one body on one goal, without pretending they agree on everything else. A coalition is a group of individuals and organisations with a common interest who agree to work together toward a common goal. That agreement is the whole asset. Everything in this skill protects it: a short set of shared asks, written decision rules, fair credit, and steady contact between public moments.

This skill covers forming a coalition, recruiting partners, governing it, and keeping it alive. It does not run the campaign the coalition exists for. Vote counting and testimony belong to legislative advocacy, supporter mobilisation belongs to campaign skills, and a single organisation strategic plan is a different job. The worked example in references/worked-launch-plan.md is fictional and shows a full launch from frame to review.

Workflow

1. Test whether a coalition is the right tool

Start only when all three are true:

• No single partner can reach the goal alone. The decision maker, the resources, or the credibility sits across several groups.
• The partners share at least one concrete ask they could sign today, not just a broad value.
• The work lasts long enough that coordination pays for itself. A one-off joint letter needs a sign-on letter, not a coalition.

If the second point fails, do relationship work first and come back. Building structure on top of a missing shared ask produces a mailing list with bylaws.

Write the frame before recruiting anyone, following the frame used by the Center for Nonprofit Excellence: the community level problem, the vision, the mission, and specific measurable goals. One page. Every later dispute about scope gets settled against this page.

2. Form the core group first

Recruit a core of partners who will do the founding work before any public invitation:

• Each core partner can commit its own organisation. Verify who signs for them. A keen staffer without sign-off authority is a contact, not a core partner.
• The core writes the draft shared asks, the draft working agreement, and the first partner map.
• The core stays small enough to decide fast. Working groups and the full table carry the wider membership.

Do not announce a coalition before the core can sign its own asks. An announcement with no signed core reads as one organisation borrowing other names.

3. Map partners and power

Build the partner sheet from references/partner-mapping-template.csv and the method in references/partner-mapping.md. One row per organisation, with sector, tier, status, working contact, what they bring, what they need, whether they signed the current shared asks, who can commit them, and contact dates.

Run the sheet checks before every recruitment round and every full meeting:

python3 scripts/coalition.py check partners.csv python3 scripts/coalition.py roster partners.csv python3 scripts/coalition.py due partners.csv --as-of 2026-10-20 --days 7

Draw the power map on paper first: name the decision maker, plot affected groups and influencers on support against influence, draw the connections between them, and circle the first one-to-one targets. The full method is in references/partner-mapping.md.

Check the roster for gaps the counts expose: a sector the decision maker listens to is missing, affected people are only spoken for, or the core has fewer than three partners who can sign.

4. Recruit through one-to-ones, not blasts

• Invite through a personal conversation, in person or by phone, starting with partners you already have a real relationship with. The Community Tool Box lists personal contact first among recruitment routes for a reason. A mass email asks for a logo. A one-to-one asks about interest.
• In the conversation, explore the other group self-interest before presenting yours: what they are trying to win, what this issue costs their members, what would make joining easy or hard. Record the answer in the needs column.
• State what the coalition adds for them, what membership asks of them in plain terms (meetings, a working group, name use on signed asks only), and who else has signed. Never name a partner as signed before they have signed.
• Leave the shared asks draft and a decision date. Follow up on that date. Update status and next_contact the same day.
• Show up for a prospect work before asking them to show up for yours when you can. Trust built before the ask is what holds when the campaign gets hard.

Admission rules stay transparent: any partner who signs the current asks and accepts the working agreement terms for its tier can join. Write exceptions down with the reason.

5. Lock the shared asks

Draft three to five asks, each one sentence, each signable without a caveat. Use the template and signing test in references/agreement-templates.md.

• An ask is shared only when every signer would defend the exact wording to its own board or members.
• Keep partner specific demands out of the shared list. A partner can campaign for more under its own name. The coalition speaks only to the signed list.
• Version the asks. When wording changes, every signer re-signs. The sheet column shared_asks_signed refers to the current version only.

The five conditions from Kania and Kramer Collective Impact work in Stanford Social Innovation Review in 2011 are a useful check at this stage: common agenda, shared measurement, mutually reinforcing activities, continuous communication, and backbone support. If one is missing, name who will build it and by when. The frame in step 1 plus the signed asks cover the common agenda. The rest get built in steps 6 and 7.

6. Set the working agreement, roles, and decision rules

Core and active partners sign the working agreement in references/agreement-templates.md. It must settle, in writing:

• Roles: coordinator or backbone holder, steering group, working group leads, spokesperson rule, and who keeps records. Backbone support means dedicated coordination capacity, not a rotating chore nobody owns. TCC Group research on advocacy coalitions groups this under capacity and structure, alongside context, support, and strategy.
• Decision rule: pick one primary rule (consensus, modified consensus, supermajority, majority, or delegated authority for named decision classes) plus its fallback, a quorum, how absent partners register a position, and how a decision reopens. Be explicit about who has decision power. Unspoken power rules are where coalitions break.
• Money: who holds shared funds, spending approval limits, what each partner contributes, and no spending in the coalition name without prior written approval.
• Membership: how partners join and leave, and how fast a departing partner name comes off materials.
• Review date and ending condition: ask won, ask lost with no successor agreed, or a set sunset date.

Name power differences openly in the agreement discussion: budget size, staff size, who takes legal or public risk by acting, and whose members are directly affected. A small partner carrying the largest risk gets a real say on the actions that create that risk, whatever its tier.

7. Run meetings that decide things

• Meet on a set cadence the group chooses and writes down. Working groups meet more often than the full table. Meet in full only when coordination or a decision needs the room. Send updates in writing instead of holding a meeting with nothing to decide.
• Agenda out ahead of the meeting, with each item marked decide, discuss, or inform, and the decision rule that applies to decide items.
• Rotate or name the facilitator, note taker, and timekeeper. Record decisions, owners, and dates the same day in the action log (references/action-log-template.csv). A decision with no owner did not happen.
• Open with wins and partner news, keep reports short and written in advance, spend the room time on decisions and strategy, and close by reading back every action and owner.
• Accessibility is part of the design, not a favour: hybrid option where possible, interpretation or translation when members need it, and meeting times that working members can actually attend.

8. Share credit on a written rule

Credit fights kill coalitions quietly, so settle credit before the first win:

• Default rule from the working agreement: coalition name first, signers listed in the agreed order or rotation, and every press release or letter approved under the spokesperson rule before release.
• Name partner contributions specifically in public material where space allows: who turned out members, who drafted, who brought the data. Specific credit costs nothing and pays in retention.
• Never list, quote, or photograph a partner in support of a position it did not sign. Never use a partner logo beyond the signer list without separate written approval.
• When one partner gets solo press for joint work, the coordinator corrects the record with the outlet and tells the table it happened. Letting it slide once teaches everyone to grab credit first next time.

9. Keep partners active between moments

Coalitions die in the quiet months, not at the big vote. Maintenance, as the Community Tool Box puts it, covers the reason for being, governance, leadership, membership, division of labour, plans, results, funding, visibility, public support, and the spirit of the group.

• Run the due command weekly in active periods and monthly in quiet ones. No joined partner goes past its next_contact date without a real contact: a call, a useful update, a small ask, or an invitation.
• Give partners work between campaigns that fits the shared frame: a data release together, a site visit for a decision maker, a joint training, a small win that is actually winnable. Mutually reinforcing activities means each partner does what it does best toward the same plan, not that everyone does the same task.
• Send a short written update after every relevant external step, even when the news is nothing happened yet. Silence gets filled with the assumption that the coalition folded.
• Track shared measurement in the open: the few indicators the group agreed in the frame, reported the same way each time, with misses shown next to hits.
• Revisit the frame and the asks at the review date in the agreement. Partners whose priorities moved get an honest exit path, not guilt. Update the sheet status the same day.

10. Handle conflict and the end on purpose

• Work the path written in the agreement: direct conversation, coordinator mediation, steering group, and the option for a partner to sit out one action without leaving. Record the outcome in the action log.
• If a partner acts publicly against a signed ask, the steering group addresses it within days, not at the next regular meeting. The shared asks are the coalition. Letting a breach pass rewrites them.
• At the ending condition, hold a closing review: result against the frame, where the partner map was wrong, what the credit rule got right or wrong, and what happens to shared lists, files, and any funds. Then end, spin off a narrower table, change focus by re-signing fresh asks, or continue with a new review date. Decide. Do not drift.

Output Contract

A coalition run keeps these current:

• The frame: one page with problem, vision, mission, and measurable goals.
• The partner sheet CSV, checked with the CLI, one row per organisation, statuses and contact dates current within one week during active periods.
• The power map for each named decision maker, with circled targets turned into assignments.
• The shared asks: one page, versioned, signed by every listed signer for the current version.
• The working agreement: signed by core and active partners, covering roles, decision rules, money, credit, conflict path, review date, and ending condition.
• The action log CSV: every meeting decision with owner and due date, cleared or carried at each meeting.
• A contact record: the due list run on schedule, with no joined partner overdue without a noted reason.
• At the end or review date: a short closing review covering result, map errors, credit, and the decision to continue, change, or end.

Operating Rules

1. Never claim a partner, a signer, or a constituency number you cannot point to in the sheet and a signed document. Decision makers check. One inflated claim costs the coalition its word.
2. Coalition voice covers signed asks only. Partners speak freely under their own names on anything else, and the coalition never implies otherwise.
3. Keep the partner sheet, needs notes, and internal power map private to the coalition. A partner needs and internal doubts were shared for the work, not for circulation.
4. Use a person story, photo, or name only with that person permission, recorded. Withdraw it when permission is withdrawn.
5. Verify every figure used in coalition material against its primary source, and record the source on the material. If a number cannot be traced, cut it.
6. Get legal review before the coalition handles shared funds, employs shared staff, files as an entity, or lobbies where registration rules may apply. This skill is not legal advice, and tax exempt partners face their own limits on lobbying and election related work that the coordinator must check with counsel for the partners affected.
7. Label illustrative material as illustrative. The worked plan and the template rows are fictional examples. Never present an example partner, figure, or result as a real one.
8. Write in plain language in all coalition documents. No em dashes. Short sentences partners can repeat without notes are the test for every ask and announcement.