: Coalitions

Building Advocacy Coalitions
Coalitions are formed when individuals and organizations with diverse interests join together to focus on specific, mutually-related goals, ranging from information sharing and coordination of services to community education and advocacy for major policy changes.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Coalitions

The greatest advantage of coalitions is the pooling of people and other resources, which often translates into additional staff, volunteers, and money than an individual organization can provide. Coalitions also demonstrate to principals, school board officials, lawmakers, and members of the community, the media, and other decision- makers the broad public support for issues PTA members are concerned about.

While all these positive things can be said of coalitions, it is important to keep in mind that there are disadvantages as well. Building coalitions takes time and energy, and it can distract you from other important work, such as strengthening your own PTA organizations. Also, coalitions cannot represent all of the views of the member groups; they need to focus on a common issue or goal.

Organizational structures with in a coalition can also slow down the decision-making process and response time within the coalition. Compromises will have to be made, and this may require groups concentrating on one or two common issues. This should not be a distraction as long as the coalition activities only address areas of common concern. It is important to not allow one organization making up the coalition to dominate the coalition's activities or policies.

Considerations for Joining/Building Coalitions

If your PTA is considering joining or building a coalition, it must first determine that the coalition's issue is consistent with PTA's Resolutions and Position Statements.

The next step is to acquire the approval of your PTA board or appropriate committee. Before proceeding, it is also important to determine the level of support among your members for the proposed coalition.

The issue you coalesce around will determine the type of coalition you build or join. To keep it simple, we broke them into three categories: informal, formal and ad hoc coalitions.

To read more about what these types of coalitions are and examples of them, download the PTA Grassroots Advocacy Manual from the link below.

Additional Resources

PTA Grassroots Advocacy Manual
A toolkit to assist you in advocacy efforts at every level--local, state and national.