lang: en
Summary
The deliberate work of bringing distinct organisations and constituencies together behind a shared campaign demand — the move from single-organisation to coalition power.
Body
The deliberate work of bringing distinct organisations and constituencies together behind a shared campaign demand — the move from single-organisation to coalition power.
A coalition is a formal or informal alignment of distinct organisations pursuing a shared campaign demand. The SFAF manual on popular mobilisation treats coalition-building as central to any mass campaign in Latin America [source: sfaf-movilizacion]. CIVICUS’s framework for civil-society alliance-building emphasises clarity of demand, division of roles, and shared accountability [source: civicus]. The spectrum of allies is the operational map that tells the coalition which actors to bring in and in what order spectrum-of-allies. Citizen lobbying is the policy-engagement angle — many coalitions are formed specifically to lobby a common target citizen-lobbying. The hardest part is rarely building the coalition — it is keeping it together through the inevitable disagreements on strategy and credit. The strongest coalitions agree on governance (who decides, who speaks, who gets credit, who funds the next round) before they agree on demands.
Examples
Examples
- African Americans boycott buses for integration in Montgomery, Alabama, US, 1955-1956 — On January 30, 1956, opponents of the Montgomery bus boycott bombed the house 1955-1956 · North America
- African-Americans in Birmingham, Alabama, protest segregation, 1956-1958 — Between December 26, 1956 and November 1958, Birmingham blacks, led by Fred 1956-1958 · North America
- Atlanta students sit-in for U.S. civil rights, 1960-1961 — The Georgia State Capitol is in Atlanta. As that bill was being considered, 1960-1961 · North America
- Mongolians win multi-party democracy, 1989-1990 — Apr 17, 2024 [TRUNC] Mongolian Case Study. Risking Protest; Creation of the 1989-1990 · Asia
- Barcelona workers win general strike for economic justice, 1919 — The demands of the strikers were the “release of political prisoners, the 1919 · Europe
- Barnard College wins divestment from fossil fuel companies, 2013-2017 — ‘[TRUNC] March of 2017. Case Study Details. Database Narrative. Although 2013-2017 · North America
- Black high school students sit-in, desegregate public libraries in Danville, VA, 1960 — Case Study Details. Database Narrative. Inspired by the February, 1960 launch 1960 · North America
- Blacks in Huntsville, Alabama, sit in and win racial desegregation at lunch counters, 1962 — Case Study Details. Database Narrative. Huntsville, Alabama, grew quickly 1962 · North America
See all 69 case studies using this method → examples-by-tactic
Use it for
Recruiting coalition partners for a new campaign; structuring decision-making in an existing coalition; sequencing coalition recruitment to a public launch.
Worked examples
- case-studies/campact-model
- sindicato-inquilinas
- case-studies/sunrise-green-new-deal
Related
- power-mapping
- spectrum-of-allies
- stakeholder-analysis
- citizen-lobbying
- governance
- coalition-building
- civicus
- sfaf-movilizacion
- thinkers/grover-norquist
- thinkers/marshall-ganz
Open Questions
None yet.
Sources & verification
- sfaf-movilizacion — grounding: secondary — unfetchable
- civicus — grounding: secondary — RAW (958 chars)
Verified 2026-06-23 by llm-qc.