A key aspect of building and scaling social change organizations is how potential coalition partners and allies are approached. Context-specific framing is essential: the terminology and narratives used to approach others should be chosen with attention to their values. Sadaka Reut activists note that framing is important for coalition-building and thus scaling, because it reduces opportunities for misinterpretation. One activist at the same organization also adds that approaching partners in ways that respect their values is important because it avoids the perception of superiority that sometimes infuses the rhetoric of movements/movement organizations. In other words, it is important to engage prospective partners from the place they are at. 

Sadaka Reut also focuses on openness to authentic dialogue as a starting point for building a joint vision with possible coalition members or partners outside the organization. Instead of beginning interactions with possible partners with a set vision, staff in the organization  activists emphasize the importance of learning from others and jointly creating a shared vision of what partnership will look like. The organization also focuses on applying a critical pedagogical approach to educate individuals about their values. This approach focuses on helping individuals shift their perspectives through a process of raising questions and guiding them rather than dictating perspectives or imposing values on others. It is important for building a joint vision because the approach creates opportunities for making messages meaningful without imposing values on others. Such an approach is particularly important when unequal power dynamics exist among partners, because it allows for power imbalances to become part of the conversation and thus be addressed in terms of what it means to build a joint vision. 

Moreover, members of Sadaka Reut also stress the importance of being clear about knowing how to communicate values to outsiders and recognizing the way these values are framed. For example, while Sadaka Reut activists prefer the term “Palestinian”as a way of espousing the value of equality between Palestinian and Jewish citizens, they use the term “Arab Israelis” with government actors and others in the external environment in order to neutralize potentially negative responses. This practice points to the importance of making the organization’s ideals palatable to the outside world, either through a muting of the way they are presented, or by finding ways to explain these ideals that minimize opportunities for challenging them. Sadaka Reut also presents its work in universal terms such as “anti-racism” so as to draw greater interest from the educational institutions and other more “mainstream” groups they work with. Similarly, Saviona Rotley notes the importance in Women Waging Peace of using vague or broad messaging that appeals to a diverse group of potential members and partners, rather than focusing narrowly on a specific political message. 

As a Black Lives Matters activist in the Southwest notes,  it is important to maintain a focus on the organization’s core purpose by identifying spaces and issues that are shared - and also those that should be addressed separately. He states, 

The vision of Black Lives Matter [in this area] at least has always been from the beginning was to teach black people that black lives matter. [...] However, because we believe in Ally-ship, actually Accomplice-ship, we do have spaces and events that center black and brown people, and that’s including indigenous communities [...] So we have events together and we come to each other’s events but we also respect their needs and space as well. So we, because, remember that these movements are not all created equal even though they run, they are running parallel to each other…[A] LatinX person...does not necessarily have all the same issues that a black person does so there has to be a space for that.

In other words: centering decision-making around a core vision and goals helps build strong coalitions but also clarifies which issues may not be focal points for coalition partners. 

Challenges you may encounter using this tool

• The greater the diversity of those involved in a coalition, the more challenging it can be to center core values or agree upon which values should be the common focus of coalition building. For example, it can be challenging to truly center Black lives and voices if white fragility starts to take center stage in a BLM chapter.  Likewise centering a cross-sectarian goal versus a single identity group’s goal is important in deeply divided or conflict contexts.

• Beware of packing too many, possibly contradicting values, into a guiding list of values for a broader coalition. The coalition may open itself up for attacks or backlash on multiple fronts if it tries to stand for too many issues or if issues become conflated.

• Bringing organizations together can create situations where core values of one organization stand in contrast with core values of possible coalition partners. This can make it difficult to build effective and lasting partnerships.