Building Coalitions That Actually Work

By Sarah Ailish McLoughlin
May 29, 2025

Even the strongest story needs people behind it.

What Is a Coalition?

A coalition is a group of individuals, organisations, or communities that come together to pursue a shared advocacy goal.

They don’t need to be the same type of people or agree on everything—but they agree on one thing they want to change, and they pool their voices, resources, relationships, and risk to make that change happen.

Types of Coalitions You’ve Probably Seen:

• Workplace coalitions – Staff band together across departments to push for better policies on safety, discrimination, or inclusion.
• Parent-led school coalitions – Families unite to advocate for classroom aides, inclusive learning environments, or accessible infrastructure.
• Sector coalitions – Service providers or NGOs working across disability, education, or housing join forces to demand national reform.
• Community coalitions – Local residents, youth, elders, or faith groups coordinate efforts to block developments, protect public land, or demand safer services.
• Online coalitions – Virtual groups of advocates combine storytelling, complaints, and media pressure to highlight systemic issues.

In a functioning coalition, everyone isn’t doing the same thing—but everyone is moving in the same direction.

Advocacy Alone is Powerful. But It’s Not Enough.

You can have the strongest story. You can have the best strategy. You can know the system inside out. But if you're standing alone, the system knows it can wait you out.

That’s why coalitions matter. Not feel-good unity. Not paper partnerships. Real coalitions—built on shared risk, shared strategy, and shared power.

Why Many Coalitions Fail

• They’re built on shared identity, not shared action: Everyone agrees on the problem, but no one agrees on the goal—or how to get there.
• There’s no escalation plan: The group stalls because no one knows what to do when the first strategy doesn’t work.
• Power isn’t distributed: One person (or one organisation) holds all the relationships, all the media access, all the decision-making—and others are there just to nod along.
• No one names the risk: Coalitions fall apart the moment one group is asked to do something risky—like speak publicly, challenge a funder, or name the institution causing harm.

What a Functional Coalition Looks Like

• Clear purpose: Not just “awareness,” but what exactly are we trying to shift?
• Defined roles: Who’s writing? Who’s speaking? Who’s working behind the scenes?
• Distributed risk: It’s not always the same person taking the hits.
• Aligned messaging: People can speak in their own voice—but they’re speaking to the same goal.
• Agreed boundaries: Not everyone needs to agree on everything. They just need to not derail the collective action.

A Coalition That Worked: Restoring NDIS Funding with Collective Pressure

When I was fighting to restore a child’s NDIS funding, I knew the case wasn’t unique. It was part of a larger pattern.

So instead of going it alone, I created a temporary coalition of lived experience:

• I went into Facebook community groups and encouraged people to send their own stories to A Current Affair.
• I packaged the case as part of a system-wide failure, not a one-off error.
• I ensured that multiple voices were speaking to the same problem—on the same day, through the same channel.

And it worked. The media called. The pressure escalated. Over $500,000 in funding was restored.

It wasn’t because I shouted the loudest. It was because a crowd shouted with me.

Checklist: Before You Build or Join a Coalition, Ask This

• ☐ Do we agree on what we’re trying to change—not just what we oppose?
• ☐ Does everyone know their role—and have real power in it?
• ☐ What’s the escalation plan if we’re ignored?
• ☐ Are we prepared to share the mic—and the credit?
• ☐ What happens if one of us takes a public risk?

The Story Can’t Do the Work Alone

You can have a powerful story. You can go to the media. You can take it to Parliament. But without strategic collective action, many campaigns get filed under “unfortunate case studies.”