What are some effective ways to build momentum and excitement for a non-profit coalition's goals?

The success of a coalition of any kind is in its ability to build momentum, excitement and build consensus. The first step is to have a leader that is authentic and is able to clearly convey the vision and values in a way that gets buy-in from stakeholders. This often means doing a lot of listening and consensus building. Be prepared to adapt and pivot as needed without radically changing the overall vision. Make team building a regular part of your consensus building and don't be afraid to make it fun! Food, music and the arts are great tools that bring people together. Make sure you are providing value and getting feedback on a regular basis too.

At a minimum, shared clear and compelling visions are necessary for any donor supported organization. To raise excitement of stakeholder and beneficiary buy-in to the visions, I have learned to purposefully allow each group to experience person-to-person interaction. For example, breakfasts/dinners where scholarship recipients sit with their scholarship donors. Or recipients of housing having a meal with contributors to and builders of their housing. Breaking bread together affords each group insights they will not obtain through annual reports, pod casts or solicitation brochures. Cost to organize these meetings is usually easy to get sponsored in full. And the resulting excitement will be palpable and heighten shared visions.

Create a space and environment that foster trust, flexibility, and pivoting and making sure equity is at the heart of the coalition.

In my experience, the vision collaborators need to accomplish a goal needs to align but their values and reasons for the collaboration may differ. For example, a nonprofit and a for-profit may both want to feed more people but the nonprofit’s motivation is that feeding people is their mission and the for-profit’s is goodwill in the community. They both have a vision of reaching more people but with very different priorities.

I agree with Joanne. The coalition's goal should be clear and shared. The vision is probably shared, though some coalition members may have a higher vision. Values, principles - maybe not. In Woor-Dungin's work on a Spent Convictions Scheme for the Australian state of Victoria, all coalition members wanted the law changed. Some First Nations members held a higher vision around First Nations self-determination. Everyone's view that existing law was just wrong was far more important than other values and principles held by what was a very wide-ranging coalition for change.

Celebrating your collective wins assumes you have clear goals. Make sure you have clearly defined succeed and all parties are aware of that definition. For best results, set interim measures of success on your way to your overall outcome and celebrate each milestone you collectively reach.

Celebrating your nonprofit’s success can enhance support from the community, foundations/donors, and volunteers. Let everyone know the difference you are making and be sure to communicate it regularly via a variety of channels: social media posts, annual reports, email blasts, and in your appeals. Share client testimonials or stories, but be sure to do so in a way that preserves their dignity. When facing challenges or failures, don’t hide them—learn from them. If a program isn’t working and you received a grant to fund it, reach out to that funder. Share the issues you are facing and discuss potential changes. Chances are, they will allow you the freedom to alter the program for its success and will appreciate the open communication.

Agreed, it all comes down to engagement. How many intentional touches are we making a day to motivate our team, stakeholders, volunteers and broader community. Are we being inclusive about the celebrations we offer? Are we being creative and innovative? These are constant questions we must ask ourselves when it comes to the engagement that we do.

The sharing of food has brought people together since the beginning of time. It’s how we make friends, nurture relationships, celebrate milestones, mend conflicts and feel gratitude for life. Incorporating food into the overall plan is a sure fire way to provide a 'seat at the table' for celebrations, defeats or community building. “If you really want to make a friend, go to someone’s house and eat with him… the people who give you their food give you their heart.” Cesar Chavez

In my experience, Sharing success stories, testimonials, and data not only showcases wins but also highlights our coalition's value proposition. Additionally, using feedback, surveys, and evaluations helps identify areas for improvement and addresses gaps within. By celebrating wins and learning from our challenges, we are not only demonstrating progress and potential but also fostering a culture of learning safely and leaving a room continuous improvement.

When you engage your board and stakeholders in your mission on LinkedIn, you expand the conversation and extend your ripple effect. Posting and engaging can attract project partners, support, and sponsors. Sharing news and insights deepens relationships. And don't forget the power of storytelling!

In my experience, there is no one size fits all for engagement, this is where we sometimes miss the mark. What works in some communities could clear the room in others. If the goal is to engage and maintain stakeholders and beneficiaries, understand what engagement looks like to them specifically. It will go far.

Leverage diverse channels like social media, newsletters, blogs, podcasts, webinars, and events to inform, educate, and inspire your audience. By actively involving stakeholders and beneficiaries in the coalition's journey, you cultivate relationships, loyalty, and advocacy. You also enhance your visibility and credibility. This collaborative approach ensures that coalition goals resonate with those it serves. It also fosters a sense of shared ownership, sparking momentum and excitement that transcends organizational boundaries. As a leader in the nonprofit sector, seize the opportunity to connect, learn, and grow together with those who make your coalition's mission possible. #NonprofitManagement #CommunityEngagement #CoalitionBuilding

Remember, engagement is a two-way street. Don’t just ask others to do for you. Do for them first. Show genuine interest in their hopes and dreams before you ask them to share in yours.

Engage, engage, engage! Keep in mind that everyone’s brain works differently, so you have to use different ways to communicate your organization’s impact. Some folks think in terms of numbers and data, so saying something like “our nonprofit served 14,552 people this year” will have a large impact on them. Others want to know the stories behind the data, and will be more moved by a story involving a particular client. Get your supporters involved, if possible. Can they volunteer, and if so, can they bring in a team of volunteers? (This is particularly helpful if they are a company or foundation that supports your work.) Keep them updated on what your nonprofit is doing AND how they make a difference with you!

Don’t get stuck or set in your old ways. There is always something to be gained by observing other nonprofits doing similar work, both in your local area and across the country/world. There may be groups or associations that you can join to collaborate with folks from these other organizations, even if only doing so virtually. Regularly ask for formal feedback from the people your organization serves. You may find that there are barriers preventing them from regularly accessing your programs that you have the power to change! You may also find that you are spending valuable time and money on something that they don’t find particularly helpful, and you can redirect those resources into other areas that will have more impact.

Adaptability is crucial to being able to sustain and grow the organization. Welcome fresh eyes and ears into the organization and be open to the changes new perspectives bring. I believe many organizations suffer from stagnation due to the unwillingness to try something new; whether that's expanding or downsizing current operations. It's essential to be agile to better support the communities we serve.

The important answer here is we do all but how often we are ready to take risk and give the chance opportunity to one we trust can take the opportunity. Research is as good as it is implemented with right resource.

In a world that values innovation, don't neglect honest evaluation of what has worked in your current environment and in the past. New ideas are not the only ideas that can serve your non-profit well. Too often we run to everything that is "new" without asking whether it is practical for your organization or implementable in your community. Non-profits must first and foremost serve their communities, so always be on the lookout for ideas (new or old) that can have a positive impact on the people you desire to serve.

Collaborating with other nonprofits and social service organizations is a fantastic way to provide more support to the clients that you serve. It is highly likely that your organization cannot solve all of your clients’ challenges. However, by providing them with access to services offered by other organizations, they may be able to remove more barriers and move toward their best lives. Collaboration also shows your funders and community that you respect the work done by other organizations and provides opportunities to explore joint-funding with those nonprofits through grants or campaigns.

This is a great point. Willingness to share resources, capabilities, expertise, strengths among one another bring the members together to strive towards collective goal and achieve more than any individual unit/member can do. Recently, during a meeting a very senior non-profit leader who has over 4 decades of experience in being part of multiple coalition and platforms shared how the momentum and excitement slowly goes down when instead of leveraging collective strength, members start asserting individual identities and use the coalition more for leveraging their own potential. To sustain the momentum and build excitement, it's necessary to celebrate collective success and recognize each member's strength.

Effective collaboration takes time. A successful leader must build structure into their schedule that allows for effective collaboration. Learn to use technology tools to minimize your time investment and maximize your output. However, make time to collaborate face to face when possible. The extra time invested in meeting someone face to face can often save time in the long run. But keep interactions to the point and don't waste the time of your collaborators.

I cannot agree more, we continuously seek avenues to collaborate and partner with other organizations of shared interests for greater impacts. I believe its importance cannot be over emphasized.

It’s very important that we are constantly seeking after their hearts, their passions, instead of just getting them to reach for their wallets. Captivating their attention is important, but what is even more important is Cultivating the relationship.

Remember to thank and acknowledge a person’s efforts at least seven times without another ask. This doesn’t mean seven thank you notes. It means knowing what is important to your stakeholders and finding creative ways to show appreciation in ways that are meaningful to them.

As they grow, many organizations lose sight of the efforts of the people that helped them accomplish their goals. Every good leader must constantly be considering the next steps for their organization, but not at the cost of neglecting the important contributions from the past. No effective leader intends to neglect the contributions of their staff and volunteers, but it is easy to get so busy that we forget. Set time in your calendar every month, twice a year or at least once a year to acknowledge their hard work and extra efforts, no matter how small. Make a file in your phone or tablet and make brief notes when you see these efforts in daily interactions. That way, you'll more easily and honestly be able to recognize their contributions.

Absolutely! Recognizing and rewarding your partners is a powerful way to build momentum and excitement for your goals. By showing appreciation and gratitude for their efforts and commitments, you create a sense of value and importance within the coalition. By recognizing and rewarding your partners, you not only enhance satisfaction, retention, and performance but also foster a positive and supportive environment where everyone feels valued and supported.

More appreciation and less drama; More sharing and less competition; More inclusion of different org strengths essential to movement building and less diminishment of lack of strengths; More facilitation of community leaders and less org driven priorities. These are a few that come to mind.

Build strength through mission alignment and vision. Working collaboratively means understanding each organizations" strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for growth and impact. Collaboration starts in the lab, working creatively to find synergy. Not all collaborations are a fit, bit if missions and visions align, you can find synergies that can drive impact.

Must have personal, meaningful exposure to the subject being supported (theater, animals, children, institution ..). Staff needs to feel connected ?? n order to be energized

I think celebrating wins is important Another is holding each other responsible and being accountable. Assign tasks to each member

In my experience with non-profits, it is far too common for organizations to compromise/ignore their mission to attract a gift or benefactor or influencer to the organization. This is sort sighted. It is better to be vigilantly clear and focused on the mission and to pursue it without compromise. In this way, an organization, over time, becomes known for its integrity and effectiveness in pursuit of a clear mission, and donors and other volunteers become partners in investing in the mission and communicating the organization’s effectiveness. Avoid mission creep, and work hard as you pursue the mission with passion and integrity, and good things will happen.