Build an Inclusive Coalition

Urban forests are managed by and for people. They thrive on collaboration. To advance Tree Equity in your community, you will need the support of a strong, inclusive coalition of stakeholders. In this toolkit, you will follow a step-by-step process to bring together diverse, credible and vocal members of a dynamic coalition that will activate a community-wide vision for people and forests.

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Stakeholder Inventory and Map

Suggested Time: 2–3 days

Level of Difficulty: Low

Partcipants: 2–4 individuals with diverse networks who bring comprehensive knowledge of the stakeholder landscape

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Community Partner Cultivation

Suggested Time: 2-4 weeks

Level of Difficulty: Challenging

Partcipants: 1-2 staff persons responsible for new relationship development; points of contact at community partner groups.

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Modified SWOT Partner Analysis

Suggested Time: 1–2 days

Level of Difficulty: Moderate

Partcipants: 2–4 individuals with diverse networks who bring comprehensive knowledge of the stakeholder landscape

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Coalition Recruitment

Suggested Time: 2–4 weeks

Level of Difficulty: Moderate

Partcipants: A small group of well-connected representatives from different organizations passionate to grow the Tree Equity coalition

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Coalition Roadmap

Suggested Time: 1 month

Level of Difficulty: Moderate

Partcipants: Coalition core team

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Mission, Vision and Goals

Suggested Time: 1 month

Level of Difficulty: Moderate

Partcipants: Coalition core team

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Tree Equity Commitment

Suggested Time: 2 weeks

Level of Difficulty: Moderate

Partcipants: Coalition core team

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Stakeholder Inventory and Map

To build an inclusive and effective coalition, you must first understand who your potential supporters are — and how they can help. Start by creating a comprehensive inventory of potential stakeholders, then use stakeholder mapping to organize them into groups. This simple exercise will help you better understand the dynamics of your stakeholder base and be more strategic in your interactions.

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Activity Steps

Build a comprehensive Stakeholder Inventory, a list of all entities with a vested interest in advancing Tree Equity in your community.

Create a Stakeholder Map to organize all these stakeholders into groups based on their influence in the community and their level of interest in the outcome of your initiative.

Evaluate the results. Which entities should you engage with deeply, and which require a lighter touch? This exercise will inform how you build strategic relationships.

Community Partner Cultivation

It is crucial to understand your audience when addressing complex societal issues like Tree Equity. This analysis will help you identify and cultivate community partners among your stakeholders by understanding how different connections you make can bring valuable social capital and resources to your process and connect you to new audiences. This analysis will also help you more systematically approach barriers to access and opportunities for engagement, collaboration and grassroots organizing to support your shared goals.

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Activity Steps

Identify 5–10 potential community partners who might expand your network or offer critical perspectives and skill sets. Reference your Stakeholder Inventory and Map (2.1) for ideas.

Complete a Community Partner Profile Worksheet for each potential partner to systematically evaluate common ground, as well as opportunities for, and barriers to, engaging their grassroots networks.

Use your deepened understanding to help build your coalition and grow new partnerships.

Formalize relationships with community partners using a written agreement.

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Modified SWOT Partner Analysis

As you develop relationships with stakeholders and potential partners, it will be helpful to clearly understand the assets they might bring to your coalition. Conducting a modified SWOT (strength, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis can better prepare you to leverage partners’ resources, capitalize on opportunities and meet them where they are. Rather than a traditional SWOT analysis, this exercise assesses partners based on 1) resources and assets, 2) opportunities and 3) limitations. Understanding potential partners through this lens will help you build stronger relationships that advance the goals of your initiative.

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Activity Steps

Consider partners who might contribute to your initiative. Reference your Stakeholder Inventory Worksheet (2.1) for ideas.

Analyze potential partners using a set of simple matrices, identifying attributes that apply to each partner.

Evaluate your results. Reflect on how partners’ assets and needs may inform future recruitment efforts.

Coalition Recruitment

Every Tree Equity endeavor requires a working coalition of people with diverse interests and resources to ensure long-term community support. Now that you understand the landscape of stakeholders and potential partners in your community, it’s time to identify individual contacts from among these stakeholders who can serve as coalition members.

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Activity Steps

Reference your Stakeholder Inventory and Map (2.1), Community Partner Profiles (2.2) and Modified SWOT Analysis (2.3) to identify stakeholders that should be represented in your Tree Equity coalition.

Gather contact information for individuals best suited to represent each stakeholder group. Reach out to contacts individually or through targeted outreach to introduce the coalition, explain your mission and invite them to participate.

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Assign each coalition member a role. Are they a core team member, a potential collaborator who can implement aspects of your action plan or someone who can lead in other ways?

Keep track of interactions with contacts, including responses, roles, commitments and areas of interest.

Coalition Roadmap

With your coalition’s core team in place, you can now lay out a roadmap to support planning efforts. While each member of the team brings unique perspectives and priorities to the table, this activity emphasizes finding common ground to maximize collective impact. Coalition core team members will use a simple “value vs. effort” framework to come together around short- and long-term priorities that will guide your next steps.

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Activity Steps

Have each core team member complete a survey to score their priorities for the coalition through a value vs. effort framework.

Tally the results and enter average values into the Coalition Priorities Worksheet.

Use the combined scores to organize priorities into the Coalition Roadmap Worksheet.

Finalize your roadmap with input from all core team members and communicate shared priorities with the broader coalition.

Mission, Vision and Goals

A mission and vision statement — alongside clear goals — are essential to any initiative. Each member of your core team should contribute to this exercise. While ultimately the mission and vision statements will be concise and concrete, they should encapsulate the perspectives and values of every coalition member. By collectively crafting these guiding statements and goals, your coalition can establish a unified course that will guide you through strategic planning, decision making and any bumps in the road.

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Activity Steps

Craft your coalition’s mission and vision statements. Each core team member should first complete the Mission and Vision Statement Worksheet individually, and then the team can finalize these statements by combining everyone’s contributions.

Use the Coalition Goal-Setting Worksheet to identify and set coalition goals as a team.

Review, refine and workshop the draft statements and goals until you have a concise and clear set of guiding documents.

Tree Equity Commitment

Your Tree Equity coalition will need a strong Tree Equity commitment that formalizes your goals, holds the coalition accountable and secures external support. A Tree Equity commitment is a public declaration of the coalition’s intention to work toward sustainable, lasting change in the community. Coalitions often announce their commitments through a press release, which can provide visibility by leveraging the reach of the press to find a broad audience. However you choose to share your Tree Equity commitment, remember that it represents an opportunity to attract new partners and resources, strengthen fundraising efforts and provide credibility to your coalition in the eyes of the public.

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Activity Steps

Gather information in the Elements of a Tree Equity Commitment Worksheet. An effective Tree Equity commitment typically includes a specific set of elements that can be used to craft a public announcement.

Draft a press release. Lean on the expertise of any communications professionals in your coalition or download the template press release below.

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Get buy-in. Seek approval from your coalition’s core team at a minimum. You may also need input from broader coalition members, key stakeholders or influential figures in the community.