====== Coalitions and Give/Get Ratio ======

//This article was written by Jaime Grant, former Senior Program Officer at the Institute for Sustainable Communities//

The most exciting coalition project I ever worked on was the Kitchen Table Women of Color Press Transition Coalition, an academic/community collaboration that formed in the mid-90s to save a beloved radical press. 

**How to Keep People Engaged?**

Every month, I convened sixteen women from all over the country by phone, and we hashed over our plans. And every time I concluded a conference call, I worried over how to keep these women engaged in this tremendously challenging effort.
My coalition partners all possessed a passionate belief in the Press' mission, while leading full lives in academia, in the corporate world, as writers and as community-based activists. Other than their love for Kitchen Table, they had little in common to draw upon - neither geography nor political beliefs nor racial/cultural backgrounds.

**Keep Your Eyes on the Give/Get Ratio**

As convener of the coalition my challenge was, how to push forward? How to sustain the involvement of sixteen very busy, geographically and personally disconnected women in this volunteer Herculean struggle?

My answer always boiled down to this: Pay close attention to the Give/Get ratio. This is the fraction that describes the reward you or your organization are receiving relative to the horrendous inconvenience, annoyance and extra work burden that any major coalition effort requires.

**Highlight the Successes**

If you are in charge of a coalition, it's your job to keep your eye on the Give/Get ratio for each of your members, and to figure out how to keep this number as low as possible. It might mean that you have to manufacture rewards and highlight small successes along the way. This may help ensure that your all-volunteer, overworked coalition members keep showing up for that conference call, continue coming to the table, keep their name on the list of participating organizations, or stand the front lines on the day of the critical action.

**Be Grateful for the Give**

As a convener, paying attention to the Give/Get ratio means always being grateful for the Give - constantly noticing that these people who have many other commitments and challenges in their busy lives are showing up, are adding value to the effort, and are making a difference. Coalition work is often a long-haul proposition, and while pushing for accountability and making sure members are following through on their commitments is key to success, an equally critical piece is appreciating the Gives that are easy to take for granted over time.

**Develop Your Team**

Over three years, the Kitchen Table Press Coalition raised $300,000, found new office space, hired a publisher and started a new post-Founder era for this important community institution.
We also did a great deal of board development and leadership development among members of the coalition. Young women with no experience fundrasing wrote their first grants and went to funder meetings; women in the corporate world produced community events that drew in new supporters and expanded their local networks. We learned new things about our communities, gained new skills, developed new relationships. There was a lot of Get alongside weeks, months and years of Gives.
Seed the Ground

Years later, when the Press ultimately failed in an increasingly brutal marketplace, many of us realized that the Coalition effort had birthed many other things besides just a new Kitchen Table - we had grown young leaders, connected people in communities who shared a passion for Kitchen Table's work and political vision; we had gained new skills and developed trust across seemingly impossible differences. Perhaps this was the biggest lesson to me of all as a Coalition partner: there's never just one goal.

As we work toward that all important win that has brought us to the table, we must be ever mindful of what we leave in place after the effort is over. Are we seeding the ground for more progressive change to come? If we've paid attention to the Give/Get ratio all along, we should find ourselves more than satisfied with our answer.