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   Part I. Organizing for Effective Advocacy
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      Chapter 30. Principles of Advocacy >
         Section 4. Recognizing Allies >
             Main Section - Introduction, what, why, when, who, and how. >

Recognizing Allies

  

Main Section

 Contributed by Eric Wadud Edited by Jerry Schultz and Bill Berkowitz

What are allies?

Why do you need allies?

How do you find allies?

Do you and your allies care about the same things?

Using your allies

Which ally should you contact first?



What are allies?


To have allies is almost as important as to have a cause to fight for. If you're the only one believing in and fighting for your cause, it's still a noble thing to do, but you probably won't go far with your ideas. You need people to support you, believe in a common cause, and help to make it succeed.

Now that you've researched your issue and examined the underlying causes of the issue (For more, see Chapter 30, Section 3: Understanding the Issue), you're ready to start looking for potential allies in your cause. Allies are people, or groups of people, who have the same interests as you, or the capacity or resources to help you. You may be thinking, "But few groups are completely in tune with our interests; how can we identify our real allies?" Well, in this section, we'll show you just that.


Why do you need allies?


The simplest answer is, because allies can help you achieve your mission. Allies may be willing to share their resources and information with you in order to achieve some common goal. And with more people fighting for an issue or goal, the community or those you want to change are more likely to pay attention.

Let's suppose you're a quarterback during a football game, and it's a tie game so far. Who would you pay more attention to? One person cheering for you in the stands, or a whole crowd of people, yelling, screaming and generally making a lot of noise? When it gets right down to it, the more help and support you have--the more allies--the more you can get accomplished.


How do you find allies?


The easiest way to start recruiting allies is to see who is already out in the community--either those working on your issue, or working on similar issues and who might be interested in becoming involved in yours.

For example, if your issue is improving the nutrition value of school lunches, the American Heart Association might be interested in helping out your group--or they may already be working to have school cafeterias fry their food only in 100% vegetable oil.

One method to help you find out who these groups might be, is the community resource inventory or directory (For more, see Chapter 7, Section 2: Promoting Participation Among Diverse Groups). Try using the form for developing a community resource inventory in the Tools section!

Many resource inventories are available through private organizations such as the United Way, or from local government organizations. Some other places you might find similar types of resource information are:

  • The yellow pages
  • A local social service directory
  • Neighborhood assistance services
  • Chamber of commerce
  • City hall
  • Your own group members, as well as other friends and colleagues
  • What others can you think of?

For example, if your issue was adolescent alcohol abuse, you might consider forming an alliance with the Regional Prevention Center or local law enforcement agency.

If you can't find an existing resource directory for your issue, you and your group can always create your own more useful version. In order to do this, you'll want to ask:

  • Who is doing something about your issue in the community already?
  • What are they doing?
  • How is it going?
  • Which strategies did they find effective?
  • Is there some way we could collaborate with them?
  • Who else do we know who might be interested in this issue, even though they may not be acting on it now?

To expand this list further, you can use the "snowball technique." What you do is start with one of your known allies, and ask them to list several other groups who are either already working on your issue or who might be interested in helping your group. This continues by asking each of the allies to identify more potential allies, until you have enough.

Another method might be for you and your group to write down various sectors of your community such as religious organizations, businesses and health care, and then identify organizations within each sector who might be potential allies (For more, see Chapter 3, Section 8: Identifying Community Assets and Resources).

Example:

You and your group want to reduce the number of osteoporosis-related bone fractures among the elderly in your community. First of all, you would ask yourself who in the community is already working on this issue, what they are doing, and then check whether you had contacted them yet or not. Then, using the methods above, you might find allies among the local hospital or health clinic, perhaps nursing homes, social organizations like the Optimists Club, and so on. Some of these people will also know of other groups involved in your issue, and your list will grow even longer !

When you first begin looking for allies, you may be feeling kind of lost. You know from your resource inventory that there are some groups out there working on the same or similar issues (and that's a good start!), but you may feel you need to know more about them before you recruit them as allies.


Do you and your allies care about the same things?


The first question you may ask then is: "Who cares about the issue enough to join in and help me?" This seems kind of a broad question, and it is. However, if you think about it, the people who care about your issue are going to be the people who are facing that problem, too. They're the people who will gain something if you win. The more a group has to benefit from your success, the more willing they will be to help or cooperate with your group. Likewise, a group with a lot to lose will naturally do their best to oppose you.

Keep in mind that in real life you may find that most other groups have both something to gain and to lose by helping you. The question is, do the benefits of helping you outweigh the costs? Costs are not just money, but could include group identity, prestige or time.

Example:

Your group was created to address environmental hazards in your community, such as lead paint poisoning. The people who have this problem are residents in your neighborhood whose houses were painted with lead-based paint. Some of the people who have something to gain from your success are going to be environmental groups, children's health groups, and the local health department. In this case, the risk of losing something by helping your group may be substantial. The main controversy may be the issue of the cost of removing the paint, and who's going to pay for it.

Tool 2 in the Tools section offers you a table to help you find out who your potential allies are, taking into consideration what they may win or lose if they decide to support your cause. The Allies' Risks vs. Benefits Table will help you identify potential allies and will give you an idea as to how to recruit these groups as allies. How do you use the table?

The steps are easy. First, ask yourself:

1. Whose problem is it? List as many groups as you think may be affected by the problem at stake.

Then, for each of these groups, ask yourself:

2. What are the benefits? What do they gain by helping you?

3. What are the risks? What might they lose?

Now that you know what the benefits and risks for each potential ally are, you can approach them about joining your group or cultivate them as a potential ally. In general, a group with more benefits than risks will be easier to recruit as an ally. Now that you know the risks a group faces, you may be able to find a way to downplay or eliminate the risks and emphasize the benefits, or help that group deal with the risks they may be taking. A group with no benefit for helping you should probably be avoided, at least early on, as you don't want your opponents to know what you're doing.

That's fairly straightforward, right? You can think out the risks vs. benefits in your head, or conduct a brainstorming session and write these out. Try this on your own using the blank table in the Tools section.

At first, some groups may not appear to have any direct connection to your issue. However, many groups may have an indirect interest, which can work to your advantage. Other groups may have an indirect interest in your cause, and they can be allies, too.

One way to think of some less obvious and indirect allies might be to think of you and your allies as being in the hub of a bicycle wheel. Think of the rim as the rest of the community. Now look at the "spokes" of the wheel. They are the links and ties your immediate allies have to others in the community or country. The following questions concern who is linked to your allies:

  • Who does business with these people?
  • Who lends and borrows their money?
  • Which organizations and churches so they belong to?

Example:

The Happy Valley High School is facing increasing violence among its students. Your group wants to hire a security guard as part of a program to reduce violence at the school. Using the risks vs. benefits table, you determine who is more likely to become an ally among teachers, students, parents and the local education board.

The group who has the most direct connection to the issue you're trying to address would be the students themselves. They're directly threatened by the violence at their school, and would benefit from having violence reduced or eliminated.

Indirect interests might be held by the insurance company that covers the school. They definitely could be losing money if students or teachers are hurt at school, or if school property is damaged by some violent act. Thus your group could approach them as a potential ally, using saving money as the incentive.

The local education board may be in the "hub" of the wheel. Who do they do business with? Well, for starters, the school buildings are probably insured by an insurance company, as we mentioned before. This creates a "spoke" between the school, at the center or "hub," and the insurance company on the "rim. "

With this in mind it is easier to see that the self-interests of one group affects the interests of many others. All of these people have the potential to become allies. Whether they will be useful or helpful allies to your group is up to you and your group to decide, and how well you develop a relationship with them.


Using your allies


Now that you've either acquired or created your own resource inventory, you may have found other groups or individuals who have a similar goal as yours. You may not agree with them on all aspects of the issue, but collaboration with them could help both sides tremendously.

Example:

Your group is concerned about the growing number of adolescent pregnancies in your community, and you feel a major factor in this is the adolescent's lack of access to birth control. In your community, there is a group of churches also concerned about the adolescent pregnancy issue, but which doesn't like the idea of kids getting access to birth control without parental consent. In addition, these churches have received a large donation from their members to do something about the problem, while your group, being new, has only a few dollars, but has a bunch of volunteers willing to work.

You realize the church's money and experience in counseling would be a great help, but convincing the churches to agree to your strategies will be difficult. However, you might compromise on a strategy. Perhaps you could create a series of youth workshops where birth control was discussed. You would both be seen to be working together, and you would be making progress on the issue of reducing adolescent pregnancies. The church group would also benefit from the gain without giving in to what they might consider to be extreme or radical measures.

Cooperation with allies presents a unified, powerful image to the community. That is, the community will see that the issue is important enough for people to compromise and put aside small differences in order to fix the problem. This not only shows the community that you and your group are reasonable, but also shows that your group is committed to the issue itself, not some personal agenda. The more allies your group has voicing the same concerns about the issue, the more difficult it is for you to be ignored, and the more likely you are to be successful.


Which ally should you contact first?


As you develop your list of allies, you may soon see that there are far more potential allies that can be contacted, or more than you would ever want to contact! Who should you contact first? One way to prioritize your list of potential allies is to rank them by how much power they can potentially bring to your group.

A group's power is a measure of how effective that group will be in helping you achieve your goals. As your project progresses, you may find that you need an ally with some kind of special expertise, or that has some kind of special bargaining skill. All you need to do is go back to your Community Resource Inventory and pick groups as needed by your situation.

The use of an Ally Power Grid may help your group recognize what power a potential ally has and which allies are most useful to your group.

First, let's run through a list of the types of power allies may possess. The list also explains the type of power, and gives an example.

Types of Power

Type of Power

Rationale

Example

Members: How many members does the group have?

The more members a group has, the less likely it is to be ignored.

A group with 500 members shows up at a school board meeting.

Money: Will they donate money to your issue?

Donated money and other resources are always welcome in achieving your group's goals.

The local teacher's union donated money to your group.

Credibility: Do they bring special credibility?

A group with strong positive recognition in your community will help bring credibility to your own group.

A respected clergyman from a local church speaks on your behalf.

Appeal: Do they have special appeal?

Some groups of people have universal appeal, and if your group is connected with them, it will help your image as well.

A poster child is used to promote an emotional response.

Network: Are they part of a large, organized network?

A group who has lots of other groups in its network is going to have financial resources, credibility, and some political power.

The local chapter of the United Way offers staff support to your group.

Reputation: Do they have a reputation for toughness?

Groups with a tough reputation may discourage opponents.

The local law enforcement officer's union says they'll support policy changes for improved safety.

Skills: Do they have special skills?

An ally may bring technical, business, or legal skills to your group.

Smith, Jones, & Brown's law firm donates free legal support

Newsworthy: Are they particularly newsworthy?

Some groups may have a reputation or connections in the media that make them newsworthy. If they align with you, that might give positive media attention to your cause.

An activist group for children's rights that recently won a major victory offers to give your group technical support.

How do you use a Power Grid? The steps are simple:

1. Use a separate grid for each ally whose power you wish to examine.

2. For each type of power, assess how much of it your ally has and give an example.

3. Determine the most effective allies by looking at which have more categories of power, or by identifying which allies have the most power relevant to your specific needs. That is, if what you really need is an ally with money, then an ally with special appeal may not necessarily be particularly useful at this stage.

Example of an Ally Power Grid

Type of Power

Power Appraisal: How much of this power do they have?

Give an Example.

Members

They have a lot.

The group has 200 active members

Credibility

Very credible

Last year they were responsible for $100,000 in improvements made to the neighborhood park.

You may ask, "Is all this necessary for every ally I can think of?" Probably not. But, if you have the time or you have a group to work on it, then by all means, do so--it will help. However, if your time is limited, do this only for allies you are unsure of, or if you're looking for an ally with a specific power. The answer to "What power do they have?" may be intuitive for some potential allies and not really require much thought.

Try out the "Power Grid" yourself--a blank form is in the Tools section! Is there a type of power we left out? Then feel free to add your own criteria for power to the grid.

So now you've decided on some potential allies to contact. Contacting these allies and convincing them to join your efforts is a skill in itself. See Chapter 7, Section 3: Methods of Contacting Potential Participants for more information and tips on how to do this.



We encourage the reproduction of this material, but ask that you credit

the Community Tool Box: http://ctb.ku.edu



Resources

Altman, D., Balcazar, F., Fawcett, S., Seekins, T., Young, J.(1994). Public health advocacy: creating community change to improve health. Palo Alto,CA: Stanford Center for Research in Disease Prevention.

Bobo, K., Kendall, J., Max, S. (1991). Organizing for social change: a manual for activists in the 1990s. Minneapolis, MN: Midwest Academy.

The Marin Institute. (no date) Advocating for Policy Change. San Rafael,CA: The Marin Institute for the Prevention of Alcohol and Other Drug Problems.