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Question: Climate Action: Individual NGO action as compared to collaborative movements?

Many groups are working to help alleviate the present climate crisis, and there appears to be a great duplication of effort, at the expense of limited resources. This is most noticeable with such initiatives as individual petition mailings.

Yes, this question regarding finding the 'magic balance' between individual work and/or collaboration is a challenge to achieving timely and effective results in all areas of social/environmental justice work. There are only so many dollars available in the 'donation pool', and protecting an NGO's claimed 'turf' may also be a factor which impedes collaboration.

I have encountered challenges in promoting petition sharing, in order that the receiving politicians or public servants may 'hear' as loud a 'voice' as possible.

Do any of the good folk at the Community Tool Box have any thoughts to share personally or any research work in this area to suggest that I read in order to broaden my understanding about effective collaboration?

Answer:

Hello Mr. Gibb,

While we cannot provide any specific advise or research, we can recommend our Toolkit on Creating and Maintaining Coalitions and Partnerships to help thoroughly and systematically consider all of the elements involved in organization coalition building, including some of the issues you raise.

Question Date: Fri, 02/05/2021