A coalition pulls together people who have different priorities, skills, inter- ests, and goals. This makes trans- parency, a clear decision-making structure, and trust incredibly important for any coalition, and these are exactly what NYAF had.
Moreover, no matter what, the coalition was united by a shared stra- tegic vision and a single goal that no group would renege on. And the coalition decided on the vision and goal and acted on them together. For example, in the middle of the campaign, Cuomo proposed ban- ning fracking everywhere but the Southern Tier. This might have broken up the coalition, as some groups could have declared victory while others were still in jeopardy. But, Mark recalls, “All of NYAF was very clear that we were standing together. The whole state needed to be free of fracking. So, we rejected those kinds of so-called com- promises.” One of the main roles of the coalition was to attract funding and use that funding effectively. Right before NYAF formed, co-founder Dr. Sandra Steingraber won the Heinz Award and a $100,000 grant due to her writing on environmental health. Dr. Steingraber was and is a powerful voice in the anti-fracking movement, and she dedicated her Heinz Award to the coalition.
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