As California lawmakers were assembling the most recent state budget, a coalition of nonprofits played a leading role in securing emergency aid for undocumented students facing unexpected costs that could derail their journey to a life-changing college degree. Over the past decade, the advocacy of the California Undocumented Higher Education Coalition has been instrumental in securing new state funds to help undocumented students find legal aid, basic needs support, and other vital resources.
Charitable foundations often shy away from supporting nonprofit coalitions to do advocacy work, based on concerns about who’s accountable for results, how to assess coalition effectiveness in complex and slow-moving policy environments, and how to ensure that coalitions aren’t creating too much controversy or political backlash. The preference is to support individual nonprofits with clear-cut missions and project goals.
But the work of the California Undocumented Higher Education Coalition has been essential in driving significant education reforms in California — and offers a window into the impact that nonprofit collaboratives can have. A new report explores why higher education coalitions in California have been so successful, and, critically, how funders can know when a coalition is primed for impact.
Signs of an Effective Coalition
According to the report, one of the strongest predictors of coalition success is a “well-defined and relatively narrow focus.” In other words, strong coalitions have a straightforward and clear mission. The California Undocumented Higher Education Coalition meets this standard by keeping its focus tight and its purpose unmistakable: improving access, affordability, and success for approximately 100,000 undocumented students enrolled in public and independent colleges and universities in our state.
“One of the things we’ve been able to achieve together is when it comes to supporting undocumented students in higher education, we are considered the official voice, whether we are talking with state agencies or campus systems,” said Marcos Montes, the policy director with the Southern California College Access Network, who co-leads the coalition’s work.
Other coalitions spotlighted in the report, which set out to map the landscape of higher education advocacy coalitions in our state, are similarly organized around distinct issues and student populations.
Another example of a coalition with a clear mission is the California Alliance for Student Parent Success. The Alliance is laser-focused on expanding access to financial aid and other supports for the growing population of students who are pursuing degrees while simultaneously wrestling with responsibilities for childcare and family needs.
A second hallmark of coalition strength from the report is membership structure. It sounds bureaucratic and technical but it is essential: Effective coalitions create multiple pathways for member engagement, especially on sensitive or politically charged issues. The California Undocumented Higher Education Coalition embodies this approach by including two tiers of membership: about 40 active members sign onto actions, and about 45 organizations participate in an “information-only” capacity.
In instances when members might not agree, Montes said the coalition doesn’t fracture. Rather, it simply steps back and allows individual organizations to take their own positions — preserving unity while respecting diverse perspectives.
Yet another defining characteristic of the California Undocumented Higher Education Coalition is shared leadership. The coalition is co-led by the Campaign for College Opportunity and SoCal College Access Network — with the former providing policy muscle and a Sacramento presence and the latter (itself a coalition of 120 groups across the state focused on expanding access for underrepresented students) contributing on-the-ground practitioner expertise.
This co-leadership model reflects one of the report’s key findings about the strongest higher education advocacy coalitions in California: No single organization leads these efforts on its own. Shared and complementary leadership that combines policy chops with grassroots engagement not only spreads responsibility — it creates resilience.
Stepping Up in a Crisis Moment
Perhaps the clearest testament to the strength of the California Undocumented Higher Education Coalition came in early 2024, when it was able to rally a coordinated response to the botched rollout of the new free application for federal student aid (widely known as FAFSA). As a result, thousands of undocumented students and students from mixed-status families did not have the financial aid information they needed to decide where — or whether — to attend college.
Because the California Student Aid Commission recognized the coalition as the voice for undocumented students in the state, it came directly to Montes with an urgent ask: Would the coalition help push for a statewide extension of the deadline for when students have to commit to attending a college or university?
The answer was yes — and fast. “One of the immediate solutions we needed was time,” Montes said. “We needed a deadline extension, and we were able to propose that right away.”
Within days, the coalition partnered with the California Student Aid Commission and a legislative champion to push the extended deadline through. As a result, thousands of students were protected from being shut out of college simply because the federal government failed them.
“We didn’t have to jump through hoops,” said Alison DeLucca of SoCal College Access Network about the coalition’s response to the crisis. “Marcos has the pulse of what’s happening on the ground, and he had the policy expertise to move quickly.”
Funding Coalitions: What It Takes
At a time when immigrant communities across the country have been facing escalating fear and uncertainty, the California Undocumented Higher Education Coalition has become a trusted and powerful voice for undocumented students in our state. And perhaps the most striking fact about the coalition is that it does not receive direct philanthropic funding. Like many of the other coalitions in our report, it runs almost entirely on the in-kind labor of co-leaders and the sweat equity of dozens of member organizations.
“There was seed funding in the beginning, but that’s gone,” said Montes. “Right now, it’s just in-kind contributions.”
The coalition’s impact is remarkable — but it’s not sustainable without investment. And its story underscores some clear to-dos for philanthropy from our report. They are:
- Provide multiyear general support for coalition infrastructure — not just project grants.
- Resource shared leadership across co-leads and committees, so the coalition isn’t an add-on but an essential (and supported) role for participating leaders.
- Support community-based organizations whose stories and engagement make advocacy real.
- Engage early, then step back strategically to ensure that coalitions are operating independently and autonomously based on member priorities.
Last but certainly not least, funders shouldn’t be wary of investing in coalitions to lead the work of advocating for necessary changes in policies and systems to protect and support vulnerable populations. In fact, our experience says coalitions can make the difference in achieving historic wins. The secret is to identify those coalitions that can drive lasting change, and then give them the flexible, dedicated resources to do their magic.
Monica Martinez is the program director for College Success with the Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund and the author of “Deeper Learning: How Eight Public Schools are Transforming Education in the 21st Century.” Ria Sengupta Bhatt is founder and principal consultant at Mandala Strategies.
