How we Built a Coalition During a Crisis

There was plenty to be anxious about 15 months ago, as the prospect of a second Trump administration loomed in the leadup to election day. For the organizations and individuals who would eventually become PEDP, one particular question took precedence: What would happen to the environmental and climate data we rely on, and what could we do to protect it?

In November 2024, we convened data and information stewards and developed a collective priority to safeguard climate and environmental data. We met weekly over Zoom to rapidly determine how we would work together and what would be our next steps. Soon, we gave ourselves a name and a presence not as a temporary collaboration, but as an enduring coalition. One year later, we find ourselves in a turbulent time, but with strong foundations to build a better and more agile data infrastructure for the future. Here’s what we learned along the way.

We know our strengths and weaknesses

To start the work, we needed an idea of our end goal and a methodical way of getting there. Many PEDP members had already established lists of dozens of datasets and tools that we knew we relied on and needed to safeguard, but where would we start? We began by breaking down this daunting list of datasets into smaller chunks based on their importance, their impact to users, and our confidence in our ability to archive them.

After gaining a clearer picture of where to start, we relied on each others’ expertise and our own strengths to divide and take on the actual work. While some people had the skills and storage space to start downloading data, others had the software engineering expertise to rebuild and deploy tools; some members had advocacy and communication experience to build our online presence and communicate our work, and still others had the strategic knowledge to develop our governance practices. These skill sets would eventually become the working groups around which we still organize our work.

We are careful, but we trust each other

As PEDP took form, safety and security were of utmost concern, but we quickly learned that caution could just as easily harm as help. Our trust in each other has been foundational throughout this process; many of us already knew each other before meeting in PEDP, and we knew how important it was to be familiar with each other in order to grow a proper and functioning community. With our members’ diverse comfort levels and degree of vulnerability in mind, we engaged in extensive conversations about the security of our communication platforms, our processes for welcoming new volunteers, and who should access what type of information. It was integral that our coalition reflected the identities and preferences of our members. We soon developed—and continue to refine—working agreements that represent our shared mission and values.

We rely on each other

We are but one part of an extensive community of data and information stewards, and understanding the landscape of this community so that we could effectively work within it was a necessary first step that remains an integral part of our work. We continue to rely on this community, as we understand that our whole is greater than the sum of the parts. 

We formalized this collaboration through our "external alignment" working group, where we meet with aligned organizations to discuss strategy, identify ways to make our work mutually supportive, and reduce redundancy. In September 2025, we co-hosted a workshop to convene groups working on environmental data preservation and improvement and move toward our long-term goals. In addition to a report summarizing our shared sense of purpose, this launched a series of collaborative "sprints" across the broader network that focus on building data steward capacity, developing new funding models and strategies for sustainable infrastructure, advancing cross-organizational coordination, creating avenues for community-led data, pursuing legal, policy, and legislative strategies, and fostering data interoperability through communities of practice. These sprints continue to drive the broader movement, with each group bringing its strengths to shape a better future for our data.

Change is good

Being nimble and adaptable is one of the most important features of resistance in the face of many of the unprecedented challenges we face. While we foresaw many of the threats to our data that have played out this past year, there are also countless ways that things differed from what we were expecting. 

Although our values and mission remain the same, adaptability still remains central to our identity as PEDP. We continue to meet with others who have knowledge we don’t, and we are constantly refining and redefining our work. This work entails unprecedented challenges, and we’re not afraid to pivot our projects and priorities to respond to the moment.

We have the power

Perhaps our most important learning from this year has been an understanding of our individual and collective power. Despite the discouraging reality we are experiencing, we remain hopeful and we believe in our own ability to contribute to the future we want to see. As the Trump administration enters its second year, so do we. And we’re ready to face whatever comes with it.