Zip Code Assistance Ministries (ZCAMs) are faith-based nonprofits providing emergency social and human services in the Greater Houston Area. In 2006, a funders’ collaborative in Houston, led by Rockwell Fund, Inc., partnered with BTW to plan and evaluate a new initiative with one important goal: to build ZCAMs’ capacity to serve the region.
The initiative was called the ZCAM Organizational Development Program, and was modeled on a project BTW had evaluated for three Bay Area funders in the past (OCGI).
To help funders formulate a successful initiative, BTW worked with the ZCAM Organizational Development Program in two key ways:
- Developed and facilitated an annual reflection and learning session for funders, ZCAM executives and key program partners
- Prepared a paper on social capital formation that laid the groundwork for the reflection session in September 2006.
BTW’s work informed ZCAMs’ organizational capacity-building and created a culture of collaboration and shared learning among ZCAM leaders as the initiative took shape.
