How We Can Help

family and home outline Zigas and Associates can help your organization develop and launch new initiatives, strategic or business plans, and assist in designing and carrying out program and policy development efforts. Our engagements have included the following:

Strategic Planning

Assisted The Melville Charitable Trust in its board planning through a structured survey and interviews with leading state coalitions on homelessness and housing.
Worked with Stewards of Affordable Housing for the Future to plan, organize, and facilitate a strategic planning effort in 2011.
Working with NCB Capital Impact on their Ford Foundation funded work to promote effective approaches to long term affordable homeownership.
Facilitating NAHRO's 3-day Strategic Leadership Retreat in January, 2010.
Leading a year-long strategic planning process for the Mercy Housing, Inc. board of directors, culminating in an October, 2009 board review and facilitated work session to adopt new strategic statements for the next 5 years.
Helping the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation develop the expansion of its multi-year, ngs/en.js" type="text/javascript"> multi-million dollar Window of Opportunity initiative to preserve affordable rental housing. We surveyed practitioners about opportunities for new grant making and investments, developed options for the Foundation's staff, assisted in the design of a solicitation and review of new funding proposals, conducted site visits wit h finalists and participated in the initiative's launch.
On behalf of the MacArthur Foundation's research program, canvassing the field and presenting recommendations for priority future funding areas to support preservation of existing affordable rental housing at a day-long June, 2009 convening at the Foundation's headquarters.
Preparing and presenting a review of economic and business trends at a national training institute and in a business planning session for Neighborworks America.
Working with the National Housing Trust in 2007 to develop a new strategic plan by engaging the staff, board and stakeholders in a robust examination of the market, the organization's capabilities and resources, and refining the theory of change through which it hopes to preserve endangered affordable rental homes. We co-planned and led a two-day board retreat and subsequent board meeting at which the plan was first designed, then adopted.

Business development

Working with Corporate Social Responsibility Associates to help the Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF) identify potential new markets and products to grow its business.
Senior Advisor to UniDev LLC, in its unique mission-oriented practice of helping institutional partners create permanently affordable housing for their workforces.

Policy Development

Member, Bipartisan Policy Center Housing Commission

Key note presenter at Housing Washington annual conference, October, 2012.

Presenting a comprehensive overview of current housing policy issues and likely short-term changes in a keynote address to a June 21-22, 2010 conference for state and local leaders in existing affordable housing preservation hosted by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

Facilitating a day-long policy review for the National League of Cities to help them prepare policy and program recommendations for their membership

Facilitating a day-long planning session in 2008 for the CDFI Fund's Subcommittee of its Community Development Advisory Board. The meeting covered emerging issues in CDFI finance.

Keynote speaker, Housing Arizona, Flagstaff, September, 2008

Helping Neighborworks America design and plan a highly successful 2007 national symposium on community development responses to the ongoing foreclosure crisis.

Advising the Ford Foundation on policy and program responses to the mortgage and foreclosure crisis, working in partnership with the University of North Carolina's Center for Community Capital.