Zimam for Creativity and Development - Non-profit company

Zimam (“reins” or “taking the initiative” in Arabic) is a pioneering grassroots youth movement that challenges the status quo. We invest in young leaders and provide them with the skills, confidence, and network they need to transform themselves and their society. We believe that if we empower progressive young leaders to be the voices of tomorrow and inspire the silent majority to speak up against extremist thinking, corruption, and political decay, Palestine will necessarily become more democratic, more peaceful, more tolerant, and more innovative. We work across 11 governorates in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem and have been active for 7 years. Our main audience and target groups are young women and men between the ages of 18 and 35. In terms of our organizational structure, we are governed by a board of trustees who oversee both programming and finances. The executive director is accountable to the board and employees are accountable to the executive director. Operationally, we work with partners across 11 local communities in both the West Bank and Gaza. These partnerships provide a deeper understanding of local contexts and ensure legitimacy and agency for both organizations and communities. In terms of finance and accounting, these are done by a third party (accounting firm) to ensure transparency and accountability throughout all financial transactions. Such high-level service ensures that project financing, invoicing, and documentation are all done in accordance with the highest international standards. Additionally, Zimam’s senior management team has just completed a financial management training program by Humantum. Zimam received funding from a diverse body of individuals as well as institutional donors including the European Union, the United Nations Democracy Fund, the European Endowment for Democracy, the PeaceWorks Foundation, and the Porticus foundation. Working with multiple institutional donors, Zimam’s team and our accounting service providers, Granada, are well-versed in high-level financial management. At last, Zimam’s 8-year experience in the field of citizenship, democratization and conflict resolution and the experience of the staff who on average have 10 years of experience in the field, position us to implement this project with high precision and focus on outcomes. Our staff has formal and informal training in citizenship and democratization. For example, both our project director and coordinator are organizers by practice and hold a BA in political science and an MA in development.