We experimentally show that it is possible to induce room-temperature ferromagnetic-like behavior in ZnO nanoparticles without doping withmagnetic impurities but simply inducing an alteration of their electronic configuration. Capping ZnO nanoparticles (~10 nm size) with differentorganic molecules produces an alteration of their electronic configuration that depends on the particular molecule, as evidenced byphotoluminescence and X-ray absorption spectroscopies and altering their magnetic properties that varies from diamagnetic to ferromagnetic-like behavior.