· Public charity
Cities Forward Inc
Cities forward is a nonpartisan effort focused on helping cities and local governments around the country make participation in the democratic process a priority.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2024
- $10k–50k3 grants · $75k
- $50k–250k2 grants · $200k
- $250k+5 grants · $3.4M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| COUNT MI VOTE EDUCATION FUND | $1,550,000 |
| CITY OF MILWAUKEE ELECTION COMMISSION | $786,850 |
| PIZZA TO THE POLLS | $525,000 |
| COMMITTEE OF SEVENTY | $285,000 |
| MUNICIPAL DEPARTMENT OF THE CITY OF MILWAUKEE | $250,000 |
| ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION FOR A NEW AMERICAN UNIVERSITY | $100,000 |
| PA ALLIANCE FOUNDATION | $100,000 |
| SALT RIVER PIMA-MARICOPA INDIAN COMMUNITY | $25,000 |
| UNITED NATIONAL INDIAN TRIBAL YOUTH INC DBA UNITY INC | $25,000 |
| TOHONO O ODHAM NATION | $25,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY24–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 17%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 98% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
How this is measured
6 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.
Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.
How this is measured
Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 6 of the 9 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.
Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding
A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.
Co-funders
Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.
Open a dossier: New Venture Fund · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Cities Forward Inc funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Cities Forward Inc. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Cities Forward Inc?
Find your warmest path to Cities Forward Inc through trustees and officers whose names appear on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the shortest route it can evidence.
Each link is a name appearing on two organizations’ public IRS 990 filings, matched on that name and, where the filings support it, on location. A same-state match has geographic support, which is a second matching feature rather than confirmation that the two are one person; a cross-state one is the likeliest to be two people who share a name. Every hop shows its tier, low-confidence and distant paths are held back rather than guessed, and it is worth confirming the person before you use the introduction.
Play a game based on Cities Forward’s filings →