Wisconsin · Nonprofit
CITY FORWARD COLLECTIVE INC
CITY FORWARD COLLECTIVE INC (Wisconsin) receives grants from 49 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,872,961 to it, the largest being CITY FUND ($2,315,000). 34 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $4.2M
- Funders on record
- 49
- Grants received
- $6.9M
- Net assets
- $8.0M
What City Forward Collective Inc does
Mission
Cfc's mission is to secure the future of milwaukee and its institutions, economy, and quality of life by ending educational inequity and ensuring every child has the opportunity to attend a high-quality school.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Ecosysem transformation (formerly high-quality schools) - strategically invest and channel philanthropic dollars to expand existing high-quality schools, incubate new schools, and improve promising schools. In 2021 this also included providing grants and additional resources and support to schools to assist with covid-19 response.
$497,933 spentof which $30,000 as grants$16,246 earned by the program22% of program spendingStakeholder engagement and mobilization (formerly family and community organizing and community - informed policy) - facilitate sustained family and community organizing to build a movement of milwaukee parents and other residents who understand and advocate for quality schools across milwaukee. Advocate for local and state policies and systems that eliminate educational inequities and ensure high-quality schools thrive; mobilize "grassroot" communities and create coalitions with "grasstop" leaders to achieve positive change.
$1,001,384 spentof which $450,000 as grants45% of program spendingPolicy and advocacy - this program works for further the organization's charitable mission by advancing public policies that are related to the organization's exempt purpose.
$369,352 spent$142,868 earned by the program17% of program spendingPolicy and data - to inform the community through insightful and incisive policy and data analysis by publishing regular policy beliefs, annual state of milwaukee education reports, and other analysis; and providing online data tools for families to make informed decisions about their child's school.
$369,122 spent16% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,237,791.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2024 to 2025, from $6.5M to $8.1M (+26%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2022 6% · 2023 10%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
91% of CITY FORWARD COLLECTIVE INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (48% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 of the last 7 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Chief executive
Colleston Morgan Jr
Executive director
Board chair
Timothy Sheehy
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 18 funders, grant income rose $111k → $714k.
9 of 49 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 15% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $1.4M from 4 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest United Way of Greater Milwaukee & Waukesha County Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money CITY FORWARD COLLECTIVE INC raised.
From the IRS filings of CITY FORWARD COLLECTIVE INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 49 funders by total. Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
CITY FORWARD COLLECTIVE INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 34% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
53% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund CITY FORWARD COLLECTIVE INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 90% · 2018 82% · 2019 51% · 2020 19% · 2021 26% · 2022 25% · 2023 21% — diversifying over time.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
39% of CITY FORWARD COLLECTIVE INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 69% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
56% of CITY FORWARD COLLECTIVE INC's grant income comes from Wisconsin funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.0M arriving through sponsors registered in 9 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
CITY FORWARD COLLECTIVE INC runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 9,398 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,398 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like CITY FORWARD COLLECTIVE INC
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Wisconsin
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
84% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
61%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for CITY FORWARD COLLECTIVE INC: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds CITY FORWARD COLLECTIVE INC?
- CITY FORWARD COLLECTIVE INC (Wisconsin) receives grants from 49 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,872,961 to it, the largest being CITY FUND ($2,315,000). 34 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does CITY FORWARD COLLECTIVE INC have?
- IRS filings report 49 organizations giving $6,872,961 in grants to CITY FORWARD COLLECTIVE INC, 34 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CITY FORWARD COLLECTIVE INC?
- CITY FUND is the largest funder on record, with $2,315,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CITY FORWARD COLLECTIVE INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Wisconsin. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 49 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing