Wisconsin · Nonprofit
FORWARD COMMUNITY INVESTMENTS INC
FORWARD COMMUNITY INVESTMENTS INC (Wisconsin) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,823,030 to it, the largest being JOSEPH AND VERA ZILBER FAMILY FOUNDATION INC ($809,000). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $3.7M
- Funders on record
- 11
- Grants received
- $1.8M
- Net assets
- $16M
What Forward Community Investments Inc does
Mission
We invest in people, projects, and organizations that create lasting impact, addressing community needs in innovative and effective ways. By leveraging a network of partnerships and creative financing, we ensure individuals and neighborhoods across wisconsin have access to the resources they need to prosper.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Community lending services - fci's lending services incorporate activities essential to providing loans to fci's clients. Those services include developing and maintaining client, lender and investor relations; processing loan requests; underwriting; loan servicing; technical assistance and consulting for clients; and raising and servicing investments. Over its lifetime, fci has disbursed a little more than $106.8 million to benefit organizations and initiatives throughout wisconsin. Over the years, fci's loans have created or sustained 2,659 units of affordable housing and indirectly provided services to more than 721,000 low-income individuals. And, through business incubation strategies and expanded community facilities, fci nonprofit borrowers have created or retained more than 6,870 jobs for wisconsin residents and added over 1,764 new daycare slots.some of fci's accomplishments for community lending services in 2024 include:closed 17 new and refinanced loans totaling $4.6 million in two different counties. The funds were used for community facilities, affordable housing, working capital and lines of credit. Closed just over $27 million in new market tax credit…
$1,792,147 spent$3,028,847 earned by the program98% of program spendingCommunity investments - activities include planning, implementation and oversight of the annual grants process; oversight of annual distributions from donor advised funds; developing and maintaining grantee and stakeholder relationships; and processing and servicing grant requests. This also includes programs funded by larger grants that have a pass-through grant aspect to them.some of fci's accomplishments for community investments in 2024 include: aided deployment of $500,000 in grants as administrator for racine dominican sisters to organizations in wisconsin.
$36,042 spent2% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,828,189.
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 2022 to 2023, from $30M to $33M (+11%).
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: 2017 26% · 2018 22% · 2019 22% · 2021 18% · 2022 38% · 2023 4%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
9% of FORWARD COMMUNITY INVESTMENTS INC’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (61% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 8 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
Ryan Zerwer
President & CEO
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2020 and FY2021 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2018 → 2023: the base narrowed from 3 funders to 1 funder, grant income fell $149k → $53k.
4 of 11 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 17% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of FORWARD COMMUNITY INVESTMENTS INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). 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
FORWARD COMMUNITY INVESTMENTS INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 44% of grant income and the top three 78%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 36% · 2019 100% · 2020 40% · 2021 100% · 2022 52% · 2023 100% — growing more concentrated.
“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
22% of FORWARD COMMUNITY INVESTMENTS INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 27% 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
60% of FORWARD COMMUNITY INVESTMENTS 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. $313k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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
FORWARD COMMUNITY INVESTMENTS INC holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 4,203 community improvement nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 4,203 community improvement nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Government funding FORWARD COMMUNITY INVESTMENTS INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $4.8M on record.
- Department of the Treasury$4.8M
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like FORWARD COMMUNITY INVESTMENTS 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
61% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
68%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 42 related entities
- Community Benefit Sub Cde 1 LLC · disregarded
- Community Benefit Sub Cde 2 LLC · disregarded
- Community Benefit Sub Cde 3 LLC · disregarded
- Community Benefit Sub Cde 4 LLC · disregarded
- Community Benefit Sub Cde 5 LLC · disregarded
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for FORWARD COMMUNITY INVESTMENTS 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 FORWARD COMMUNITY INVESTMENTS INC?
- FORWARD COMMUNITY INVESTMENTS INC (Wisconsin) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,823,030 to it, the largest being JOSEPH AND VERA ZILBER FAMILY FOUNDATION INC ($809,000). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does FORWARD COMMUNITY INVESTMENTS INC have?
- IRS filings report 11 organizations giving $1,823,030 in grants to FORWARD COMMUNITY INVESTMENTS INC, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of FORWARD COMMUNITY INVESTMENTS INC?
- JOSEPH AND VERA ZILBER FAMILY FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $809,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like FORWARD COMMUNITY INVESTMENTS 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 FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 11 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