GrantmakersWisconsin

Forward Community Investments Inc

Madison, WI · EIN 39-1815578. Reported 24 grants totalling $847,677 to 22 organizations across tax years 2021-2023, on Form 990 Schedule I.

22organizations funded
$25,000median reported grant
$847,677granted, 2021-2023
0%of grantees funded again the next year
34%of dollars to its largest recipient

Does this grantmaker accept applications?

Its tax return does not say, and we will not guess. Private foundations file Form 990-PF, which asks outright whether they fund only organizations they select themselves -- 78% say yes, and that one answer is what lets the rest of this site tell you which foundations are worth approaching. Grantmaking charities like this one file a regular Form 990 instead, and the IRS never puts the question to them. Anyone claiming to know the answer from the filing is inventing it.

Three things in the filing do bear on it:

  1. What kind of organization it is. For Forward Community Investments Inc, the IRS classifies it under community improvement rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE S400) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
  2. How spread out its giving is. 22 distinct organizations, with 34% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is genuinely spread out -- the mark of a funder making many independent decisions rather than underwriting one institution.
  3. How much its list changes. 0% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 1 year-to-year transition. That is below the 57% median for grantmaking charities, and well below the 67% private foundations manage. A list that turns over this much is one a newcomer can realistically join.

How big are its grants?

The median reported grant is $25,000. Half of what it reported fell between $25,000 and $25,000; the smallest was $7,500 and the largest $285,177. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.

Schedule I only reports grants over $5,000. Form 990 requires a charity to list recipients it paid more than that and lets it omit the rest, so every grant-size figure on this page describes the grants it reported, not all of them. Its real median is lower and its real recipient count is higher. This is also why these numbers cannot be compared with the private-foundation figures elsewhere on this site -- Form 990-PF has no reporting floor, so the two are different populations rather than two samples of one.
$5,000 - $10,000
1 grant
$10,000 - $25,000
1 grant
$25,000 - $50,000
21 grants
$250,000 Or More
1 grant

Every organization it funded

This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by the EIN the filer reported, not by name, so an organization that was typed differently in two years appears once rather than twice.

OrganizationLocationTotal receivedGrantsYears fundedLast
One City Schools IncMadison, WI$285,177112022
Center for Community Stewardship IncMadison, WI$57,500322022
Layton Boulevard West Neighbors IncMilwaukee, WI$40,000112023
Allied Wellness Center IncMadison, WI$25,000112022
Bridges United IncManitowoc, WI$25,000112022
Community Action Inc of Rock and Walworth CountiesBeloit, WI$25,000112022
Embrace Services IncLadysmith, WI$25,000112022
Fennimore Medical Pdc IncPr Du Chien, WI$25,000112022
Friends of Women in Recovery IncFond Du Lac, WI$25,000112022
Future Urban Leaders Foundation IncBrookfield, WI$25,000112022
Grant Regional Health Center IncLancaster, WI$25,000112022
Healing Our Hearts FoundationincMadison, WI$25,000112022
Mercy Dental Missions IncMadison, WI$25,000112022
Metcalfe Park Community Bridges IncMilwaukee, WI$25,000112022
Nia Imani Family IncMilwaukee, WI$25,000112022
Northwest Side Community Development CorporationMilwaukee, WI$25,000112022
Partners for Community Development IncSheboygan, WI$25,000112022
People of Progression IncAppleton, WI$25,000112022
Stepping Stones of Dunn County IncMenomonie, WI$25,000112022
Taylor County Supportive Housing IncMedford, WI$25,000112022
W a V E Educational Fund IncMilwaukee, WI$25,000112022
Madison Reading Project IncMadison, WI$15,000112023

1 of 22 (5%) received money in more than one year over the 3 years we hold. Remember the $5,000 floor: an organization funded every year at $3,000 shows up here as never funded at all.

It also reported 2 groups of grants to individuals -- scholarships, emergency assistance and similar. Schedule I reports these by category with a headcount and never by name, so there is nothing here we could publish about the recipients even if we wanted to.

What the money was for

Taken verbatim from the purpose column of its filings, largest first. This is the closest thing to a statement of what it funds, in its own words.

What kind of organizations it funds

By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 18 of 22 recipients we could match to a registered organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.

Human Services
4 orgs
Health Care
4 orgs
Community Improvement
3 orgs
Youth Development
2 orgs
Housing & Shelter
2 orgs
Mental Health
1 org
Arts & Culture
1 org
Crime & Legal
1 org

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
20211$7,500$7,500
202221$785,177$25,000
20232$55,000$27,500

Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- Form 990 arrives about a year after the year it covers, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a grantmaker winding down.

Where its money goes

Madison, WI
$433K
Milwaukee, WI
$140K
Manitowoc, WI
$25K
Beloit, WI
$25K
Ladysmith, WI
$25K
Pr Du Chien, WI
$25K
Fond Du Lac, WI
$25K
Brookfield, WI
$25K

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Funders that support the same organizations

These grantmakers and private foundations gave to organizations this one also funded. Shared grantees are the strongest signal available that two funders have overlapping priorities -- and a funder already backing your peers is a far warmer prospect than one that merely lists your cause.

Otto Bremer Trust8 shared recipientsFidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund7 shared recipientsGreater Milwaukee Foundation Inc6 shared recipientsAlliant Energy Foundation Inc5 shared recipientsGreen Bay Packers Foundation5 shared recipientsWheda Foundation Inc5 shared recipients

How to approach this grantmaker

  1. Look for a published programme first. Unlike most private foundations, organizations of this kind often do run open, deadlined grant cycles with written guidelines. Its own website is the authority on that; this page is the authority on who it has actually paid.
  2. Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $25,000 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
  3. Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in Wisconsin.
  4. Read the recipient list for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer and a cheap one to get.

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from Forward Community Investments Inc's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2021-2024). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.

Address of record on the latest return: 2352 S Park St 326, Madison, WI, 53713.

EIN 39-1815578 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this

This is history, not an open call. Form 990 is published about a year after the tax year it covers. Nothing on this page is a deadline. It is a record of who this organization has actually funded, which is the best available predictor of who it will fund next.

Is something here wrong about your organization? Email [email protected] and we will correct it.