We build programs that help cities reach residents and deliver for them.

Our story

Cities Forward launched in 2022 to test a simple idea: city government, the level of government residents deal with every day, can be one of the most trusted voices in civic life. That year we partnered with mayors’ offices in eight cities, from Philadelphia and Detroit to Reno and Tucson. Together we knocked on nearly 480,000 doors and sent more than 2.2 million pieces of mail, including over a million utility bill inserts. When the knock came from a city-backed program, residents were more likely to open the door than for a typical canvass.

In 2024, we scaled up. Outreach teams in Milwaukee and Philadelphia met residents at libraries, clinics, transit hubs, and festivals, and helped families screen for benefits like SNAP, WIC, and the Child Tax Credit. In Houston, the mayor’s office sent nonpartisan voting information in water bills reaching 500,000 homes, with materials in seven languages at every public library. Detroit’s first year of early voting brought 35 neighborhood events at early vote centers with city parks staff, the Pistons, and the Lions, and more than 400 news stories. With our support, Milwaukee Public Library hired its first dedicated civic engagement program manager.

In 2025, we went deep in Milwaukee. Instead of going quiet after the election, One MKE grew from 40 to more than 140 partner organizations, held more than 100 listening meetings and neighborhood dinners, and helped residents in four neighborhoods form taskforces to choose and lead their own projects. A small grant for a community fridge in Metcalfe Park grew into a network: the Milwaukee Common Council backed it, and four more fridges opened without our funding.

In 2026, we moved the work inside city government. Milwaukee Public Library now leads civic engagement for the city through the role we helped create. Its Civic Bites series brings city leaders, including the mayor, into neighborhood branches to meet residents. In June, the library produced Milwaukee’s first Civic Season. Resident taskforces have completed a public mural at the Walker’s Point roundabout and a community arts event in Washington Park, with city and county agencies as partners.

Along the way, we learned two things. First, city governments have no shortage of contact with residents. What they lack is coordination: public works, health, housing, libraries, and the mayor’s office each hold a piece of the picture and talk to residents separately. Second, programs run by outside partners end when the funding does. Programs a city owns outlast the grant, the staff, and the mayor.

So we changed our method, not our mission. We’re building the Civic Intelligence Dashboard, a tool cities can own and fund themselves. It brings resident requests from 311 and other channels into one view and helps departments coordinate. It also closes the loop: it confirms the work is done and tells the resident who reported it. We plan to pilot it in 2027 with cities that have already signed on, alongside the neighborhood programs we know how to run, and bring mayors and city staff together to share what works.