Cities Forward is nonprofit organization that formed out of a project of the New Venture Fund that was the subject of a controversy in 2024 after disbursing grants worth over $1 million to the City of Milwaukee for election administration just a few weeks before a ban on “Zuck Bucks,” or private election funding nicknamed after Mark Zuckerberg’s spending during the 2020 election, took effect. ¹

Cities Forward received its $1 million in initial funding from the New Venture Fund at the same time the New Venture Fund received a $1.25 million grant from the Foundation to Promote Open Society (FPOS). ² FPOS reported on its 2023 tax return that the grant was to support the New Venture Fund’s “Cities Forward initiative” before Cities Forward was granted tax exempt status in 2024. ³

Background

Cities Forward is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that registered as nonprofit with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in 2023 and was formerly listed as a registered trade name of the New Venture Fund, the largest nonprofit organization managed by the left-leaning philanthropic consulting company Arabella Advisors. ⁴ Shortly after its formation, Cities Forward made an $800,000 grant to Milwaukee’s elections department in March 2024 to be used to process absentee ballots, “make polling places more visible,” and for text messaging campaigns. Critics of the funding compared Cities Forward’s grant to the Center for Tech and Civic Life’s (CTCL) controversial private election-administration donations from 2020. ⁵

The address listed on Cities Forward’s 2023 tax return showed that it shared an office with Rewiring America’s headquarters and Greys Consulting, a company that provides consulting services for prospective federal government employees. ^{6 7} Cities Forward executive director Sam Oliker-Friedland was also chief counsel for the New Venture Fund project Center for Secure and Modern Elections and executive director of Institute for Responsive Government at the time. ⁸

Funding

In 2023, Cities Forward received a $1 million grant from the New Venture Fund. It also represents the total contributions and revenue received by Cities Forward as reported on its 2023 tax return. ^{2 9}

Cities Forward’s funding from the New Venture Fund came in the same year that the Foundation to Promote Open Society (FPOS), a grantmaking organization created and funded by liberal megadonor George Soros, made a $1.25 million grant to the New Venture Fund that was described as “to support the Center for Secure and Modern Election Cities Forward initiative, a nonpartisan project of the grantee that is building deep partnerships with cities to make civic participation a core city priority,” according to its 2023 tax returns. ³

Election Spending

In March 2024, Cities Forward made a $786,500 grant to the City of Milwaukee to purchase ballot counting machines, smartphones for election commission staff, a voter mobilization texting service, and security cameras. A few days later, it was announced Cities Forward made an additional $250,000 grant for the Milwaukee Public Library and Election Commission to engage in a voter mobilization campaign amongst Milwaukee residents. The grants were subject to controversy as they came weeks before a formal ban on private election donations under a Wisconsin state constitutional amendment in response to election donation campaigns in 2020, primarily by the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL) through funding from Meta (Facebook) founder Mark Zuckerberg, that were believed to have the potential to influence election outcomes. ^{1 10}

In response to concerns about the grants made to the City of Milwaukee from a newly created group, Cities Forward executive director Sam Oliker-Friedland stated that it would disclose its donors on its tax forms and its website by November 2024. ¹ As of June 2025, neither Cities Forward’s website nor its initial tax return filed in November 2024 publicly disclosed its donors. ¹¹

Leadership

As of 2025, Sam Oliker-Friedland was the executive director of Cities Forward as well as the executive director for the Institute for Responsive Government and chief counsel for the Center for Secure and Modern Elections. ⁸ He previously served as a voting rights litigator in the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division in the Obama administration and the Trump administration. ¹²

Financials

In 2023, Cities Forward reported $1 million in total contributions and $156,179 in total expenses. ¹³  Of its expenditures, Cities Forward reported paying $95,100 in consulting fees. ¹⁴

1. Dirr, Alison. “Milwaukee council to take up Cities Forward civic engagement grant.” March 18, 2024. https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/03/18/milwaukee-council-to-take-up-cities-forward-civic-engagement-grant/72979773007/.
2. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990). New Venture Fund. 2023. Schedule I.
3. Return of Organization Exempt form Income Tax (Form 990PF). Foundation to Promote Open Society. 2023. Part XIV.
4. “Trade Names of the Arabella Advisors Network.” Americans for Public Trust. May 29, 2025. https://americansforpublictrust.org/document/trade-names-of-the-arabella-advisors-network/.
5. Jannene, Jeramy. “$800,000 Non-Partisan Grant Will Improve Milwaukee’s Election Process.” Urban Milwaukee. March 11, 2024. https://urbanmilwaukee.com/2024/03/11/city-hall-800000-non-partisan-grant-will-improve-milwaukees-election-process/.
6. “Privacy Policy.” Rewiring America. Accessed June 20, 2025. https://www.rewiringamerica.org/privacy-policy.
7. “Business Consulting.” Greys Consulting. Accessed June 20, 2025. https://www.greysconsultinggroup.com/service-page/business-consulting.
8. “Sam Oliker-Friedland.” LinkedIn, Accessed June 21, 2025. https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-oliker-friedland-6b557b153.
9. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990). Cities Forward Inc. 2023. Part I.
10. Dirr, Alison. “Milwaukee seeks private funds to buy election equipment despite looming vote to prohibit such grants.” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. March 14, 2024. https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/03/14/milwaukee-seeks-election-equipment-grant-ahead-of-april-2-referendum/72937277007/.
11. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990). Cities Forward Inc. 2023. Schedule B.
12. “Sam Oliker-Friedland.” More Perfect Community. Accessed June 21, 2025. https://www.joinmoreperfect.us/community/sam-oliker-friedland.
13. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990). Cities Forward Inc. 2023. Part I, Lines 12-18.
14. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990). Cities Forward Inc. 2023. Schedule O.