City On A Hill’s Fall Highlights Growing Pressure On Philanthropy
Foundations say they are trying to help nonprofits build resilience as federal funding shrinks and needs grow.
City on a Hill, a nonprofit located at 2224 W. Kilbourn Ave., is closing on Friday. (NNS file photo)
Over the past few years, Milwaukeeans have seen social service agencies close, scale back services and publicly struggle with funding.
The Milwaukee Courier reported Tuesday that City on a Hill is expected to close this Friday, creating another hole in the city’s already thinning safety net.
City on a Hill is a hub for youth development, family support and health and wellness services. The faith-based organization focused on providing services for families in the 53233, 53208 and 53205 ZIP codes in Milwaukee.
City on a Hill filed for bankruptcy in December 2025, but has maintained some services since then.
Representatives of City on a Hill did not respond to requests for comment from NNS.
Resource strain
Lianna Bishop, executive director of Zilber Family Foundation, said Milwaukee’s nonprofits, and nonprofits nationally, are facing a major resource strain. She said philanthropy plays a significant role in filling that need.
“When organizations close, it is the people who depend on their services who feel it most,” she said. “This is why philanthropy matters, and the Zilber Family Foundation remains committed to providing sustained support in alignment with our mission and focus areas that helps Milwaukee’s nonprofit community build the resilience it needs to thrive.”
Bridgett Gonzalez, grants director for Bader Philanthropies, said in an email to NNS that the closure of City on a Hill has a lasting impact.
“City on a Hill’s commitment to meeting the basic needs of young children, parents raising families and older adults will impact generations to come,” she said.
Bader first funded the organization in 2007. Gonzalez said staff has heard and seen the stories about how lives have been forever changed for the better.
“It has been the foundation’s privilege to be a part of the organization’s evolution and to stand with them through years of growth and during times of great challenge,” she said.
Representatives of the Greater Milwaukee Foundation’s community impact team recently examined the needs of nonprofits.
Data collected by the group found that the top current challenges are an increase in community needs and demand for services, a reduction in funds and/or funding freezes from the federal government, and policy changes affecting services they can provide.
A domino effect
Bob Waite, senior account manager at IMPACT, said when a local nonprofit closes, the significance is dependent on whether or not there are other places for people to receive the service.
“It depends,” he said. “If it’s a food pantry, maybe the gap can be filled by another one unless it’s the only one in the area and then transportation becomes a problem.”
IMPACT is a Southeastern Wisconsin nonprofit that provides a number of social services that support stability for residents.
Waite said their team once referred people to the Social Development Commission’s weatherization program. But, even once it closed, there were alternative resources to refer people to if they needed the service.
With the coming closure of City on a Hill, Waite said, there is a potential domino effect.
“That’s a pretty significant closure,” he said.
Health clinics aren’t as easy to replace as food pantries, especially when many free clinics are already stretched, according to Waite.
He said if one clinic closes and others are already growing crowded, then wait times grow, and small barriers become insurmountable ones.
An organization’s capacity is limited as is transportation and time off work, he said.
Bigger than organizations
Abra Fortson, the principal consultant for Jump Consulting and Engagement, a strategic planning group that centers anti-poverty work, said the issue is bigger than individual organizations. She said it’s about a broader trend of shrinking resources and reduced services.
“This means an already tremendously impacted population is going to be further marginalized,” said Fortson. “There is already difficulty in coordinating resources and as it becomes more fragmented, people are going to be all the more exhausted trying to find help.”
She said the loss reflects systemic challenges, including heavy reliance on government funding and increasing competition for limited resources. Many organizations, she said, are struggling behind the scenes.
“This is only the first wave,” she said. “There’s a CEO somewhere trying to plug leaks and keep services up, but nobody hears the need to come together to support these front line roles until it’s too late.”
Fortson, a long-time former employee of the Social Development Commission, said, “We are seeing the initial layer of hurt. When you limit or dismantle organizations that serve, its impact compounds.”
What now?
Fortson said the path forward may require collective action.
“We have to challenge systems to show up more intentionally,” she said. “It’s time to stop playing lip service and truly reimagine how we support people in poverty.”
This article first appeared on Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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