Cuts to funds for nonprofits raised alarms for the Progress Center for Black Women as its founder, Sabrina Madison, unveiled its priorities and launched its community campaign for funding Oct. 15.
Madison held a press conference at PCBW’s office, 30 W. Mifflin St., to announce the direction the organization will take. It will continue its efforts in its core mission for the progress and advancement of Black women; however, it will expand its Ambition Program. The announcement follows changes proposed to federal grant guidelines via an executive order this past August.
“Now equity-based programs are a high-risk category for funding,” Madison said. “We’re called an equity-based nonprofit. Why? Why do we have to be held to that kind of standard? I know why we’re being held to that standard, or why other people may be sort of shifting how they do equity work to, I don’t know, fall in line with the Trump Administration.”
Nonprofits are starting to feel the weight under cuts to grants, Madison said. She noted that PCBW is receiving significantly more calls and imagines that similar nonprofits are currently experiencing the same thing.
With more calls, Madison noticed even more from the Meadowlands Apartments, 6810 Milwaukee St. The Progress Center looks to create an on-site career and wellness hub in 2026 through its Ambition Program. The program offers job navigation, access to housing-related resources, connections to training, education and employers dedicated to equity in the workplace. It also plans to open one at a local shelter that is yet to be disclosed.
“Based on what the need is from over there [the Meadowlands], we’re likely going to do one day a week we’re there for a full day, and one day where we’re there about 3-7 p.m.,” Madison said. “We’re trying to catch people both in the morning before they go to work and in the evening after work.”
The effort is in conjunction with the data points Madison brought up for Black women in the United States. National data shows that nearly 300,000 Black women left the U.S.labor force this year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In Wisconsin, Black workers continue to earn less than white workers, while Black women face the deepest wage disparity. Black women are earning nearly 30% less on average, according to the State of Working in Wisconsin 2025 report.
Combating those combinations of factors, labor changes and disparities in pay, is part of the PCBW’s main focus, but a cut in funds inhibits its ability to serve the community. To combat it, Madison has launched a community fundraising campaign.
She’s looking to recruit 1,000 supporters to give $20 a month for the next year-three years. Madison plans to give regular updates on how the campaign progresses.
