How to Play

How to Play

Forward is a game you can play anywhere in Wisconsin to explore local history, learn about local government, and support local nonprofits.


  1. Complete Trivia and Actions
    Earn experience points (XP) and badges for every trivia question you answer and every action you complete.
  2. Climb the Leaderboard
    Compete against others to make it to the top of the all-time leaderboard, as well as individual leaderboards in games and cities.
  3. Win Prizes
    Join our LIVE games to win swag, prizes, grants, and real cash for nonprofits.
  4. Follow your Causes
    Follow organizations you care about and get notified when they post new actions, trivia, and games.
  5. Explore your Community
    Find nearby challenges based on your location (coming soon).
  6. See your Impact
    Earn impact points with friends and others in your community and watch them add up to real change.
  7. Play with Friends
    Invite friends to play with – or against – them. You can send invites from your user profile or game pages.
  8. Get Live Updates
    Check your personal activity feed to see updates from the organization, cities, and players you care about.

Forward includes…

Trivia

Answer trivia questions about local history, organizations you care about, local government and causes in your community.

Actions

Attend events, complete photo challenges, watch videos, visit museums, complete scavenger hunts and so much more.

Challenges

A challenge is a set of Actions and Trivia questions related to a specific organization, cause or community.

Who we support

Our mission is to help Wisconsin nonprofits, libraries, cities and other civic institutions advance civic learning and participation in their local communities.


  1. Local Nonprofits
    Including all nonpartisan, 501(c)3 organizations.
  2. Libraries and Museums
    Help visitors deeply engage with the unique stories, histories, projects, events and activities of your library or museum within the building and beyond.
  3. Local Government and Public Departments
    Raise awareness about community engagement initiatives, public campaigns, and how your local governments work with tailored challenges for your city, town, village, county, or individual government department.
  4. Universities and Colleges
    Collaborate with Forward to add an extra dose of play to your schools get out the vote and community engagement initiatives.
  5. Chambers of Commerce and Community Foundations
    Celebrate local nonprofits and businesses with community-wide games and challenges that bring together a variety of stakeholders.
  6. Local Businesses
    Local businesses and community event organizers can partner with Forward to add a game to your existing event in support of local organizations.

The Basics

Points

There are several different types of points you can earn on Forward, including:

  • XP – earn experience points for everything you do on the Forward platform
  • green – earn green impact points for completing trivia, actions, challenges and games in the “Environment & Climate” category
  • blue – earn blue impact points for completing trivia, actions, challenges and games in the “Justice & Democracy” category
  • red – earn green impact points for completing trivia, actions, challenges and games in the “Health & Safety” category
  • yellow – earn green impact points for completing trivia, actions, challenges and games in the “Education & Opportunity” category
Actions

Actions

1 Action Award

  • Action Complete

Actions are specific things you can do to support local causes and organizations you care about.

Trivia

Trivia

1 Trivia Award

  • trivia complete

Trivia questions quiz you about local history, organizations you care about, local government and causes in your community.

Challenges

A challenge is a set of up to 50 actions and trivia questions related to a specific organization, cause or community.

Challenges are not time-based and can be completed at any point, although some require players to reach a particular Level (1-20) before they unlock.

Games

A game is a set of up to 150 actions and trivia questions related to a specific organization, cause or community that are available for a limited time. Games can last from 2 hours to 30 days and include:

  • Custom badge and prizes
  • Live Activity Feed
  • Leaderboard
Badges

Badges reward players for their accomplishments on the Forward platform. We offer dozens of badges out of the box and also work with nonprofits and cities to create custom badges.

Leaderboard

Climb leaderboards and earn badges as you learn about local history, businesses, organizations and brush up your civics skills.

Follow

Follow organizations, communities and other players for updates on their activity.

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