Forge Community

What Forge Community does

Forge Community (legally The FORGE Community, LLC) is an invitation-only, peer-to-peer digital community exclusively for single family offices, founded in 2011 as a Fidelity Investments initiative under the name FORGE (Family Office Regional Group Executives) and rebranded to its current form in 2019. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Finforum LLC, itself a subsidiary of FMR LLC (Fidelity Investments), and is independently operated from Boston, Massachusetts, with a small internal team of approximately five employees.

The core product is the Forge Community Platform, a secure Salesforce-backed environment that provides curated educational resources, peer conversations with topic tagging and moderation, group directories, file sharing, an industry events calendar, and member-controlled visibility settings. Security is reinforced through Salesforce Shield encryption, SSO and MFA for admins, HTTPS, penetration testing, and a combination of AI and human login monitoring. Supporting offerings include annual Family Office Compensation benchmarking reports (the 2023 edition drawing on data from 330 offices across 27 roles), virtual and hybrid event formats, and in-person Summits hosted in partnership with universities including SMU, Stanford, Georgia Tech, and the Kellogg School of Management.

The business model is community-led and primarily freemium: Basic Membership is free and provides access to the national and regional communities, peer-curated educational resources, research summaries, and the Forge Monthly Newsletter. A Premium Membership tier — annual, auto-renewing, with pricing visible only to logged-in members — adds interactive reports, topic-driven cohorts, job boards, peer reviews of service providers, and a best-practice template library, with payment processed through Stripe under PCI-DSS compliance. Select in-person events carry separate fees. Membership acquisition is invitation-only, driven by sponsoring-member referrals, a Membership Committee vetting process, and partner-sponsored groups; the organization does not employ traditional paid marketing and operates exclusively within the United States.

Name

Forge Community

Legal name

The FORGE Community, LLC

Website

https://forgecommunity.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2011

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Forge Community operates an invitation-only, peer-to-peer digital community exclusively for U.S. single family offices, providing a secure networking platform, benchmarking research, and educational events to its 1,700+ vetted members across 47 groups.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Family Office Community Platform

NAICS

Religious, Grantmaking, Civic, Professional, and Similar Organizations (813), Civic and Social Organizations (813410)

SIC

Services-Membership Organizations (8600)

akta.pro primary industry

Membership Communities with Learning (Community-Led Education) (MPACALAF)

akta.pro secondary industry

Virtual/Hybrid Conference Production & Platform Management (THAHACAM)

Keywords

• Single family offices
• Peer-to-peer networking
• Wealth management community
• Family office benchmarking
• Invitation-only community

Headquarters

HQ city

Boston

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Basic Membership: Free membership tier providing access to networking with the Forge National Community, regional communities, peer-curated educational resources and events, industry research, and the Forge Monthly Newsletter. This free tier supports community growth and engagement.
2. Premium Membership: Annual auto-renewing paid membership tier that grants all Basic Membership features plus additional value-added benefits including interactive reports, topic-driven cohorts, job boards, peer reviews and ratings of service providers, and a peer-curated best practice template library. Individual members can pay online using credit card via the Forge Community platform. Third parties (family offices) paying for individual members will be invoiced.
3. Event Fees: Select in-person events may have a fee to help cover costs associated with the program. While membership itself is free, certain exclusive events require additional payment.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Forge Community operates an invitation-only, peer-to-peer digital platform that connects single family offices for unbiased networking, knowledge exchange, and industry benchmarking. The platform supports a freemium membership model (Basic free, Premium paid annual), national and regional group collaboration, peer-curated educational content, annual compensation research reports, and vendor-free in-person, virtual, and hybrid events including the annual Forge Community Summit held at university partners.

Product overview

Forge Community offers a single, unified digital platform for single family offices to connect, share knowledge, and access industry research. The core offering is the Forge Community Platform, which serves as the hub for member networking, content delivery, and collaboration. Membership operates on a two-tier model: Basic Membership (free) provides access to the national community, regional groups, educational content, events, and research, while Premium Membership (paid) adds interactive reports, topic-driven cohorts, job boards, peer reviews, and a template library. Supporting the platform are research publications (Compensation Reports published since 2015), annual Summits held at universities, and virtual/hybrid event formats. Family Office Groups provide private sub-communities within the platform structure.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Forge Community Platform The primary digital community platform that enables single family offices to connect, network, and collaborate nationally or within private family office groups. The platform provides access to national community, regional communities, curated educational content, industry research, peer conversations with topic tagging and moderation, and an industry events calendar.
• Basic Membership Free membership tier providing access to networking with the Forge National Community, regional communities, peer-curated educational resources and events, industry research, and the Forge Monthly Newsletter. No cost to join or maintain.
• Premium Membership Annual auto-renewing paid membership tier granting all Basic Membership features plus interactive reports, topic-driven cohorts, job boards, peer reviews and ratings of service providers, and a peer-curated best practice template library.
• Family Office Compensation Reports Annual benchmarking research reports providing compensation data and analysis for single family office executives. Reports cover executive, family office, and household roles across the industry. The 2023 report includes data from 330 family offices covering 27 different roles.
• Forge Community Summits Annual in-person educational events held in partnership with universities, featuring programs focused on themes such as diversity and inclusion, design thinking, innovation, resiliency, and disruption. Events are vendor-free environments for peer networking and learning.
• Virtual and Hybrid Events Event formats including virtual Spotlights, hybrid Collectives, and in-person Gatherings. Events are themed around areas of disruption such as leadership, technology, family office structure, and impact efforts.
• Family Office Groups Private, invitation-only sub-groups within the larger Forge Community where family office professionals engage with colleagues from their specific group, access group-specific content, and participate in private discussions. Currently 47 groups operate nationally.

Quantifiable outcome

• One of the largest family office compensation studies in the industry with data from 330 family offices
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers1 record

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration1 record

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered minor and supporting.

• University Partners (SMU, Stanford, Georgia Tech, Kellogg School of Management)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerForge Community programs, particularly the annual Summit, are done in partnership with universities. Past partnerships include Southern Methodist University (2018), Stanford (2019), and Georgia Tech & Kellogg School of Management (2022). Programs focus on themes such as diversity and inclusion, design thinking, innovation, and resiliency.
• Stripe, Inc.supportingTechnology or IntegrationStripe serves as the credit and debit payment processing service for Forge Community's Premium Membership fees. Stripe handles online payment acceptance, card processing, and subscription renewal billing. Member payment data is encrypted through PCI-DSS compliance and stored securely.
• Salesforce (Salesforce Shield)supportingTechnology or IntegrationForge Community platform uses Salesforce Shield for security infrastructure including platform encryption, event monitoring, and field audit trail capabilities, supporting the platform's security and compliance requirements.

Scale indicators11 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• BNY Mellon Wealth Management: BNY Mellon Wealth Management serves UHNW families and family offices with custody, investment, and advisory services. As a Fidelity affiliate-like large incumbent, it overlaps with Forge's audience and produces family-office benchmarking research, but as part of a much broader financial services portfolio.
• Goldman Sachs Private Wealth Management: Goldman Sachs Private Wealth serves ultra-high-net-worth families with investment advisory, lending, and family office services. Operates in the same SFO / UHNW ecosystem as Forge and produces proprietary research for family offices, but as part of a global investment banking franchise.
• Bessemer Trust: Bessemer Trust is a multi-family office providing investment management, wealth planning, and family office services to UHNW families. Comparable in serving the same SFO / UHNW client base but as a service provider rather than a peer community, placing it as a broader incumbent in the space.

Direct peers

• Entrepreneurs' Organization (EO): EO is a global peer community for entrepreneurs offering chapter-based forums, member events, and educational programming. Its member-led governance and peer-to-peer learning model closely parallels Forge's approach to community-led value creation.
• Vistage: Vistage operates paid peer advisory groups for CEOs and senior executives, combining monthly group meetings with one-on-one coaching and curated content. Comparable to Forge in applying a peer-group model with structured facilitation and educational programming for a professional audience.
• YPO (Young Presidents' Organization): YPO is a global peer community of CEOs and executives organized into forums with member-led governance, executive education, and vendor-free interactions. Forge's community-led, no-pay-to-play governance model mirrors YPO's chapter-based architecture.
• Family Office Exchange (FOX): FOX is a membership organization serving single family offices with peer networking, benchmarking research, and educational programming. It overlaps directly with Forge's value proposition across research, networking, and member-led governance.
• Tiger 21: Tiger 21 is a peer learning and asset allocation community for high-net-worth investors and single family office principals. It operates on a paid membership model with regular group meetings, asset allocation sharing, and peer-driven content — making it one of the closest direct competitors to Forge's SFO peer community.
• Institute for Private Investors (CFA Institute): IPI, now part of CFA Institute, serves wealthy investors and family offices with peer networking, research, and educational programming. Comparable to Forge in serving the HNW family office audience with curated educational content and benchmarking.

Others

• Cerulli Associates: Cerulli is a research and consulting firm specializing in institutional and family office markets, producing benchmarking reports and industry studies. Comparable to Forge's research arm (annual compensation and cost benchmarking) but operating as a paid research vendor rather than a peer community.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/the-forge-community

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Forge Community