Community Forge is an open-source Drupal-based platform designed to help communities establish and manage complementary currency systems such as LETS (Local Exchange Trading Systems) and timebanks. Founded in 2009 by Matthew Slater and Tim Anderson in Geneva, Community Forge provides a complete "Community-in-a-Box" solution that includes all necessary software and tools for managing community exchange platforms. The platform implements mutual credit accounting—a system that tracks IOUs between members rather than functioning as a traditional e-commerce platform—enabling communities to facilitate resource sharing and economic collaboration without traditional currency.
The platform has been deployed across more than 600 communities globally, with particularly strong adoption in Europe and French-speaking regions. Community Forge offers both free and open-source versions for nonprofits as well as customized commercial versions with technical support. The software is maintained by the nonprofit Community Forge association, which also provides free hosting for community instances. The mutual credit module at the heart of Community Forge has been adopted by numerous timebanking initiatives, with Timebanks USA deploying approximately 300 timebanks using Slater's module.
Community Forge continues to evolve to support diverse currency models and community exchange types, from basic LETS to more complex timebanking systems and commercial bartering platforms. The system defines multiple user roles—trader, committee, accountant, local admin, and system—to accommodate different organizational structures and governance models within communities.