Forbes Councils

Forbes Councils is a group of nine paid, application-vetted online communities carrying the Forbes brand: the Agency, Business, Business Development, Coaches, Communications, Finance, Human Resources, Nonprofit and Technology Councils. The membership agreement identifies The Community Company, a Delaware corporation trading as Community.co, as the owner and operator; the councils are commercially separate from the Forbes newsroom, and the sites carry a Forbes Councils, LLC notice. Each council publishes a financial or professional test. The senior-level councils require a business generating at least US$1,000,000 in annual revenue or that has received at least US$1,000,000 in financing; the Business Council uses a US$500,000 revenue or funding threshold; the Nonprofit Council requires a 501(c) organisation with at least US$500,000 in annual revenue or donations; and the Coaches Council requires at least three years as a publicly recognised coach. Applications are screened by a selection committee, and meeting the threshold does not guarantee acceptance. Members pay an annual membership fee, plus a one-time initiation fee where applicable; neither amount is published. The benefits are chiefly editorial: bylined articles and Expert Panel contributions published on Forbes.com, an executive profile, a member directory, interest groups, virtual events, a mobile app, membership badges and a third-party travel and lifestyle benefits programme.

How it works

Applicants pick a council, complete an online application and are reviewed by a selection committee before receiving a membership invitation. Accepted members buy a one-year or two-year term, which renews automatically unless cancelled in writing within fifteen days of the renewal term beginning. Activity happens in an online portal and mobile app: members contribute to monthly Expert Panel round-ups, publish bylined articles with editorial support, join subject and geography groups, and attend virtual events. Membership is personal to the individual and cannot be transferred to an employer. There are no local chapters and no facilitated confidential forums.

Typical member

Members are owners, founders, C-level executives, partners and vice presidents who lead a region or division, drawn from the industry each council covers. The financial test is set at the company level rather than personal wealth: US$500,000 or US$1,000,000 in annual revenue or capital raised, depending on the council.

These councils are best read as paid media-access products rather than peer-advisory groups, and the commercial structure matters. The membership agreement names The Community Company as owner and operator, and council content sits outside the Forbes newsroom, a distinction readers of a Forbes.com byline do not always make. The published thresholds are real but modest by the standards of most organisations in this database, so selectivity comes mostly from committee review and from the excluded categories: multi-level marketing and direct sales, gambling, adult industries, cannabis, certain link-selling marketing agencies and some cryptocurrency businesses. Pricing is the largest gap. Neither the annual fee nor the initiation fee appears anywhere on the official site, and the figures circulating on affiliate and agency blogs could not be independently verified. Anyone assessing the value should weigh the byline, not the networking.

Editorial analysis by Peer Group Guide editors. It is separated from the record above and follows the editorial policy.