What Is NationForge?
NationForge is a Laravel 12 application built by Kévés János that packages the everyday operational needs of a political movement or community group into a single, self-hosted admin panel. The Community Edition is released under the MIT license, and a live demo is available so you can explore the interface before committing to an installation.
Many organizing groups juggle contact lists, event sign-ups, and fundraising across a mix of spreadsheets and third-party SaaS tools. NationForge consolidates those workflows into one Laravel codebase that you run on your own infrastructure, keeping supporter and donor data under your control.
Core Modules in the Community Edition
The Community Edition ships with the modules a campaign or chapter typically needs:
- Contacts (CRM) — People database with status workflows, photo uploads, custom fields, activity logs, donation statistics, and lead scoring.
- Groups — Community, Campaign, and Chapter types with privacy levels, real-time chat, file sharing, and a shared calendar.
- Events — Meetup, Rally, and Webinar types with RSVP tracking, QR code check-in, waitlist management with automatic promotion, and online payments via Stripe or Barion.
- Email Campaigns — HTML and Markdown composition, audience segmentation, drip sequences, and open/click tracking through the Resend API.
- Donations — Donor records, recurring donations, public donation forms, and accounting export.
- Projects and Tasks — Team assignment, timeline view, and task comments.
- Dashboard — Stat cards, Chart.js charts, and scheduled email reports.
Access control is handled through role-based permissions (Super Admin, Admin, Editor, Member), an audit log, and invitation-based registration. Integration options include outgoing webhooks across 12 event types, Google Calendar and iCal sync, Facebook Events sync, and support for Zapier and Make.
Under the hood the stack is Laravel 12, Livewire 3, Tailwind CSS, and Spatie's Laravel Permission and Media Library packages.
Note on translations: NationForge ships files for English, German, Hungarian, Romanian, and Slovak, but the default locale is Hungarian and some admin interface strings may still be untranslated at the time of writing.
Getting Started
NationForge is a standalone application you clone and run — not a Composer package you pull into an existing project. Requirements: PHP 8.2+, Composer, Node.js 18+, and MySQL 8+.
git clone https://github.com/programozas-kft/nationforge-community.git
cd nationforge-community
composer install && npm install
cp .env.example .env
php artisan key:generate
php artisan migrate
php artisan storage:link
npm run build
The repository also provides a composer run setup shortcut that combines the install steps. Refer to the README for full environment configuration details.
Community vs. Pro Edition
NationForge follows an open-core model. Everything described above is available in the free Community Edition. The Pro Edition adds:
- Advanced analytics
- Multi-tenant and white-label hosting
- Two-factor authentication
- REST API
- Document storage
- Survey builder and petition collection
- Volunteer hours tracking
- Priority support and managed hosting
Key Takeaways
- Built on Laravel 12, Livewire 3, and Tailwind CSS with Spatie packages.
- MIT-licensed Community Edition covers CRM, events, donations, email campaigns, and more.
- Self-hosted architecture keeps sensitive supporter and donor data off third-party platforms.
- Integrates with Stripe, Barion, Resend, Google Calendar, Zapier, and Make.
- Requires PHP 8.2+, Node.js 18+, and MySQL 8+.
- Open-core model with a Pro Edition for advanced features.
Source: NationForge: A Self-Hosted Admin Panel for Civic Organizations — Laravel News
