What is available now
Jump to the working completion record.
The completion workspace below uses the same local progress as the Principles course. Finish its ten readings, twenty knowledge checks, practice notes and capstone to unlock a printable course completion record. You can back up or import that progress with JSON.
The record is explicitly nonaccredited self-study. It does not verify identity, independently assess reasoning or confer the proposed Certified Charitologist professional credential. Do not present it as that credential.
The proposed professional credential
The charter below describes a future exam and human portfolio review. Neither has been established by publishing this workspace.
What it is
A craft needs a way to recognize people who can do the work. Certified Charitologist would be that recognition for the craft of aiming generosity. It is meant for donors, nonprofit staff, foundation officers and the advisors who help people give.
Credentials already exist for neighboring work. The Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy is a designation from The American College of Financial Services, and CFRE certifies fundraising professionals. Certified Charitologist would cover a different question: where generosity does the most good, across causes, methods and moral frameworks.
How it works
The credential would have two parts. The first is an open exam built on the Principles of Charitology: the depth scale, counterfactual thinking, evidence grades, moral frameworks and the conditions of the charity system. The second is a portfolio: a published analysis of one real giving decision, reviewed by two experienced reviewers against public criteria.
Certified charitologists would agree to a short code built on the Charitology Standard: describe mechanisms and never judge people, label every claim honestly and disclose any conflict of interest. The exam would be free, and its study path is the free Principles of Charitology Course.
Why it matters for the system
The Missing Profession is a hypothesis. Charitology claims that a trained craft would change where money goes, the way medicine changed how illness is treated. A credential is how a craft becomes visible, so donors and employers can find people trained in it.
It is also how the hypothesis gets tested. Open Problem 17, the Profession Question, asks whether training changes decisions. Certified and uncertified advisors facing the same choices make a natural comparison.
Risks and limits
A credential can turn into a gate, and gatekeeping is one of the problems Charitology studies. The certificate would never be required to contribute, publish or call yourself a charitologist. It would only say that someone has shown they know the method.
What success looks like
Within five years, the exam and portfolio criteria are public and a few hundred people have earned the credential. A published study has compared their decisions with those of advisors without it.
Your course completion record
Free self-study. Progress stays in this browser. This is not an accredited qualification or an independently reviewed professional credential.
Saving is blocked or full. Export your progress before leaving this page.
Read or print the complete textbook
Complete all ten units in the Principles course. This page reads the same local progress. It does not award the proposed professional credential or claim that reviewers assessed your work.
Charitology · Principles of Charitology
Certificate of course completion
Completed the ten-unit self-study course, its knowledge checks, practice notes and capstone.
Nonaccredited · Self-study record · Identity and reasoning not independently assessed · No professional certification or permission to rate charities is conferred.
The completion record unlocks after all ten units pass and the capstone is saved. Each unit needs both correct answers, a reading confirmation and practice notes.