---
title: Certified Charitologist
group: People and education
order: 1
summary: A nonaccredited self-study completion record today, with a proposed professional credential that would require an independently reviewed exam and portfolio.
status: live
statusNote: A printable nonaccredited course completion record is available from the shared ten-unit course progress. The proposed professional credential, independent exam and two-reviewer portfolio process do not operate.
conditions: [missing-profession]
firstMilestone: Complete the self-study course and capstone to print a completion record. A separately governed professional exam and portfolio pilot still need people and public review.
help:
  - Draft exam questions for one chapter of the Principles of Charitology in an issue labeled program.
  - Volunteer to take the pilot exam by opening an issue labeled program.
  - Critique the list of skills a charitologist should be able to show.
related: [/record/principles/, /programs/principles-course/, /open-problems/the-profession-question/, /contribute/]
sources:
  - title: Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy (CAP)
    publisher: FINRA professional designations database
    url: https://www.finra.org/investors/professional-designations/cap
  - title: CFRE International
    publisher: CFRE International
    url: https://www.cfre.org/
---

## What is available now

[Jump to the working completion record](#pc-title).

The completion workspace below uses the same local progress as the [Principles course](/programs/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](/record/principles/): 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](/programs/principles-course/).

## Why it matters for the system

The [Missing Profession](/diagnosis/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](/open-problems/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.