---
title: Principles of Charitology Course
group: People and education
order: 4
summary: A free course built on the open textbook Principles of Charitology, with one unit per chapter and exercises that use real tools and data.
status: live
statusNote: Ten-unit browser course with full textbook readings, twenty explained knowledge checks, saved practice notes and capstone, JSON backup and a printable nonaccredited completion record. No independent assessment is claimed.
conditions: [missing-profession]
firstMilestone: Complete all ten units and a capstone, then export a self-study completion record. A study of whether training changes decisions remains future work.
help:
  - Write an exercise or problem set for a published chapter and share it in an issue labeled program.
  - Work through a unit and open an issue labeled program describing what confused you.
  - Teach a unit in your own class and report how it went.
related: [/record/principles/, /record/lexicon/, /programs/certified-charitologist/, /programs/university-chapters/]
---

## Use the working course

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

The course below contains all ten textbook readings, two knowledge questions per unit with explanations, a practice exercise and a worked example. Confirm the reading, answer both questions correctly and save at least 30 characters of practice notes to complete each unit. Finish with a capstone of at least 200 characters. Those length checks record participation; they cannot assess reasoning.

Progress stays in this browser. Export JSON to back it up or move it to another device. The [completion record](/programs/certified-charitologist/) reads the same saved progress. It is nonaccredited and self-study; there is no identity check, proctored exam or human portfolio review. The [complete reading edition](/record/principles/read/) is also available.

## What it is

The Principles of Charitology Course is a free introduction to the field for anyone who gives, works at a nonprofit or advises people who do. It is built on [Principles of Charitology](/record/principles/), the open textbook written one chapter at a time, and it needs no account and no fee.

## How it works

Each chapter of the textbook is the core of a unit with three parts:

- **A reading**, which is the chapter itself, with key terms linked to the [Lexicon](/record/lexicon/).
- **An exercise** that puts the idea to work with a real tool, such as placing a gift on the [depth scale](/method/#depth), comparing frameworks in the [Values Compass](/tools/values-compass/) or estimating what would have happened without a gift.
- **A problem set** with worked answers, so learners can check themselves.

The course ends with a self-study capstone: write up one giving decision, real or hypothetical, using the [Giver’s Checklist](/method/#checklist), and publish it if you choose. Teachers are welcome to use any unit in their own classes.

## Why it matters for the system

The [Missing Profession](/diagnosis/missing-profession/) can’t be fixed by a few experts. A craft spreads when anyone can learn it. A free course cuts the cost of learning charitology down to the time it takes, which matters most for people outside wealthy institutions and countries.

The course also serves the rest of the field. It is the proposed study path for the [Certified Charitologist](/programs/certified-charitologist/) credential, and it is a ready-made curriculum for [Open Problem 17, the Profession Question](/open-problems/the-profession-question/), which asks whether training changes where money goes.

## Risks and limits

A course can teach a method without showing that the method works. That is why each unit is meant to point learners to the open problems it touches, and why Charitology labels its own founding claims as hypotheses.

## What success looks like

Within three years, every published chapter has a full unit and at least ten teachers use the course in their own classes. A randomized study of a short version has tested whether it changes how people give.