Professional Certificate Offered to Planned-Giving Specialists

By Brad Wolverton

The Association of Fundraising Professionals announced last month that it will collaborate with the

American College, a financial-education institution, to offer training courses in planned giving and estate planning.

Fund raisers and financial-services professionals who complete the 12-week course, which costs about $700, will receive a continuing-education certificate from the college.

“We hope to bring fund raisers and financial-services professionals together to help them gain a better understanding of one another,” says Richard B. Chobot, a senior vice president for the Association of Fundraising Professionals, an Alexandria, Va., organization that represents 26,000 fund raisers.

The Philadelphia chapter of the association helped to organize the first class, “Charitable Giving,” which has attracted 32 people this semester to the American College campus, in Bryn Mawr, Pa. The association, however, expects most people to take future classes online. About 35,000 people a year take continuing-education courses at the American College, with 95 percent doing so online.

Two other institutions also offer continuing-education training in planned giving. The National Planned Giving Institute at the College of William & Mary, in Williamsburg, Va., and the American Institute for Philanthropic Studies at California State University’s Long Beach campus, also award certificates to people who complete courses in planned giving. Neither of those colleges offers the courses online.

For more information about the program at the American College, visit http://www.amercoll.edu.

These 14 organizations offer the Certified Fund Raising Executive test to their members:
Association for Healthcare Philanthropy
Association of Christian Development Professionals
Association of Fundraising Consultants
(United Kingdom)
Association of Fundraising Professionals
Association of Lutheran Development Executives
Association of Philanthropic Counsel
Canadian Association of Gift Planners, or Association
canadienne des professionnels en dons planifiés
Council for Resource Development
Fundraising Institute — Australia
Fundraising Institute of New Zealand
International Catholic Stewardship Council
National Catholic Development Conference
North American YMCA Development Organization
Philanthropic Service for Institutions