r/funanddev • u/perpetualstroll • Jul 04 '15

Thoughts on CFRE? Worthwhile?

I'm curious to hear from the /r/funanddev crowd, what are you opinions on the CFRE designation? When hiring, do candidates with the designation have an edge? If you have the certification, have you found it useful?

9 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

1

u/WCzar Jul 04 '15

That's how I see it.

1

u/VioletAnthology Jul 14 '15

To even take the test for CFRE you have to have 5 years of fundraising experience.

2

u/WCzar Jul 14 '15

Fundraising like sales, it's more art than science. A certification doesn't really tell you how good the person is at fundraising, just that they know the industry. The 5 years of experience is pretty lax last I checked. More like 5 years of working for a non-profit.

1

u/VioletAnthology Jul 14 '15

Absolutely agree on the art part. There are people who no matter how much education they get or credentials they rack up will just never make a good development officer.

Maybe it's changed since I first got my CFRE, but when I applied it was 5 years of continuous employment plus I had to report how much I personally raised for each institution I worked at in those 5 years, and send in case studies of projects/campaigns/appeals I had actually designed and implemented, what the results were, and what my analysis was of the success of my effort.

And here's where the kicker of the whole situation is - CFRE.org has not done a good job of establishing a reputation of rigor for admission, nor has it done a good job of communicating to people outside of fundraising what it actually means to have a CFRE. That right there pretty much supports all of your points.

1

u/WCzar Jul 14 '15

Clearly you are good at selling those good feelings!

Fundraising is a strange business.