First British CFRE passes announced
Howard Lake | 15 August 2004 | News
Seventy seven per cent of the candidates for the first Certified Fund Raising Executives
(CFRE) exam held in the UK have passed.
The exam was sat in June at London’s Charity Centre by 22 fundraising professionals. According to the Association of Fundraising Consultants, which has brought the CFRE to the UK, “some of the most senior fundraising professionals in Britain” sat the four-hour paper, which tested their practical knowledge in all areas of fundraising.
To take the exam you need to have five years fundraising experience. To qualify candidates need to demonstrate performance in raising funds; keeping up-to-date on professional practice, and undertaking voluntary service.
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In order to retain the CFRE letters after their name, successful candidates must be re-certified every three years. Robin Thomas, who recently sat the exam, explained why he sat the exam: “as a fundraising consultant travelling to clients all over the country, I have little time available to attend training courses that can take
months, sometime years to complete. I chose the CFRE because I could study in my own time, as well as complete the application and examination process in a matter of hours.”
Another successful candidate, Caroline Hutt, said: “Getting the CFRE shows that you are among the best fundraising professionals in the world. I liked the fact that my CFRE would be recognised in the United States or even Canada or Australia.”
About 4,500 fundraising professionals worldwide now hold the CFRE. Andrew Day, Chair of the Association of Fundraising Consultants, said: “We want to raise professional standards and the CFRE offered the best way for time-poor senior fundraisers to demonstrate that they are world class.”
The next CFRE exam will be conducted on 22 October 2004, with four further exam dates scheduled for 2005.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.