CAE and ACNP: A Unified Body of Knowledge & a Unified Profession
I earned the ASAE Certified Association Executive (CAE) designation in 2015. It took ten years of waiting because the CAE Commission didn’t allow Consultants to take the exam in previous decades; they decided to change that rule in 2014, which meant the May 2015 exam was the first opportunity for consultants to give it a shot. I took that shot and I was one of the candidates who passed the first time.
Since then, I’ve kept my CAE current (I’m in good standing through 2026), but more importantly, I started giving back to the profession in this area almost immediately after passing the exam. My friend Cheryl Ronk, who created and initially facilitated the MSAE course (the one I took to prepare), called me after I passed and asked if I would be a volunteer mentor to individuals preparing for the exam. I said yes, and I’ve been helping colleagues get ready for the CAE Exam ever since. Cheryl now works with me through our Rogue Tulips Education program (formerly The 501c League).
As an ad hoc volunteer, I’ve mentored individuals and study groups, and then I started finding other CAEs to mentor study groups. We helped a lot of people get ready for the exam, and people started asking me why I didn’t charge a fee for study groups because they saw the value in those early incarnations we created. Over time, the quality continued to increase, the service became more refined, and this led to developing courses that focused on key aspects of the CAE Domains of Practice.
We launched one of the first ethics courses when that requirement was put in place by the CAE Commission. I was really glad to see the ethics requirement added but it’s such an important aspect of life that I wish the requirement was three ethics credits for re-certification (one per year). It affects everything we do so we need to work on it.
As I got further away from my own CAE preparation process, I realized I might be forgetting what it is like to study and take an exam. This realization made me a better course facilitator and content designer. I found several certificate programs to take and earned those. Then I learned about the Advanced Certified Nonprofit Professional (ACNP) certification; that’s what those other letters after my name mean. It’s a two-tiered program offered by the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance.
First, it is required that you complete the CNP, which reviews the ten domains of practice informing the CNP studies. Like the CAE, there is a course of study and then an online exam. When you pass the exam, you can apply for the ACNP, which is based on experience, volunteering, and ongoing professional development. If you fill those requirements, you earn the ACNP which is renewed every three years like the CAE.
This second certification confirmed what I theorized before and I often state now: nonprofit management is a unified profession. All 501c organizations operate from a common knowledge base and need similar skills to successfully support any nonprofit, whether it is an association, charity, foundation, or soccer club.
The CAE focuses on 501c6 and c4, while the ACNP focuses on 501c3. To earn both designations is to solidify your foundation of knowledge and helps you understand more clearly what we have in common as these are the most common types of nonprofit organizations. To be a nonprofit management professional means you may specialize in foundations or trade associations, but our specialties still require our common knowledge base. This applies to all 501c organizations; let’s remember there are 27 different types in the IRS Code and they all need professionals who understand the work!
Like attorneys or doctors, we share a profession despite our specialties of practice. We share a career path and a knowledge base. When a profession and the people who practice it are unified, there is no obstacle they cannot overcome.
While you do not have to earn the CAE or ACNP to practice our profession, awareness of these designations raises awareness of what we do. We should take pride in the work we do, and we should do it well. You don’t need to be a CAE or an ACNP to see the difference the Nonprofit Management profession makes, and the difference all of the people who choose this profession make. Let’s stop rolling our eyes because “no one knows what we do for a living”; let’s show them what we do and how we work together on behalf of our organizations and the world.
