Thoughts on the CAE Registered Provider Program

In my message of July 27 (“The Ethics of Competition”) I shared my thoughts about my past participation as a CAE Approved Provider in the previous program and why I thought it was important to be part of it.  At the time I joined the previous CAE Provider program, I was excited about the step towards requiring ethics education for CAEs. In that message, I also shared my concerns about the new program.

The CAE is a valuable asset for our profession that could be used to promote us to the world at large and set us apart as a unique profession. But, rather than a rallying cry for elevating the profession and uniting it, more often than not the CAE is used as a way to make money.

This occurs in many areas, and I am not laying the blame on one individual or one organization. I also make money from the CAE designation because unfortunately I am not a wealthy philanthropist – at least not yet. So, save the angry postcards dear readers – I know full well that I also have a splinter in my eye. I would love to remove the plank from our profession’s eye though. (See my message of September 29, 2022, “Commentary: Are we Elevating our Profession? Or Just Ourselves?”

In February 2022, I noticed the ASAE CAE Candidate Collaborate community was pretty quiet. I posted a note asking why people thought there was a lack of interest in the CAE program at that time. Messages started flowing, noting everything from the perception that the program is “extortionist” to discouraged comments about the unethical behavior of some CAEs in the community.

Our leaders, though, instead of responding to the perceptions that the CAE is “just a racket,” or paying attention to the unethical behavior of professionals in our community, decided to focus on revamping a marketing program. Is marketing really a priority when our profession is drifting ever further into irrelevance?

When we look at this new revamped marketing program, there are higher fees, longer wait times, and a group of yet unnamed volunteers to review the content. I can’t decide if this is most similar to health insurance companies’ procedures for reviewing claims or cable service from Comcast. Unfortunately, it looks like a toss-up at this point with a lack of accurate information at the beginning and a surprise bill at the end (the higher fees).

The messages we have received are that the CAE Commission is seeking to assert quality control. Okay, then why aren’t there any rules or regulations about the content and how it is presented? Sure, they say as long as it relates to the CAE Domains of Practice that’s fine, but that doesn’t guarantee quality. As far as I know, there is no auditing of the courses or the actual presentations. According to the available information, the date, title, and a description of the education is all that is required for review. Again, how does that guarantee quality? And while the committee that will “review the content” is required to have the CAE, are all the presenters of the content required to hold the CAE? Or at least one presenter? Are presenters required to have renewed their credential at least once?

And what about the quizzes for on-demand courses? I haven’t seen any rules or guidelines for those. Since there aren’t any, I made up my own: each quiz must be at least 7 questions and must come directly from the content in each session. You’re welcome.

While I do charge fees for study groups and courses to help nonprofit management professionals prepare for an exam or earn continuing education hours, my commitment is to keep these fees as low as possible so that they are affordable for our colleagues. We deliver high quality and excellent service that includes one-to-one conversations and mentoring as needed. The mission of our education program is to make the nonprofit management profession better and stronger by supporting the individuals who practice our profession. It is not now, nor has it ever been, about making money.

We emphasize ethics for the individual as well as ethics for the organization. Why? Because ethical, well-educated people make a difference. It has nothing to do with money and everything to do with what sort of profession we want to create now and in the future.

We have a collective responsibility to hold ourselves accountable for what happens in our profession, what we accept, and what we ultimately become.