It’s been one year since CFA Institute and CFA Society of the United Kingdom kicked off globalization efforts for the Certificate in ESG Investing — and what a year it’s been.
At all levels—individuals, employers, and institutions—we are seeing significant interest in incorporating ESG factors in investment decisions, and we expect the trend of professional development and up-skilling in this area to continue. In 2021, we saw over 10,700 new registrations for the Certificate and are well-positioned to meet even more demand in the market in 2022. Investment professionals in every role—from portfolio managers to risk analysts, account managers to financial planners—are seeing the value of this program.
GROWING DEMAND
We started the year with 26 societies choosing to promote the Certificate, eight of which were pilot markets. Since then, we’ve seen a lot of organic growth, even within our own network. We now have 72 societies set up to promote the Certificate and are beginning to see traction among registrants from employers and universities as part of our B2B efforts. Meanwhile, registrants come from nearly every society market—with over half in areas where we aren’t actively promoting the program.
Through our B2B strategy, we’re building a base of companies who know what the Certificate in ESG Investing is and why it’s relevant and valuable, thereby creating or expanding the demand that local societies can then meet. Many societies have already hosted presentations to their members and have collaborated with our Institutional Relations colleagues on outreach to firms. We’re looking forward to partnering with societies and institutions on the continued global roll-out of the “Know ESG Game,” which has been well-received by institutions across Europe and Asia so far. We expect societies will come up with even more creative and engaging events this year.
Friendly competition has arisen among the societies formally promoting the Certificate, who receive quarterly highlights of the leaderboard by market. All societies have the opportunity to view their Certificate registration data in Salesforce. CFA Society of the United Kingdom, who developed the Certificate and transitioned it operationally to CFA Institute in September, still leads with registrations from the UK, while other fast-growing markets like Singapore and Hong Kong are excelling in the APAC region. Societies in Switzerland, Toronto, New York, France, and Spain continue to see strong results for their efforts.
EQUIPPING SOCIETIES FOR MARKETING SUCCESS
As we’ve scaled the number of societies formally promoting the Certificate in ESG Investing and benefiting from its revenue share, we’ve scaled our resources to maximize success.
Our internal teams have developed two toolkits, for Marketing and Institutional Relations, to make marketing the program as turnkey as possible.
The toolkits have everything societies need to promote the Certificate in ESG Investing in their markets, including webpage content, social media and email campaigns, a PPT presentation, and more. The materials contain unique tracking links that make it easy to gather metrics on what’s working for each society. For example, we’ve learned that societies are yielding the most traffic through their society websites and email campaigns.
PARTICIPATION CAN BE MUTUALLY BENEFICIAL
There are several benefits a society can realize from both formally and informally promoting the Certificate in ESG Investing. When CFA Society of the United Kingdom created the Certificate, they intended to allow societies to benefit from its success by being able to share revenue for promoting it. We recognize that, while valuable, the revenue share may not offer significant cash flow to many societies.
However, regardless of whether a society chooses to formally participate, all societies benefit from having rich data on ESG candidates, the vast majority of whom are not CFA charterholders. Candidates could first be introduced to what the society is doing locally from a continuing education and programming standpoint. From there, societies could cultivate volunteers and members from their cohort of ESG candidates, eventually offering programming or mentorship opportunities for future candidates with Certificate-holding members. There are a great many possibilities for these ESG candidates and their connection to societies. As you have successes in registering candidates and building relationships with Certificate-holders, we’d love to hear your ESG-related success stories!
FORMAL PARTNERSHIP UPDATE
In the past year, we have learned a lot from our global marketing efforts and the operational transition of the Certificate in ESG Investing to CFA Institute. Over the past month, we have revised the Certificate’s member society agreement for formal promotion and revenue share to reflect a few changes, including the removal of CFA Society of the United Kingdom as a party to the agreement as planned. We have simplified and shortened the overall contract and made the minimum service standards more explicit, similar to the approach we’ve taken when societies can help promote events, like the Alpha Summit. Deploying the marketing material is essential to a successful campaign, and the minimum service standards include implementing an ESG webpage or module on their society website, deploying the email marketing campaign, and hosting two promotional events/info sessions.
For the new contracts, revenue sharing levels will remain the same, though the payment terms will shift from quarterly to semi-annual payments starting in September 2022. If your society is already contractually participating in promoting the Certificate in ESG Investing, be on the lookout for more information about what action needs to be taken on the updated contract. Newly onboarded societies will also receive this updated contract if they wish to formally participate.
OPEN CALL TO PARTICIPATE IN PROMOTION
In line with our Society Operating Model, over the last year we’ve learned that formally promoting the Certificate in ESG Investing is a better fit for societies that have sufficient bandwidth and existing market opportunities. For any society that wants to promote the Certificate in your market, either formally or informally, and isn’t today, we are thrilled you are interested. Your Society Relationship Manager can share more information and help onboard your society. Please note the Certificate is not available in Mainland China.
I want to extend my thanks to the 70+ societies who are already well underway with promotional efforts as well as CFA Society of the United Kingdom, who has been a fantastic partner. We look forward to the Certificate in ESG Investing continuing to gain momentum across the world, equipping a generation of investment professionals to invest responsibly. We hope that our experience partnering with societies to promote this important educational product proves a test case for future product offerings. Onward and upward!
CREDENTIALING AND CANDIDATE SUPPORT
Application Window for Access Scholarships Closing Soon
The first Access Scholarship application window for 2022 will close on 14 February. Awards will be made no later than 31 March. For more information regarding the updates to the Access Scholarship, read this article or reference the recent staff training presentation on Society Center (Training & Town Halls tile > Society Staff Training).
CFA Institute will promote this application cycle on our social channels. Find the posting schedule, as well as images, copy, and links that you can post on your society's own social channels, on Society Center (Candidates tile > Scholarships).
February 2022 CFA Exam Dates
Mark your calendars with the following windows for the February 2022 CFA exams:
- Level I: 15-21 February
- Level II: 22-26 February
MEMBERSHIP
Expanded Member/Charterholder Benefit: MSCI Dataset
The Investment Data Alliance is a partnership between the CFA Institute Research Foundation and various investment organizations where data and content related to data is shared with investment professionals. In addition to offering members/charterholders access to the Stocks, Bonds, Bills and Inflation (SBBI) dataset, we are pleased to announce the expansion of our dataset offerings to include performance for over 80 MSCI indexes. Explore the newly added dataset now!
Career Tools Promotional Toolkit
The CFA Institute Career Tools platform can help you deliver more value to your members, charterholders, and candidates as they plan their personal and professional goals for 2022. Find out more about this benefit—including what it offers, how you can highlight it on your website, and how it fits with our suite of career offerings—and download our promotional toolkit
OUTREACH
DRC Application Now Open
Be a part of the committee that is responsible for enforcing the Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct.
The application for the CFA Institute Disciplinary Review Committee (DRC) is now open for the term beginning FY23, and we encourage all qualified candidates to apply here.
Those interested in applying should use their CFA Institute credentials to log in and follow the prompts on the screen. For the best experience, we recommend applying from a desktop device.
Find out more about the committee and opportunity on our website, or contact DRCVolunteers@cfainstitute.org for more information.
To download assets, please view the site on a desktop device