This month's update refocuses our attention on the CFA® Program, giving you a preview of what you’ll see in the coming months and access to tools and resources to equip your society to grow the CFA Program.
My team and I have come away from this season’s Society Leadership Conferences (SLCs) truly rejuvenated and inspired by the collaborative spirit of partnership demonstrated by society leadership. It has been such a pleasure to reconnect with all of you. Our own Leadership Team, Board members, and many colleagues also commented on the remarkable energy and constructive dialogue at each conference. Thank you!
In SLC and other recent conversations about our strategy at CFA Institute, you’ve heard us talk about ways we are diversifying our product portfolio to better serve our members, candidates, and prospective customers, in turn supporting revenue growth that funds our mission.
The recent release of the Climate Finance course, the anticipated February release of the revamped Investment Foundations Certificate, and the development of an expanded membership strategy that considers how we serve, engage, and grow our membership are just a few of the initiatives that speak to those efforts.
Alongside these new offerings and initiatives, we are maintaining a sharp focus on growing the number of CFA Program candidates we serve. Sustaining a healthy New Level I (NL1) pipeline is critical not only for the growth of the CFA Program and our membership base, but also for the future of the profession. We know that building brand awareness and strengthening the relevance of the CFA Program are areas of concern for many of you. And we understand this concern—societies’ membership numbers, marketable audiences, reach, influence, and financials are also impacted by changes in candidate growth.
Societies already play an essential role in helping us raise awareness and build understanding of the value of the CFA Program and charter. This month, I am providing you with more information about how we are addressing NL1 candidate growth in the longer term and short term, and to ask for your help in growing our candidate pool.
Read on for the specifics, or click on the links below to navigate to highlighted resources and opportunities.
Expanding Our University Student Audience
You'll recall that as part of Project Evolve, we are expanding eligibility for the CFA Program to university students to include students with two years—rather than merely one—remaining in their undergraduate studies.
University students are already skilled at studying, interested in enrolling in the CFA Program, and highly motivated to work hard for an edge in the market for internships and employment. Students can therefore use Level I as a signal to employers that they are serious about a career in the investment profession, while employers benefit from having access to a wider pool of more qualified applicants.
Other aspects of the CFA Program will remain the same: Students are required to graduate before their Level II exam date, and work experience requirements to qualify for regular membership after passing Level III will remain at 4,000 hours earned in a minimum of 36 months.
We are starting our promotion of this policy change with a paid media campaign in select markets to drive awareness of the CFA Program to the expanded university student audience. We have also updated the home page of our enterprise site and are posting messages tailored to this audience to our own social media channels.
We recognize that our societies have different levels of engagement with university programs, professors, and students in their areas and may not have felt equipped in the past to conduct their own outreach. Societies that are connected with universities in your area will be particularly well suited to support getting the word out. Your efforts could complement the global campaign, adding a boost and reach into local markets. What follows is a preview of what you can expect to see—and tools to support your outreach to this new audience—both now and in the coming months.
Social Media Toolkit to Reach University Students
To supplement the paid media campaign mentioned above, we have developed a social media toolkit that your society can leverage this month and into December to inspire students to begin their CFA Program journey.
How You Can Participate: We invite you to use the social media toolkit, which includes recommended dates starting this week, along with copy and images reflective of the university audience for immediate use on your social media accounts.
Global Student Resource Hub
We are developing a global student landing page that offers an introduction to CFA Program along with career planning tools, all geared toward a university student audience. The landing page will encourage students to opt in to our communications in order to access valuable decision making content.They will then be included in our nurture campaigns that encourage them to enroll in the CFA Program.
How You Can Participate: Once the page is live in December, we will provide recommendations on where and how it can be used in society materials.
Launching Two Webinar Offerings
Candidate Live Webinar
In January, CFA Institute will host a live webinar featuring candidates who began the CFA Program as students during last year’s initial eligibility expansion. They will speak about why they enrolled in the CFA Program, how they're preparing for exams while balancing work and family demands, and what support they're receiving from employers. A social media-based campaign promoting the webinar will aim to attract university students and early-career professionals who may not have heard of the CFA Program through university outreach.
How You Can Participate: We will share more information and promotional assets in the weeks before the webinar so you can help spread the word.
Webinars for University Students
We will also host webinars for university students about the CFA Program, beginning in February 2023. Members of the University Relations and Credentialing teams at CFA Institute plan to work with societies and regional contacts to host webinars for university students in key subregional markets.
How You Can Participate: Please keep an eye out in the coming weeks for ways your society can participate in these webinars—from helping source star speakers, to helping promote the sessions, to cohosting the events, and more.
Key Dates
It’s important to time your outreach against CFA Program registration deadlines—we have found that creating urgency around an approaching deadline is an effective way to drive registrations. Additionally, we recommend that most societies promote the August window to the university student audience, as this the optimal time for many students around the world to sit for the exam (before they begin a new year of studies).
Please refer to the table below for key dates to keep in mind as you plan your outreach.
Engaging Employed Candidates
Marketing Toolkit Targeting Investment Professionals
In addition to the university student audience, we continue our outreach to investment professionals who would benefit from the CFA Program. To help you reach working investment professionals, we’ve provided a toolkit that includes creative assets aligned to the global brand, social copy, email banners, and tracked links promoting the CFA Program.
The CFA Program social tiles promote the Readiness Assessment, an interactive tool that helps candidates gauge whether they should enroll in the CFA Program, and early registration deadlines to prospective CFA Program candidates.
How You Can Participate: We encourage you to use the toolkit throughout the year and update the recommended copy with upcoming deadlines (see above).
My Charter Story Podcast
Season 2 of our My Charter Story podcast will feature stories from society leaders around the world who will share not only the challenges they overcame to become CFA charterholders but also the impacts they’ve made in their local markets and the global community since earning the charter. The goal is to inspire candidates to persist through the program and to access their local society for community and support.
How You Can Participate: If you have a unique story to tell about how you persevered through the CFA Program, please complete our short application. To promote this podcast, look for more information and marketing materials to be shared in the new year.
Additional Brand Building Opportunities
Engage with Our Social Media Posts
Following our enterprise social channels—from both our CFA Institute and CFA Program handles—and engaging with our posts from your personal or society account is an easy way to amplify the reach of CFA Institute. Our live Twitter feeds are embedded on the home page of Connexions so you can easily see the content we are featuring.
How You Can Participate: Because our marketing team often runs similar content across our LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram feeds, you can use your platform of choice—or better yet, the platform your users visit most—and like, comment, share, and repost directly from our feeds.
Thank you to the societies who amplified the reach of our May early registration deadline post on LinkedIn!
Share Your Success
Our CFA Society network is absolutely critical in providing our prospective and existing candidates the local relationships, networks, career support, and educational opportunities that complement CFA Institute’s offerings and which we cannot deliver alone.
How You Can Participate: We are eager to hear more about the ways you’ve engaged candidates in your local markets and the lessons you’ve learned. Reach out to us, and we will work with you directly to highlight your efforts so we can share your insights with the CFA Society network. We will also provide the entire network opportunities for you to share your ideas and plans for engaging candidates, and to ask how we can support you.
Working together, we can continue to build our candidate base and expand our influence—for the ultimate benefit of society.
MEMBERSHIP
Special Member Rates for Professional Learning Products in December
We are pleased to announce that from 1 to 31 December, CFA Institute is offering a USD 75 discount on all our Professional Learning courses, excluding Climate Finance. To learn more about our range of offerings and promote them to your members, download our product portfolio and one-page product flyers. Members will be informed of this promotion on our enterprise site and through email and social outreach. We have also developed promotional assets for societies to use for their members. Access the materials here.
PROFESSIONAL LEARNING
Changes to Certificate in ESG Investing Take Effect 1 December
Don’t forget! The following changes to the Certificate in ESG Investing will take effect 1 December:
- changes to the curriculum content and exam format and the availability of the curriculum in the LES
- a change in the window to schedule and sit for the exam (from 12 months to 6 months)
- cost increases (registration will go from $675 to $795; retake fees will go from $475 to $595)
- a pause in exams in January 2023
Societies promoting the ESG Certificate on their websites should review and change any content relating to the certificate that reflects outdated information. Our product marketing team is working on updates to society marketing materials; look for those to be delivered soon.
RESEARCH, ADVOCACY, AND STANDARDS
New Report and Promotional Assets: "Fun and Games”