CFP Board Announces New Women’s Initiative Endowed Scholarship

CFP Board Center for Financial Planning (“Center”) today announced the launch of an endowed scholarship program in recognition of the 10th anniversary of CFP Board’s Women’s Initiative (WIN): the WIN Endowed Scholarship program.

WIN launched in 2013 to address the challenge of the underrepresentation of women in the financial planner workforce. The WIN Endowed Scholarship program supports the next generation of women CFP® professionals who are committed to the practice of financial planning. The scholarship will assist qualified women students and professionals who are seeking to complete the education coursework required for attaining CFP® certification.

“By becoming financial planners, women can empower themselves and other women to take control of their finances and achieve financial independence. They can help educate women about financial literacy, investment strategies and retirement planning, which can be particularly valuable in a society where women often face financial challenges and inequalities,” said CFP Board CEO Kevin R. Keller, CAE. “The WIN Endowed Scholarship program will help to ensure that talented and motivated women have the support they need to pursue a career in financial planning and earn their CFP® certification.”

The WIN Endowed Scholarship program will award up to $5,000 per qualified student seeking to complete an undergraduate-level or a certificate-level CFP Board Registered Program. Upon completing the required education coursework, scholarship recipients will be eligible to take the CFP® exam and pursue the next steps to attain CFP® certification.

At a time when women make up over half of the U.S. population, only 23.6% of all CFP® certificants are women. CFP Board’s 2022 class of new CFP® certificants represented the most diverse class in history, hitting an all-time high with 1,519 new women CFP® professionals. CFP Board is seeing some improvement in the number of women CFP® professionals, with women representing nearly 30% of all new CFP® professionals in 2022, but there is still much work to be done.

“Welcoming more women into the financial planning profession is good for women, good for the profession and good for business,” said Nancy Kistner, CFP®, a past Chair of CFP Board (2013) and Founding Chair of WIN Council. “I’m proud of the work of the WIN Council and WIN advocates as we continue to encourage women to pursue a CFP® certification.”

Under Kistner’s leadership, CFP Board launched WIN in 2013 with the aim to attract, develop and advance women in financial planning by providing educational resources, networking opportunities and advocacy for gender diversity. That same year, the WIN Council, a panel composed of women leaders from across the financial planning ecosystem, was formed to provide guidance and feedback on the initiative’s programs.

Since its inception, WIN has hosted numerous events, conducted research on the status of women in the financial planning profession and published several reports, including the Women’s Initiative Study. Developed from the recommendations in the study, the WIN Advocate program features hundreds of volunteer CFP® professionals who work in their communities to encourage more women to consider the career. The WIN mentorship program was created to support women studying for CFP® certification, and its success has led to an expansion of the program to include all CFP® professionals studying for certification as well as the addition of men as mentors.

The WIN Endowed Scholarship program is the second endowed scholarship offered by CFP Board, following last year’s creation of the LeCount R. Davis, CFP® Scholarship, which honors the first Black CFP® professional.

This new endowed scholarship program is made possible by the generous donations of CFP® professionals, firms and supporters who share CFP Board’s commitment to advancing women in financial planning. The Center is raising $250,000 for the WIN Endowed Scholarship program before issuing the scholarship awards.

Further information about the WIN Endowed Scholarship will be available at CFP.net/Scholarships. Individuals and firms interested in supporting the endowed scholarship should contact Institutional Giving Officer Dan Limbago at [email protected] or 202-864-5250.