This page will walk you through the accreditation process. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis, so any dates indicated on this page are examples only. If you have any questions, please reach out to us!


IMPORTANT UPDATE: NACC IS NOT CURRENTLY ACCEPTING NEW ACCREDIATION APPLICATIONS. NACC is currently reviewing our accreditation process as our first round of programs approach renewal. We will keep you updated on any changes online or in our newsletter. Thank you for your patience!

Step One:

Application Step One

Intent to undergo accreditation

To begin the accreditation process, please complete Section 1 of the NACC Accreditation Application: Intent to Undergo Accreditation, available below. This is a very brief electronic application that provides us with some basic information and informs us that you wish to undergo accreditation. The application fee is due at the time you submit this initial application. The official interview and data collection cannot begin until the fee and initial application are both received.

An organization must be a member of NACC in order to undergo accreditation. If you are not yet a member of NACC but would like to become accredited, please visit our NACC Membership page to learn more about joining.

This brief application includes basic questions about your program and how you intend to pay. Please review your responses as the spelling you use here will be what appears on your reports, certificates, etc.

Graduate Section One: Intent to Undergo Accreditation

Undergraduate Section One: Intent to Undergo Accreditation

The fees for accreditation are as follows:
Individual graduate or undergraduate degree: $2,400
Dual Application Fee: $4,000 (if you have multiple programs you seek to accredit such as a Masters degree and a Bachelors degree)

Graduate Program Application Fee

Undergraduate Program Application Fee

Dual Program Accreditation Fee

Meet with NACC’s executive director and our accreditation fellow to discuss any questions about the accreditation process, make a tentative timeline, and begin organizing documents.

Step Two

Document Collection

Document Collection and Interview

In this phase of the application process you will be sent a link to share various documents about your program, map out the classes you offer, and answer questions about the degree.

A webinar about preparing documents for collection can be found here.

Documents you will need:

CVs/Resumes

Collect Resumes and CVs for all faculty, lecturers, etc that teach classes for this degree.
Please include the CVs of faculty that are not dedicated to your department, but teach core classes.

Syllabi

Please upload the syllabi for all classes offered as part of the  degree’s core curriculum (if the content has not changed, you only need to add the syllabus for the most recent semester offered)

Please also include elective classes that are part of your degree program, even if not housed within your department.

Please use consistent naming for your syllabi that match how you list your classes in program mapping documents and other parts of the application. This makes it easier for our team and reviewers to learn about your program.

There will be folders in the shared drive that list each of the curricular guidelines, while not necessary, you can place your syllabi under the guidelines that are covered in that course (it’s ok to place the same syllabi under multiple folders if organizing this way).

Program Mapping Documents

You will have a basic excel sheet to list all the core classes for your degree program. Please list those courses and the curricular guidelines that are covered in each one.

If there are any other relevant documents you would like us to review, you can upload those here:

example: semester mapping documents provided to students, marketing materials highlighting your degree, etc.

The Interview:

Schedule Interview

A list of questions will be included in your materials. Prepare notes for each of these questions (they do not have to be fully formatted) and we will use these to guide the interview.

Once we have your notes and documents above, we can schedule the interview.

Interview

During the interview, we want to hear about your experiences and what makes your degree special. No need to prepare any specific responses. We let your notes and documents guide our interview. After the interview we will also walk you through the final application form.

Step Three

Mapping

Curriculum Mapping

This is one of the most detailed parts of the process. You will be sent an application form and go through each of NACC’s Curricular Guidelines. For each guideline you will be asked a series of questions:

  • Not at all
  • Covered as an objective in a course but not central to our mission and objectives
  • Covered in assignments but not central
  • Covered in an extra-curricular program or project that students take part in
  • Central to the program’s mission and core learning objectives

Provide a narrative (under 500 words) explaining how that guideline is fits and is described in your mission and core learning objectives

  • Courses

  • Learning Objectives

  • Course Assignments

  • Extra-Curricular or Non-Course Activities

Within that guideline, are there core learning objectives, specific class objectives, or assignments that are particularly noteworthy or distinctive.

Reviews

External Reviewers

External Review

After you complete the program mapping application you are done!

We will bring in two external reviewers that will use the documents submitted and your program mapping to see how you cover each of NACC’s curricular guidelines.

All our external reviewers are volunteers from the nonprofit/philanthropic academic field. Therefore their availability can vary, we appreciate your patience as they balance their schedules with this task.

Accreditation Report

Review and Draft Accreditation Report

Report Creation and Publication

We will then use all previous parts of the application process to create your official accreditation document. Once drafted we will send it to you for any comment, appeals, or questions for 30-60 days.