CPD certificates for professional societies and associations
If your society or association runs an annual conference, study days, journal clubs or a webinar programme, you can issue CPD certificates for all of it under your own name. Open CPD gives every attendee a branded certificate and digital badge, and every member a membership certificate, each with a verification link anyone can check.
Can a society accredit its own CPD events?
Yes. In most professions the member chooses relevant CPD and records it, and a respected specialist society is exactly the kind of source their regulator expects to see. Publishing the aims, skills and outcomes of each session under the society's own name is the accreditation step: the society stands behind its programme, and every certificate can be verified.
Societies that want to go further can extend that to the wider field, accrediting courses run by others against their own standard. Open CPD supports both.
What does a society's CPD programme need from a certificate platform?
Certificates for many sessions at once after a conference, often with different hours per delegate. Automatic certificates for recorded talks in a members' area. Membership certificates for each renewal. And the society's own branding throughout, so the certificate strengthens the society's name rather than someone else's.
Why does this suit societies run by small teams?
Many specialist societies are run by a few staff or volunteer officers alongside clinical or professional work. Open CPD takes certificates off their list: one CSV after the conference, or an automatic connection to the members' platform, and the job is done.
How a two-day society conference issues CPD certificates
A specialist society runs a two-day annual conference with parallel sessions, then publishes the recordings in its members' area.
- 1Day one plenaries and workshops
- 6 hours
- 2Day two parallel sessions, by delegate
- Up to 5 hours
- 3Hours per delegate taken from session scanning or booking
- One CSV column
- 4Certificates and badges for every delegate
- One upload
- 5Members who watch recordings later
- Certificate on completion
Result: every delegate receives a certificate showing their own hours and the outcomes of the sessions they attended, under the society's name, verifiable online.
How do certificates reach your members?
After an event, upload one CSV of delegates and their hours. For a members' area or online learning platform, connect it through Zapier, Zoho Flow or the Open CPD API. Membership certificates can be issued at each renewal in the same way. You pay per certificate issued, with no per-course fee.
See how it works, the course platform connections and what you can say about recognition.
Questions professional societies and associations ask
Can our society award CPD for its own conference?
Yes. A society can award CPD for its own events. With Open CPD the society publishes the aims, skills and outcomes of each session under its own name, and every certificate carries a verification ID. You can describe the certificates as powered by Open CPD.
Can delegates receive different CPD hours for the same event?
Yes. When delegates attend different sessions, include each delegate's hours in the upload and each certificate shows that person's own total.
Can we issue membership certificates as well as CPD certificates?
Yes. Open CPD issues membership certificates alongside CPD certificates, each with the society's branding and a verification link members can share.
Can our society accredit courses run by other providers?
Yes. A society can set its own standard and publish courses from other providers that meet it, with certificates that show both names. Talk to us about how to set that up for your field.
Related guides
Your society's name, on every certificate
See how a conference upload, a members' area connection and membership certificates fit together, in a short call.