Governance and Candidate Policies for Certified Military Financial Professional (CMFP)

We are seeking support from a Taproot volunteer to help develop a core set of governance and candidate-facing policies for the Certified Military Financial Professional, or CMFP, certification program.

CMFP is being designed as a professional certification for financial professionals who serve Veterans, Service members, military spouses, survivors, caregivers, and military families. As we prepare the program for launch and future accreditation readiness, we need clear, consistent, candidate-facing policies that support fairness, transparency, accessibility, and program integrity.

For this project, we are requesting assistance with drafting and organizing the following priority policies:

Eligibility Policy
Application Review Policy
Exam Administration Policy
Scoring Policy
Retesting Policy
Appeals Policy
Complaints Policy
Confidentiality Policy
Nondiscrimination Policy
Reasonable Accommodation Policy

The volunteer would help us turn our existing framework, notes, and certification program structure into polished draft policies that can be reviewed by our leadership team, advisory stakeholders, and legal/compliance partners as needed. We are not asking the volunteer to provide legal advice or final approval. Instead, we are seeking help with policy structure, plain-language drafting, consistency across documents, and alignment with common certification program practices.

Specific tasks may include reviewing our current policy outline, recommending a standard policy template, drafting policy language, identifying gaps or unclear areas, and helping organize the final drafts into a usable policy and procedures framework.

The ideal outcome is a complete draft package of 10 core CMFP policies that gives our organization a strong foundation for candidate communications, certification governance, and future accreditation preparation. This project will allow us to move forward with a more professional, consistent, and transparent certification system while keeping the scope manageable for a 10-week volunteer engagement.

CMFP will maintain written policies and procedures governing all major elements of the certification program. These policies will be reviewed periodically and updated as needed to reflect current certification standards, legal requirements, professional practice, and public protection responsibilities. The ideal volunteer will have experience in certification, accreditation, compliance, legal operations, nonprofit governance, human resources, or professional standards development.

This project directly supports our mission by helping CMFP become a trusted, professional credential for financial professionals who serve Service members, Veterans, military spouses, caregivers, survivors, and their families. Too often, military connected households receive financial guidance from well meaning professionals who may not fully understand military pay, VA benefits, disability compensation, survivor benefits, military transition, housing challenges, education benefits, or the unique stressors of military life.

By helping us create the policies and procedures that govern CMFP, the volunteer will strengthen the foundation of a certification program designed to raise the standard of care across the financial services field. These policies will ensure that every candidate understands the rules of the program, every decision is made consistently, and the credential is managed with fairness, transparency, accountability, and public protection in mind.

The impact of this work will extend far beyond a set of documents. It will help build a credible certification pathway for professionals who want to better serve the military and Veteran community. In turn, more families will have access to informed guidance from professionals who are trained, tested, and held to clear standards. The volunteer’s time and talent will help us move CMFP closer to accreditation readiness and closer to our larger goal: ensuring military connected families receive guidance that is accurate, current, ethical, and worthy of their service. To prepare, we've designated a team member to oversee the project that will ensure your time is never wasted. The volunteer should expect to spend 3-5 hours a week for approximately 10 weeks.

We will set this project up for success by giving the volunteer a clear scope, strong internal support, and direct access to the materials needed to draft the policy framework efficiently. Our leadership team has already identified the policies required to support the CMFP certification program and understands that these documents are essential to accreditation readiness, candidate transparency, legal consistency, and public protection.

Before the project begins, we will provide the volunteer with the CMFP program overview, draft certification structure, intended candidate journey, exam and recertification concepts, accreditation goals, and the full list of required policies. A designated team member will serve as the point of contact, schedule check ins, answer questions quickly, and review drafts in a timely manner.

Once completed, the policies will be incorporated into the CMFP candidate handbook, website, application process, and electronic course materials so every person seeking the credential can understand the rules, expectations, rights, responsibilities, and protections tied to certification. The final work product will directly support CMFP’s accreditation file and become part of the long term governance system for maintaining a fair, consistent, and credible certification program.