Give someone a certificate for a workshop, an event or an award
Course certificates go out when a learner finishes (Give learners a certificate when they finish my course). This page is for everything else: the people who came to your spring retreat, the students who sat an in-person workshop, a client who reached a milestone worth marking.
The prompt
“Give everyone tagged [tag] a certificate for [what they did, for example: Attended the Spring doula retreat]. The reason is [one sentence].”
Signed in, Get my prompt fills in your site for you. Otherwise press Copy and fill in the [bracketed] parts. First time? Connect your AI to bernard once: Use your own AI (opens in a new tab).
How it works
- Say what it is for. Write the title as it should print, in your own words: “Attended the Spring doula retreat”, “Level 1 practical assessment”, “1,000 hours of practice”.
- Say who. One person by name, several people, everyone carrying a tag in your contacts, or one of your saved lists.
- Give a reason. One sentence, such as “attended the 12 September workshop”. It goes into the record with the certificate.
- Check the list. bernard shows you who would get one, and anyone it would skip. Nothing is issued until you approve.
Who gets skipped, and why
bernard never prints an email address or a single first name as someone’s name. A person whose record has only an email or a first name is skipped and named, so you can add their full name and try again.
A saved list reaches the people it would email, so anyone on it who has opted out of your email is left out, and bernard tells you so. To include them, give certificates by name or by tag instead.
Asking twice for the same thing, with the same wording, never gives anyone a second copy.
Handing it over in person
Normally bernard emails each person their certificate once it has printed, with the PDF attached and a link to its check page (How does someone check that a certificate I gave is real?). If you are handing certificates out on the day, say so, and bernard issues them without that email. Each one still gets its own certificate number, its own check page and shows on the person’s contact record like any other (Email everyone who has a certificate for one of my courses).
A certificate is your statement
bernard prints exactly what you write. It does not accredit anything, and a certificate from bernard makes no claim about any awarding body. If your course is accredited, your own accreditation line can be part of the design (Put my logo, my signature and my colours on the certificate).
Questions people ask
- Does the person need to be enrolled on a course?
- No. Anyone in your contacts can be given a certificate. You write what it is for, and the same design and certificate number rules apply as for a course.
- Why does bernard ask me for a reason?
- A certificate with no course behind it is a statement you are making, so the record keeps one sentence saying why, for example ‘attended the 12 September workshop’. It is part of the certificate’s history.
- Can I check the list before anyone gets one?
- Yes, and bernard always shows it first. It lists who would get a certificate, who already has one and who would be skipped, and it issues nothing until you approve the list.
- How many people can I give certificates to at once?
- Up to 500 in one go. For more, split them, for example by a narrower tag.
- Can I give a certificate to a learner who finished on my old platform?
- Yes. Give it for that course by hand with a reason such as ‘finished on our previous platform in 2025’. Certificates from another platform are not copied across when your courses move.