ACFE Featured Chapters: South Africa and Dallas Area Chapters

Each year, the ACFE awards the Chapter of the Year to recognize chapters that went above and beyond to grow and serve their membership. These chapters agreed to share their submission form to not only highlight their achievements with the other chapters, but also give ideas to other chapters who may want to duplicate some of their accomplishments.

Choosing the Chapter of the Year is not an easy task. With nearly 200 chapters worldwide, there is always more than one chapter deserving special recognition. Even though we only issued one award, I’d like to recognize a few chapters that submitted a nomination and highlight a few of their achievements. This month, I’d like to focus on and congratulate the South Africa Chapter and Dallas Area Chapter.

South Africa Chapter
The ACFE South Africa Chapter boasts a membership of more than 5,700 members. Their dedicated staff assists their members by working directly with the ACFE to provide invoices to pay their dues. Since the pandemic, their chapter committed to setting aside funds to assist members in paying both their ACFE and chapter dues. As part of their commitment, they regularly remind members when they are close to their expiration date.

In addition to managing their own membership, they assist members in Lesotho, Eswatini, Malawi and Namibia, as well as collaborate with nearby chapters in Botswana, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. In 2021, they were instrumental in establishing the new Madagascar Chapter and continue to support them by helping organize events.

Last year, the South Africa Chapter offered 25 events worth more than 60 CPE credits. Their annual African Fraud Conference was the largest virtual anti-fraud conference outside of the U.S. with more than 1,000 attendees. One of the conference’s key events is a chapter leaders meeting for leaders from all over Africa to discuss ways they can better communicate amongst themselves and how to grow the CFE credential in the continent.

The South Africa Chapter also works closely with students by providing free attendance for students at their African Conference. They are involved in career days/exhibitions at universities and give presentations for students on fraud topics and information on the CFE credential. The chapter even designed a student brochure that they distribute to all local universities to encourage student chapter participation.

Dallas Area Chapter
The Dallas Area Chapter is one of our most consistently active chapters. They won Chapter of the Award in 2010 and the Website of the Year in 2019. They forge close relationships with their 256 members by recognizing new CFEs and inviting them to join a monthly luncheon at no charge, where they are congratulated on becoming certified and provided an ACFE lapel pin. For their associate members, the chapter established and promotes a professional scholarship to cover the cost of the CFE Exam Prep Course. They also provided three additional complimentary CFE Exam Prep Courses to their members.

The chapter hosted 10 events through the year worth 18 CPE credits and promoted two other event opportunities worth an additional 10 CPE credits. They work closely with the Fort Worth ACFE Chapter in promoting events to each other’s members, as well as offering their member rate to the other chapter’s members.

The Dallas Area Chapter is heavily involved in promoting the CFE credential to students. In 2021, they donated $20,000 to the ACFE Foundation. They also provided $7,000 in local scholarships to two accounting students in nearby schools. The recipients also received a CFE Exam Prep Course, Exam Fee, and one-year membership, courtesy of the Dallas Area Chapter. They visit nearby universities in North Texas and discuss career opportunities for CFEs. Also, in partnership with a local student chapter, the Dallas Area Chapter established an intern program whereby selected students participate in board activities, prepare an internal audit work plan, and perform an audit of the Chapter’s books and records.

They are also heavily involved with community service projects. In 2021, they participated in a Food and Toy Drive Donation Drive. In addition to the donations they provided, they approved up to a $3,000 matching donation. In total, between the donation from the chapter and local members, their donation was $8,000.

Board Members volunteered their time working at a local Food Bank by delivering meals. Each volunteer wore a Dallas Area Chapter t-shirt. In addition, they presented at a senior living facility on elder fraud abuse and at a women’s shelter providing information to the facility about support services for domestic violence residents.

South Africa and Dallas Area Chapters do a tremendous job finding new ways to reach their members, and both offer unique benefits. Thank you both for the time you dedicate to organizing events, speaking at universities and the many different ways you give back to the community.