Featured Chapters: Twin Cities and Greater Toronto Area Chapters

Earlier this year, we awarded the 2024 Chapters of the Year to the South Africa Chapter and Knoxville Chapter. These chapters went above and beyond to grow their membership and serve their community. To see their accomplishments, we encourage you to review their submission forms.

With nearly 200 chapters, it is never easy choosing the winners of this award since there are so many deserving chapters. I’d like to recognize a couple of chapters that also submitted a nomination form and highlight a few of their achievements. This month, I’d like to focus on and congratulate the Twin Cities Chapter and the Greater Toronto Area Chapter.

Twin Cities Chapter
The Twin Cities Chapter in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota is home to 281 dues-paying members. In 2023, they held 7 events providing 21.5 CPE credits. They offered various training opportunities including a four-hour event on Open Source Investigations, a three-hour ethics event and a 3 CPE credit Wirecard Fraud Scandal joint session with the Central Ohio ACFE Chapter with nearly 200 attendees. They also offered a unique networking event where members met a fiction writer who wrote a suspense novel about a CFE.

Through various outreach campaigns to reach ACFE members where there is no existing chapter, the Twin Cities Chapter has been able to add members from Northern Minnesota, North Dakota and Manitoba, Canada. By offering virtual events, they gave these members an opportunity to get involved in the chapter’s activities.

The Twin Cities Chapter donated $10,000 to the ACFE Foundation for the third consecutive year. The chapter created a CFE Exam Prep Course (Prep Course) Scholarship to award the study materials to deserving students. To apply for a Prep Course, applicants must be an ACFE Associate Member, a member of the Twin Cities Chapter and write a brief essay.

The former chapter president, Jim Lund arranged to speak to a local nursing home and shared the potential dangers of elderly fraud. He educated them on phishing, vishing, romance schemes and other topics related to elderly fraud in the nursing home.

Greater Toronto Area Chapter
The Greater Toronto Area (GTA) Chapter has eleven volunteers serving nearly 200 members in the Greater Toronto area. The chapter leaders stay busy by providing 9 events throughout the year providing 33.5 CPE credits. They are a dedicated group of leaders providing Canadian-focused content to their members.

The GTA Chapter is heavily involved with local students. They participate in career days with Seneca College and actively promote the CFE designation to those seeking careers in the anti-fraud field. The GTA Chapter also started a Student Scholarship Program where they provide CFE Exam Prep Courses to deserving students. They also pay for the exam fees. The scholarship program has become so popular that it expanded to include Seneca College, the University of Toronto and Conestoga College.

The GTA Chapter does an excellent job supporting ACFE’s initiatives in multiple ways. Since they have members on their board who are part of our Law Enforcement and Government Alliance, they can promote the partnership to local members whose organizations would benefit from the partnership. Additionally, they are increasing the footprint of the ACFE by partnering with other professional organizations like the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and the Chartered Business Valuators (CBV).

Thank you to the Twin Cities the Greater Toronto Area Chapters for the time you spend giving back to the members and the community. We look forward to hearing more about your accomplishments in 2024.