Some organizational acronyms pretty much don’t need too much thought. In the food industry, most of us are familiar with IHOP and KFC. In the federal government, you typically don’t have to tell someone the full name of agencies such as NASA or EPA. However, in the auditing world, did you know that there are now two organizations with the acronym AICPA? Don’t get confused; they’re linked together.

For years, the primary auditing standards organization has been the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). However, AICPA this year has joined forces with the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) to form a new affiliate known as the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants. According to its description, this new AICPA aims to “power opportunity, trust and prosperity for people, businesses and economies worldwide,” adding that it “represents 650,000 members and students in public and management accounting and advocates for the public interest and business sustainability on current and emerging issues. With broad reach, rigor and resources, the association advances the reputation, employability and quality of CPAs, certified global management accountants (CGMAs) and accounting and finance professionals globally.”

Andrew Miskin, the current president of CIMA, is first chair of the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants. This association will be governed by a board of directors composed of CPAs and CGMAs responsible for overseeing strategies that advance the organization’s objectives. The board will be led by either the president of CIMA or chairman of the AICPA on a rotating basis. The website for this new association is http://www.aicpaglobal.com/.

We thought we’d bring this to your attention in case you were attending the American Institute of Certified Public Accountant’s Not-for-Profit conference this week in the Washington, D.C. area and heard mention of this new AICPA. Don’t worry, the association is not changing its name. We do want to let our subscribers to Thompson’s grants publications know that we will be attending this conference of great importance to the auditing and nonprofit communities, so look for future articles from these sessions. And if you are attending, stop by an say hello to any of us from Thompson and Columbia Books and Information Services. We’ll be glad to meet you.

Let us know what you think about this new organization. We’d love to hear from you.