For Immediate Release: August 20, 2026

Contact: Jessica Koth, 262-814-1536, JKoth@NFDA.org

NFDA is pleased to announce the finalists for the 2026 NFDA Innovation Award: Chptr, The Impression Vault, Tukios and WellTold. Four finalists are being recognized this year due to a tie in the judges’ scoring. The winner will be announced October 26 during the Opening General Session of the 2026 NFDA International Convention & Expo in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Since 2009, the NFDA Innovation Award has recognized funeral service suppliers and vendors that bring originality, creativity and thoughtful problem-solving to the profession. This year’s finalists offer distinctly different approaches to innovation, with products that expand opportunities for memorialization, strengthen community connections and use technology to support funeral professionals in their work with families.

The finalists for the 2026 NFDA Innovation Award, in alphabetical order, are:

Chptr – Chptr Local Media Distribution Network

Chptr gives funeral homes a new way to share obituary and memorial content throughout the communities they serve. Through a single workflow, funeral homes can distribute death notices, service information, memorial videos and life stories across local television, radio, digital news, streaming and community media.

Funeral homes submit information once, and Chptr formats, schedules and distributes the content through its network of more than 200 local media outlets nationwide. By connecting funeral homes directly with local media organizations, Chptr expands obituary distribution beyond funeral home websites and traditional newspaper notices and helps families reach people throughout their communities.

Rehan Choudhry, Founder & CEO of Chptr, said, “When we started Chptr, we knocked on the doors of 125 funeral homes and seven agreed to pilot with us. To go from those early days to being named an NFDA Innovation Award finalist is a truly meaningful moment for our team, and one for which we are deeply grateful.”

The Impression Vault – The Almorial^TM

The Almorial offers families a new form of memorial keepsake: a three-dimensional carving of a loved one’s hand created in solid wood. Rather than requiring a physical mold or cast, the patent-pending process uses a cell phone or tablet to capture a scan of the hand in approximately 90 seconds.

The scan can be securely preserved without requiring a family to decide immediately whether to purchase a keepsake. If the family chooses to proceed, The Impression Vault creates and hand-finishes the Almorial in solid wood. Funeral homes carry no inventory and make no financial investment; The Impression Vault provides samples and informational materials and manages follow-up with interested families.

Andy Rhodes, Founder and CEO of The Impression Vault, said, “We’re humbled. An industry we feel lucky to serve just told us we’re worth watching. It’s exciting, too, because it means more funeral homes will hear about the Almorial. That’s the real prize: more families may be given the option to keep a hand to hold onto, long after the day they said goodbye.”

Tukios – Heardstone

Heardstone is an AI-powered digital assistant developed specifically for funeral directors and the arrangement process. Designed to reduce manual note-taking and administrative work during and after arrangement conferences, Heardstone records conversations and processes information from sources including first-call sheets, handwritten notes, military discharge papers and audio clips.

Following an arrangement conference, Heardstone can generate a meeting summary, task lists, personalization ideas and a draft obituary. The system integrates directly with the Tukios platform, allowing captured information to flow into the funeral home’s existing workflow and reducing the need to manually transfer information between systems.

Curtis Funk, Founder & CEO of Tukios, said, “We are so excited and honored to be selected as a finalist for the Innovation Award! With the advancements in technology happening right now, the bar is set very high so we are grateful to be considered and it only motivates us more to create more innovative solutions for funeral homes.”

WellTold – WellTold Films

WellTold Films brings documentary filmmaking to personal memorialization, creating cinema-quality films designed to preserve a person’s life story for future generations.

Each film is individually produced using professional documentary filmmaking techniques and equipment, including cinema-grade cameras, documentary interviews, professional color grading, theatrical audio mixing, custom title design and a musical score selected for the film. The experience culminates in a private screening for family and friends, with physical copies designed as family heirlooms. Rather than relying on templates or traditional photo slideshows, each film is built around the stories, memories and personality of the individual being remembered.

Andy Russell, Founder of WellTold, said, “WellTold exists to bring real documentary filmmaking to the way families honor the people they love, not a slideshow or a tribute video, but a film that becomes an heirloom. This recognition, from the profession itself, tells us that conviction is shared, and that means everything to us.”

More information about the finalists can be found online at nfda.org/innovationawards.

Funeral service suppliers were invited to submit qualifying products and services for consideration in the 2026 competition. Entries were evaluated by a panel of funeral service and business professionals based on originality, quality and design. From this year’s entries, the judges selected four finalists that stood out for their potential to bring meaningful innovation to funeral service.

Convention attendees will have an opportunity to see the finalists and other Innovation Award entries in the Expo Hall during the 2026 NFDA International Convention & Expo, October 25-28 in Charlotte. Attendees can learn more about the products, meet the people behind them and explore the range of new ideas being developed for funeral service.

NFDA thanks ASD – Answering Service for Directors for its support of the Innovation Award. The association also extends its appreciation to the 2026 Innovation Award judges:

• Matt Bailey, Bailey Family Funeral Homes, Wallingford, Connecticut
• Mike Burns, Pittsburgh Institute of Mortuary Science, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
• Benny Capaul, Capaul Funeral Home, Ida, Michigan
• Chris Costello, Jacob Scoen & Son, New Orleans, Louisiana
• Stefanie Gonzalez, Reverence Funeral Parlor, Scottsbluff, Nebraska
• David Hernandez, Jersey Memorial Group, Old Bridge, New Jersey
• Welton Hong, Ring Ring Marketing, Las Vegas, Nevada
• Timothy McLoone, William R. May Funeral Home Inc., New Hope, Pennsylvania
• Leili McMurrough, Worsham College of Mortuary Science, Libertyville, Illinois
• Kevin Smith, Berceuse Funeral and Cremation Traditions, Hampton, Virginia

NFDA is the world’s leading and largest funeral service association representing 20,000 individual members who represent nearly 11,000 funeral homes in the United States and 49 countries around the world. NFDA is the trusted leader, beacon for ethics and the strongest advocate for the profession. NFDA is the association of choice because it offers funeral professionals comprehensive educational resources, tools to manage successful businesses, guidance to become pillars in their communities and the expertise to foster future generations of funeral professionals. NFDA is headquartered in Brookfield, Wis., and has an office in Washington, D.C. For more information, visit NFDA.org.

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