For Immediate Release: October 26, 2026

Brookfield, Wis. – Chptr, creator of the Chptr Local Media Distribution Network, has been named the winner of the 2026 National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) Innovation Award. The award was presented October 26 during the Opening General Session of the 2026 NFDA International Convention & Expo in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Innovation Award is sponsored by ASD – Answering Service for Directors.

The NFDA Innovation Award recognizes funeral service suppliers and vendors that bring originality, creativity and thoughtful problem-solving to the profession. Chptr earned the top honor for its approach to connecting funeral homes with local media and creating new opportunities for families to share obituary and memorial content throughout their communities.

About the Chptr Local Media Distribution Network

Chptr enables funeral homes to distribute death notices, service information, memorial videos and life stories across local television, radio, digital news, streaming and community media through a single workflow.

Funeral homes submit information once, and Chptr formats, schedules and distributes the content through a 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, helping families share information and stories in more of the places where people in their communities get their news and information.

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.”

Chptr was selected as the 2026 Innovation Award winner by a panel of funeral service and business professionals. Entries were evaluated based on originality, quality and design.

WellTold – WellTold Films earned second place. 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 culminates in a private screening for family and friends.

Two finalists tied for third place. The Impression Vault – The Almorial offers families a three-dimensional carving of a loved one’s hand in solid wood, created from a scan captured using a cell phone or tablet. Tukios – Heardstone is an AI-powered digital assistant designed specifically for funeral directors that can capture and process information from arrangement conferences and other sources and generate meeting summaries, task lists, personalization ideas and draft obituaries.

All four finalists, along with other 2026 Innovation Award entrants, are being showcased in the Expo Hall during the 2026 NFDA International Convention & Expo, taking place October 25-28 in Charlotte.

More information about the NFDA Innovation Award is available on the NFDA website.

NFDA thanks ASD – Answering Service for Directors for its continued support of the Innovation Award and 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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Media Contact: Jessica Koth, 262-814-1536, JKoth@NFDA.org