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      2025 Finalists

      Innovation Award
      Home Exhibit Innovation Award 2025 Finalists

      Your 2025 Finalists 

      (in alphabetical order)

        
      Afterword – Grace, The First AI Assistant for Funeral Homes

      Grace is the first AI assistant purpose-built for funeral professionals, designed to ease the administrative burden and allow directors to focus on caring for families. Integrated within Afterword’s software platform, Grace automates routine tasks such as building case files, sending reminders and managing family communications. From converting a photo of a handwritten worksheet into a complete digital case file, to generating personalized follow-up emails, task lists and memorial date reminders, Grace works behind the scenes to ensure a seamless experience for both staff and families. What sets Grace apart is her ability to adapt to each funeral home’s unique processes, having been trained directly from the workflows of real directors. She’s not a generic chatbot; she’s a customized, intuitive assistant who brings compassion, consistency, and efficiency to every case.

       

       
      Healing Path Cemetery, a Grief-Focused Engagement System for Cemeteries

      Healing Path Cemetery is an innovative, multi-dimensional solution helping cemeteries remain relevant in a changing cultural landscape. With permanent memorialization on the decline, Healing Path reconnects local families to cemeteries by blending grief support, interactive rituals and lead generation. The system includes on-site healing stations designed around nine evidence-based grief rituals; a cemetery-branded mobile app offering videos, virtual rituals like “Letters to Heaven” and “digital candle lighting”; and a library of coordinated social media content that promotes healing and education. With features like narrated blessings from Peabody Award-winner Bill Kurtis and seamless integration of grief psychology with cemetery marketing, Healing Path is a pioneering platform that transforms cemeteries into places of ongoing remembrance, relevance and emotional connection.

       
      Passare – AI Scanner

      Passare’s AI Scanner revolutionizes the way funeral professionals handle handwritten documents by eliminating the need for manual data entry. This powerful, mobile-first tool uses advanced handwriting recognition technology to scan handwritten vitals forms and automatically populate the corresponding digital fields in Passare’s case management system. Designed to accommodate directors who prefer pen and paper during family meetings, the feature reduces the risk of transcription errors and saves valuable time. Built and trained using hundreds of handwriting samples, the scanner delivers high accuracy and requires no training — just scan, sync and send. As the first of its kind in funeral service, the AI Scanner sets a new standard for efficiency and innovation, enabling funeral professionals to spend less time on paperwork and more time supporting families.

      2025 Innovation Award Participants

      Thank you to our Innovation Award Participants:

      • Eternity's Touch
      • Final Embrace
      • Forensic Pathology Services (FPS)
      • Forever LT Fingerprint Keepsakes
      • Hearses by Perches
      • Just Enduring Inc.
      • LifeArt by Terrybear
      • Loop Biotech
      • Memorygram
      • National Cemetery Administration
      • Passages International
      • R&S Design Gallery
      • Recap Books
      • Return Home
      • Spencer Italia srl
      • Terrybear Urns & Memorials
      • The American Chair Company/Church Chairs of America
      • The Dodge Company
      • The Memory Box
      • The Natural Funeral Inc.
      • Tribute Technology
      • Tukios

      Thank you to our 2025 judges!

      Thank you to our distinguished panel of judges:

      • Matt Bailey - Bailey Family Funeral Homes, Wallingford, Connecticut
      • Chris Costello - Mothe Funeral Homes, New Orleans Louisiana
      • David Hernandez - Jersey Memorial Group, Old Bridge, New Jersey
      • Leili McMurrough - President, Worsham College, Libertyville, Illinois
      • Mike Burns - Pittsburgh Institute of Mortuary Science, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
      • Timothy McLoon - William R. May Funeral Home Inc., New Hope, Pennsylvania
      • Welton Hong - Ring Ring Marketing, Las Vegas, Nevada
      Innovation Award
      • 2025 Finalists
      • 2024 Finalists
      • 2023 Finalists
      • 2022 Finalists
      • 2021 Finalists
      • 2019 Finalists

      NFDA Mission Statement

      The National Funeral Directors Association is the world’s leading, largest and most trusted association to support funeral professionals. We provide our members with critical information, innovative tools, resources and the professional community they need to serve families, run sustainable businesses and become pillars in their communities.

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