NFDA Meet the Mentors Returns in 2026 to Inspire and Prepare the Profession’s Rising Leaders

NFDA is now accepting entries for its transformational Meet the Mentors program.

Brookfield, Wis. – The National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) is pleased to announce that the 2026 Meet the Mentors program will take place April 14-16, 2026, in Washington, D.C. This signature NFDA experience, which is held in conjunction with NFDA’s annual Advocacy Summit, offers early-career funeral professionals an unparalleled opportunity to learn directly from celebrated leaders and engage in advocacy on behalf of the funeral service profession. 

Since its debut in 2011, Meet the Mentors has been fully funded and supported by the Funeral Service Foundation, whose steadfast commitment has enabled more than a decade of transformative mentorship, learning and leadership development. The Funeral Service Foundation covers the registration fees for Meet the Mentors and the Advocacy Summit, three nights of lodging, and a $500 travel reimbursement stipend for selected participants. This generous support ensures the program remains accessible to the profession’s next generation of leaders. 

“For 15 years, Meet the Mentors has offered emerging funeral service professionals a rare opportunity to learn directly from leaders who generously share their experience, wisdom and perspective,” said Sara Moss, MS, FT, LFD, NFDA Associate Director of Education. “This program consistently helps participants build confidence, strengthen their skills and fosters a sense of purpose that supports them throughout their careers.” 

The 2026 Meet the Mentors program will bring together 25 NFDA-member participants – funeral directors and embalmers aged 40 and under, or within their first five years of licensure in the profession – to learn from a distinguished group of mentors who are recognized for their leadership, dedication and impact on the funeral service profession. NFDA is finalizing this year’s mentor panel and will announce the selected mentors very soon.

As in past years, participants can expect to learn from accomplished professionals representing a range of backgrounds, specialties and experiences. These mentors will share candid insights about career development, leadership and the evolving landscape of funeral service, offering invaluable guidance to those at the beginning of their professional journeys. Participants have high praise for NFDA’s Meet the Mentors program.

“NFDA’s Meet the Mentors Program was an incredible experience,” said one 2025 participant. “I gained valuable knowledge and insights that I will be able to use throughout my career. I would highly recommend the program to all newly licensed professionals.” 

In addition to presentations by the mentors, small-group roundtable discussions will enable participants to ask questions, explore career pathways and receive actionable advice they can take home immediately. Many mentees cite these conversations as some of the most meaningful moments of their professional lives. 

One 2025 participant noted, “The roundtables were my favorite part of this experience. It was really great to sit down and ask questions [of] each presenter and be able to have them share their experience on a more personal level.” 

Advocacy in Action 

An exciting component of Meet the Mentors is the opportunity to participate in the 2026 NFDA Advocacy Summit. Participants will join experienced colleagues for a full day on Capitol Hill, meeting with members of Congress to discuss federal issues impacting funeral service. By sharing their stories during these meetings, mentees will help federal legislators understand how their decisions affect, not just funeral professionals, but also grieving families. 

“I enjoyed the Congressional meetings so much and am looking forward to attending the Advocacy Summit again,” a 2025 mentee noted. “I was surprised how much I truly enjoyed doing this!” 

How to Apply 

Prospective participants can enter for their chance to participate in the 2026 Meet the Mentors through 11:59 p.m. CT on January 12, 2026. Thanks to the exclusive support of the Funeral Service Foundation, the program award covers registration fees for the Meet the Mentors program and Advocacy Summit, three nights of lodging and a $500 travel reimbursement stipend. Eligible applicants must be licensed funeral directors or embalmers who are NFDA members and either 40 years old or younger, or within their first five years of licensure in the funeral service profession. For complete details and to apply, visit NFDA.org/Mentors.

For questions, call NFDA at 262-789-1880. Selected participants will be announced in February 2026. NFDA is the world’s leading and largest funeral service association, serving 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 www.nfda.org. 

I operated my funeral home from 1980 to 2013 and in that time period we increased prices every year.  I always looked for an average of about 3% but was able to increase my cremation prices more than that as cremation was growing in popularity.  And, it seemed that our price increases also increased margins as the inflationary rate of our costs, on average, were less than we increased prices.

As our number of services increased, so did our average margins, and profitability also did.  There is no doubt that as you set your budgets for 2026 growing margins may be somewhat difficult to realize when you consider the costs of your goods and services to operate your funeral home are continually rising.  According to Gemini artificial intelligence the average annual rate of inflation from 2000 to 2020 was about 2.2% annually. . . .meaning a 3% rise in prices would theoretically increase margins.  However, when asked the average inflation rate from 2020 to 2025 Gemini AI aswered “approximately 4.53%” to the same question. . . . .  That would make a 3% average increase in prices result in a loss of margin per case.

And of course, the traditional funeral home business is somewhat unique in that the choice of use and services consumers use is a one-time decision for each person.  So, if your highest priced and highest margin services are increased too much one ramification is that a consumer may choose a different service — such as direct cremation — to move their price point downward. . . . and with it, lower your margin on that case.  In the reality of this dynamic, setting price-points for your various services can be a difficult dance.

And at least for the short period of time I don’t see these inflationary costs going away anytime soon.  As you can read in this notice from the Bureau of Labor Statistics “The all items index rose 2.9 percent for the 12 months ending August, after rising 2.7 percent over the 12 months ending July.”  That means that in spite of our hopes of it receding, inflation was at a higher rate in August than it was in July.

I’ve also noticed in some articles, that I’ve linked below, predictions that other cost items will increase as well.  Items such as employer health care plans and commerical property insurance are expected to become more expensive moving forward.  Here’s some quotes from those articles:

 

• The total health benefit cost per employee is expected to rise 6.5% on average in 2026 — the highest increase since 2010 — even after accounting for planned cost-reduction measures. 

 

• Employers estimated that plan cost would increase by nearly 9%, on average, if they took no action to lower cost. 

 

• Based on the projections, 2026 will be the fourth consecutive year of elevated health benefit cost growth following a decade of moderate annual increases averaging only about 3%. 

 

• (a survey showed) 59% of employers will make cost-cutting changes to their plans in 2026 — up from 48% making changes in 2025 and 44% in 2024. Generally, these involve raising deductibles and other cost-sharing provisions, which can lead to higher out-of-pocket costs for plan members when they seek care.

 

• Employees are likely to see higher costs for their health coverage in 2026. 

 

• Employees could expect their paycheck deductions for health coverage to rise by about 6% to 7% on average. At the same time, because many employers will raise deductibles and copays to limit premium increases, higher out-of-pocket spending may also be a factor for some employees.  

 

• Commercial insurance rates in the US continued their upward trajectory in the first quarter of 2025, with the composite rate rising by 3%.  Umbrella and excess liability coverage, along with commercial auto, saw the most significant increases, both climbing by 6.7%. 

 

• Commercial property insurance premiums rose by 3.6%, with business interruption coverage seeing a similar increase of 3.6%.

 

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Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily take:  I would suggest that the least favorite responsibility that I had in operating a small business took place every October when I received the employee health insurance quotes from our providers and had to make a decision on how we would handle employee health insurance for the next year.

I also knew what I would take for insurance if I was making the decision simply for my family. However, in a small business every employee has a different situation and trying to make a decision that could please all of them was virtually impossible.  I don’t envy any of you having to make that decision.

And, the decision brings other decisions that are also difficult to make.  For instance, if you pick a plan that is quite a bit more expensive than the plan you had for the calendar year 2025 then you also have to figure the costs into your prices and try to figure out what the increased prices may do to your selected product mix (i.e. burial/cremation).

It’s a delicate balance between providing the best situation for your team members while also understanding that your fixed costs drive your price points and that the price points for differing types of services make a big impact on not only if consumers will use your firm but what services they will select.

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