Home Membership Recognition Programs Pursuit of Excellence Registration and Application Materials

2021 Pursuit of Excellence Registration and Application Materials

New in 2021: One Entry for All Your Firm's Location!

Historically, NFDA's Pursuit of Excellence Award required multi-location firms to qualify each of their funeral home locations separately, which required submitting a separate registration form and entry for each location seeking recognition. Because Pursuit of Excellence is a location-based recognition program, for multi-location firms, only those locations that actually earned an award were entitled to call themselves award-winning firms – not the entire business. 

The reality of funeral service in 2021 is that most multi-location firms share staff, resources and, when hosting events (e.g., holiday services of remembrance, grief-support groups, community outreach events, etc.), does so as a business rather than as individual locations. Therefore, requiring separate entries from each location no longer makes sense. 

NFDA has introduced a new entry process and registration fee for 2021: Funeral businesses need only submit one entry representing the work and accomplishments of all locations that operationally share staff and other resources and your registration fee is based on the number of locations in your business.

Please review page two (2) of the Registration and Application Materials document for full details about the changes to the entry process and registration fee for 2021 (Materiales de inscripción y solicitud de búsqueda de la excelencia 2021 - Español).

Entries are due July 15, 2021. No exceptions.

For 2021, we will, once again, ask that all entries to be submitted electronically. Given the uncertain trajectory of the pandemic, electronic entries will give the Pursuit of Excellence Work Group the greatest flexibility in reviewing all of the entries submitted by participants. 

We hope to return to allowing mail in entries in 2022. 

Submitting Your 2021 Pursuit of Excellence Entry

Step 1: Submit Your Registration Form

All participants must submit a registration form and payment, by the entry deadline, July 15, 2021. Download a registration form and submit it, along with your payment, to NFDA:

  • Fax: 262-789-6977
  • Mail: NFDA; Attn: Pursuit of Excellence; 13625 Bishop's Dr.; Brookfield, WI 53005, USA
  • Phone: Call 800-228-6332 (+1-262-789-1880) and speak with a member service representative

Step 2: Prepare Your Entry

As you prepare your entry form and documentation, please note the following acceptable file formats:
  • Word Documents (.doc or .docx)
  • Excel (.xls or .xlsx)
  • PowerPoint (.ppt or .pptx)
  • PDF
  • Image Files (.jpg, .jpeg, .png, or .gif)
  • Audio Files (.mp3, or .wav)
  • Video Files (.mov, .mpg, .mpeg, .wmv, or .mp4)
  1. Download the 2021 Pursuit of Excellence Electronic Entry Form and save it to your computer. 
  2. Please name your files containing documentation using the corresponding criterion letter and number. For example, the PDF documenting your CFSP designation should be named 2G. If you are submitting multiple pieces of documentation, such as for your essay, you can name the files 1F-1, 1F-2, 1F3, etc. (See list of acceptable file formats.)

Step 3: Submit Your Entry

  1. Entry forms must be finalized and submitted to NFDA by 11:59 p.m. CT on July 15, 2021. Late entries will not be accepted, no exceptions.
  2. NFDA will use the FileCloud service for submitting entries. To get your firm's unique link for uploading entry materials, please send an email to pursuit@nfda.org with the name of your funeral home and the city, state/province and country under which your entry is being submitted.
  3. NFDA will send a unique link to you. This will be the folder to which you will upload all entry materials. 
  4. To upload your entry materials, click the blue “Add Files and Folder Button” on the right side of the screen and select the “Upload File” option from the menu.
  5. Select your online entry form and documentation. While files can be uploaded one at a time, to save time, hold the Control (Ctrl) button to select multiple files. Click “Open” to begin uploading your file(s).
  6. You may return to your folder at any time up until the deadline to add materials.
  7. If you wish to delete a folder or item that has been uploaded to your folder, please contact NFDA at 800-228-6332 or pursuit@nfda.org.
  8. Be sure you have uploaded: 
    • Your 2021 Pursuit of Excellence electronic entry form
    • Your staff photo (Category 1, Criterion B)
    • Your essay and documentation (Category 1, Criterion I)
    • All required documentation for categories 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. 
  9. Once you see all of your files in your folder, your upload is complete and your entry has been successfully submitted to NFDA.
  10. If you have any questions, please contact NFDA at 800-228-6332 or pursuit@nfda.org.
  11. Entries will be reviewed by the NFDA Pursuit of Excellence committee in August 2021. Participants will be notified of their award status in early-September 2021.