How Funeral Home Crowdfunding Will Help Your Family

Crowdfunding is one of the most powerful tools available to help people raise funds for a good cause. It allows a community to come together and work towards helping someone else cover costs and offer assistance during a time of need.

If a death occurs unexpectedly, families can face two problems. The first is that they struggle to find the funds to cover the costs of the funeral which leads to additional stress and financial hardship. The second scenario is that the family settles for a lower costing service that fits within their limited budget. This can result in feelings of guilt, disappointment, and regret because they feel they weren’t able to properly honor their loved one’s life.

This week our partner company FrontRunner Professional released A Helping Hand™. This is a significant development for the funeral industry as it will undoubtedly help thousands of families across North America.

Because this announcement got us so excited about the possibilities, we thought we would look at some of the ways the funeral industry can benefit from crowdfunding.

Benefits of Crowdfunding

Cover Funeral Expenses

The first and most obvious benefit of crowdfunding is that you can cover the costs associated with a service. What many people don’t realize is that funeral expenses are more than just the cost of the service and funeral products. There are many additional costs like legal fees, estate fees, and much more. According to the NFDA, the average cost of a funeral with burial in North America is $7,181. If you would like to hold a funeral service and cremation, the average price is $6,078

For some families, this can be a lot of money to pull together quickly. By using crowdfunding, the family can receive assistance from those in their community to help make these costs more manageable.

Donating Money To Charity

A common question related to crowdfunding is what happens with the any of the extra funds once the funeral expenses are covered. Donating this money to charity or a worthy cause in the name of your loved one is an excellent way to pay tribute to them. If your loved one was a charitable person or firmly believed in a certain cause, this is most likely where they would like the extra funds directed.

Some notable charities families often donate to include the following:

Ronald McDonald House Charities

American Cancer Society

American Red Cross

Wounded Warrior Project

Save The Children

Establish An Education Scholarship

Was your loved one a strong proponent of education and personal development? Were they involved with or supported a local college or university in your community? A scholarship fund in their name could help deserving students in your area realize their dream of achieving a post-secondary education and help cover some of the costs associated with pursuing it.

Help Surviving Family Members

Sometimes the funds leftover from crowdfunding are best spent on supporting the surviving family members. For instance, if the father of a young family passes away unexpectedly, the funds could be used to help raise the children or be put into a trust to assist with their education.

When a death occurs suddenly, there is a period of adjustment afterward until the family gets back on their feet. The remaining funds could be used to support the family with living expenses, transportation costs, supplemental income if the primary income is lost, assist with childcare expenses, and to help cover medical bills.

Create A Lasting Memorial Tribute

A final benefit of crowdfunding is using the remaining funds to create a memorial tribute for your loved one. This could include directing the money towards building something in a local park in your community like a fountain, bench, or play structure.

Planting a memorial tree is another popular choice for creating a memorial tribute. The Honoring a Life program is a great way to plant a tree that not only helps the environment but also represents growth and the beginning of a new life.

How It Makes An Impact

Whether it’s planning a beautiful funeral service to say goodbye, donating the money to help others in the community, or helping the surviving family members adjust to a new life; crowdfunding helps to benefit so many people in a community indirectly.

The great thing about crowdfunding is that you can see donations in real time meaning you can stop the campaign when your goal is reached. You also get to see the names of each individual that has donated so that you know who to send thank you notes to after the campaign has ended.

To learn more about A Helping Hand™ check out Frontrunner Professional’s blog post!