Last week it seemed that every time I turned around I heard a news story about debt. . . . Here’s one that’s titled “Over nine million student loan borrowers could see their credit scores tank as delinquencies are poised to hit record highs“.  Or this one from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York titled “Household debt balances continue steady increase; Delinquency transition rates remain elevated for auto and credit cards”. 

 

Even our nation’s financial well being is in the news — here’s a story about that titled “U.S. could run short of money to pay its bills by August without a debt limit deal, CBO says.”

 

Any way that you look at it I think you will find a certain portion of our society living in a world where one missed paycheck or one bad incident could spiral their financial well-being down.  And, according to this article from Great Britain, it’s a problem in Death Care there — that is families not having enough resources to fully pay a loved one’s funeral bill.

 

If you are operating a funeral home there are times when compassion reigns and you have to make the decision to provide services without a guarantee of payment.  It may not be the best business practice but it just is the way that most Death Care practitioners are wired.

 

However, if you are not getting paid what you deserve for conducting funeral services the long-term consequences over time are not good.  Here’s an article titled “Is continuous accounts receivable a problem?”  I suggest you read it just for a little reminder that growing accounts receivables can sink a great business.

 

So, I think it behooves every funeral home and cemetery to have many tools in their toolbox for helping clients pay for the services that they are provided.  Those tools should include pre-arrangments with financial arrangements tied to them, down-payments, the use of credit cards, the acceptance of insurance funding, and more.

 

And, in the world we live in today, one option for families to pay their obligations may be through community funding — most often referred to as “crowdfunding”.  When you think about it, online community funding today is not so much different than what happened for decades when friends, relatives, and acquaintances stuffed cash or checks into memorial cards to be used by the family.

 

For sure, many of these donations were for “memorials” and expected to be used “in memorium” of the deceased.  But, I conducted enough funerals over the years where friends and relatives hoped that the money they put forward would go towards the family paying a funeral bill that might have been out of their current reach without help.

 

I recently became aware of a community funding product that can be used for this purpose.  Take a look at what Treasured Memories Community Funding has been able to do for people by clicking here.  They can help families collect funding for “Memorial” projects or other uses.

 

As a matter of fact, Treasured Memories Community Funding can be used by funeral homes and aligned with others in their communities to raise funds for a variety of uses — memorials, family help, charitable events, community fundraisers, and more.

 

Take a look at this page on their website and you will see some stories where Treasured Memories Community Funding helped children whose mother passed away, helped start an education fund for children whose father passed away, and, yes, even helped families raise money to pay for funeral costs.  You will also find a “Memorial Fund” music foundation started to raise money in memory of a person who loved the arts.

 

I’m in the Baby Boomer generation and our generation has grown philanthropical giving.  Generally, we give to organized causes, especially those we can get a tax deduction from.  It’s how we grew up.

 

However, if we look to the Millenial generation (born between 1980 and 1999) who are between 25 and 45 years of age at this time, we see that they are already making their mark in charitable giving.  According to this article from Foundation Source over 85% of Millenials give charitably.  In addition, they are tech savvy and probably more likely to give to causes through social media campaigns, such as those that can be offered by Treasured Memories Community Funding, than other generations.

 

If I still ran my funeral home I would look into how Treasured Memories Community Funding could become a part of it. . .not only to help my client families but my community as well.

 

More news from the world of Death Care:

• A gem revived:  Hyannis’ historic Universalist Cemetery to get long-needed facelift.  WickedLocal.com  (MA)
• Your rights to last rites.  National Seniors (Australia)
• Farm outside Charlottesville welcomes living and dead to natural burial ground.  The Daily Progress (VA)
• Final expansion of the 163-year-old Beaufort cemetery will give vets a resting place.  The Island Packet (SC)

 

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