If you operate a funeral home, crematory, cemetery, or other Death Care business you are approached with a lot of marketing opportunities.  Every business owner or manager has to look at the opportunities and weigh the cost of the particular marketing with the potential exposure available and the image it will bring to your Death Care brand.

 

One of the people that I have found to have a great deal of insight with marketing opportunities is Joe Weigel.  Joe has decades of experience in the Death Care public relations and marketing areas and espouses his wisdom twice a month in an email blast.

 

Recently I read one of his marketing emails and then asked him if I could publish the short message in Funeral Director Daily.  With Joe’s permission, here is a recent article of his titled, “Special Opportunities are often Not so Special”:  

 

 

It’s one of those calls most funeral home owners and cemetery managers don’t look forward to. “Our radio station is running a special commercial to thank veterans for everything they’ve done, and we know you’d like to have your company’s name mentioned” or “We’re creating an ad to support the fire department, and we’re sure you want your firm listed.” Heard this before? I’d suggest that you “pass” on these opportunities. Most are designed solely to get you to increase your advertising expenditures.  Plus, most of them offer little in the way of real marketing value to your company. There are many great causes out there, and local businesses should be proud to help them. But if you want to support the Boy Scouts, the girls’ basketball team, or the local food pantry, call them to find out what they need. Better yet – establish a contributions committee at your firm. A contributions committee is typically made up of employees at your firm.  After management sets the annual budget, each month (or quarter) the committee considers requests from local organizations to support their causes.  The committee helps to decide how the firm spends its “contributions” budget. It removes you from having to be the “bad guy” and constantly say no to these organizations.  From my experience, most organizations don’t get upset if they know you have a process and budget in place (and realize that your firm can’t support every cause.)  Not to mention, your employees will appreciate this added opportunity to make a difference in the community. In 2025, why not approach your charitable contributions with the same consideration you put into other business decisions? Start with a plan and follow it faithfully. Establish a committee to review opportunities carefully and critically, and you’ll find that you’ll waste far less money.  And you’ll be doing something in which employees will appreciate and take a real interest.

 

Funeral Director Daily take:  When I read this marketing message from Joe Weigel the other day it immediately put two historical campaigns into my thoughts.  The following two marketing decisions turned out to have great benefit for the companies that promoted them and at the same time empowered employees to be able to make a difference in the communities they work in.

 

The Servant Attitude contribution —  I’ve shared in this space before that I feel a part of my spiritual belief is that of helping others, especially those whom I deem less fortunate than myself.  I continue with that belief today and it is not restricted to financial situations —  I’ve been more than blessed by offering my entrepreneurial and business experience services to several non-profit organizations.  And, I’ve really enjoyed mentoring young people when given the chance.

 

I’ve also lived in Minnesota which is where Target stores first appeared and the corporate headquarters of Target still remain.

 

At some point in the 1990’s I learned that the Target Corporation gave a percentage of their profits to charitable organizations.  I found that business extension to philanthropy a challenge to me and pondered how I should put our funeral home into that Target philanthropy category.  (You can read about Target’s philosophy here.)

 

After much thought in the 1990’s, what I decided to do was give a minimum of 1% of all top-line service revenue to charity over and above our marketing and charity budgets at the time.  At the time we probably did about $1.5 million in services revenue so 1% would equal about $15,000 annually.  I sent out quarterly business checks, with the total equal to that 1% of revenue we had decided on, to 501(c)3 organizations that my wife and I selected.

 

We did that for about 2 years and included a letter with the donation to the organization that requested that outside of who had to know, that the donation was to be anonymous.  Interestingly enough, word always got out about our donations anyway.

 

After about two years my wife and I realized that we were not knowledgeable about all the organizations that could use funds in our area.  At that point I instituted a policy that we would divide the donations by our number of full-time employees and each employee would be allowed to send the donation to the charity of their choice.  We had only a couple of rules — such as the receiving organization had to be an organization that was “helping people”.  So, places like Habitat for Humanity and the Red Cross qualified but such things as local sports booster clubs and the like didn’t.

 

Our employees took this charge serious and, in my opinion, were excited to be able to push philanthropic money over and above their own giving to organizations that they saw as desireable to our community’s well-being.  I also think it created a situation where they believed that “their opinions mattered” to management and that increased staff cohesiveness.

 

It turned out to be a great way to help fund various needed services in our community and a way to bring staff and employees together.

 

The Pay it Forward method —  One of the great success stories in our region is that of Bell Bank.  From modest beginnings it has grown from one family-owned bank in Fargo, North Dakota, to a bank company operating in many states with $14 billion in current assets and employee ownership.  It happens to be the bank where Funeral Director Daily banks at.

 

Bell Bank has a program titled “Pay it Forward” for all of its employees.  According to the company website about Pay it Forward, which you can access here, the program works like this, “Every year, each Bell Bank employee receives funds to give as they choose to individuals, families and organizations in need.”

 

So, there you have it.  Public relations and marketing guru Joe Weigel states that one way to get more for your buck is “establishing a committee to review opportunities”.  I agree and believe that it could even lead to better decisions and happier employees.

 

Finally, I would challenge all of you business owners and managers to find a way to increase your charitable giving.  I’m a big believer in “What goes around, comes around” and I would bet that the more you give, the better you will feel, and the more you will be blessed.

 

 

More news from the world of Death Care:

• The complicated ecology of cemeteries.  Sierra Club
• The young funeral staff “cutting stereotypes”.  BBC (Great Britain)
• The three surprising reasons Pure Cremation is Britain’s bestseller.  Manchester Evening News  (Great Britain)
• Op/Ed Proposed crematory on Memorial Drive would violate state law.  On Common Ground News (GA)

 

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“A servant’s attitude guided by Christ leads to a significant life”