Our Blog

Help Paying for a Funeral

Tuesday, January 16, 2017

Local charities and community initiatives are often times when people band together to help raise funds for a deserving cause. When others are in need of assistance, their community will often work together to help them during their time of need.

For families though, they are not always so fortunate to have others lend assistance. Specifically, when a death occurs, a family can become overwhelmed with the funeral costs. Many families will struggle to find the funds to cover the funeral expenses which can lead to additional feelings of stress on top of the heavy grief they are feeling. Often families are forced to settle for a lower costing service. This can result in feelings of guilt, disappointment, and regret because they feel that they were unable to properly honor their loved one’s life.

A funeral carries many costs like legal fees, estate fees, funeral products and the cost of the service. According to the National Funeral Directors Association, the average cost of a funeral is now $7181. For some families, this can be a lot of money to gather quickly.

It can be quite hard for families to ask for financial assistance in covering funeral costs. With funeral expenses continuing to rise, we knew we needed to find a solution to help the families we serve. The answer to this problem, A Helping Hand.

A Helping Hand is an online platform in partnership with GoFundMe to offer crowdfunding for funerals. Now instead of struggling to cover funeral costs, your family can start a campaign to get funeral donations. For those unfamiliar, crowdfunding is the practice of funding a venture or activity by several people donating a small amount of money to the initiative. Modern day crowdfunding campaigns typically occur on the internet and have really taken off in the past decade or so. Since these online campaigns have become a more common practice, we find people feel more comfortable asking for financial assistance in this manner. 

Start Your Own Funeral Crowdfunding Campaign

At Conner & Koch Funeral Home, we are so proud to be a part of A Helping Hand and offer this crowdfunding service to the families in our community. If you are interested in starting a crowdfunding campaign for your loved one through A Helping Hand, we would be happy to assist you. Our staff will be there to answer any questions you have, and complete the set up for you. With each campaign, you can set a goal and see contributions towards the funeral in real time. This means once your goal has been reached, you can turn the campaign off if you wish. You will also be able to see the names of everyone who has donated so that you can send messages of thanks after the campaign has ended.