At a funeral its quite common for mourners to bring flowers, it is a visual representation of sympathy, grief, respect and love. The practice of bringing flowers started as a way to cover up the smell of decomposition, and also as a way of silently expressing emotion. Even though mortuary techniques are much improved and an outward display of emotion is acceptable in today’s modern world, the practice of flowers at a funeral seems to have stuck.
Flowers aren’t always everyone’s thing, there are other options. Donations are a great option for a tribute at a funeral service, the idea behind it that flowers will fade over time, but a donation will help someone who is living. It’s also a wonderful way of having a loved one’s likes carry forward. Some people are animal enthusiasts, for example, so asking mourners to donate to a local shelter instead of bringing flowers is a great way to celebrate an animal lover’s passion.
There are different ways of donating to a charity at a funeral. If you speak with your Funeral Director, they can sometimes collect and send the money off to a nominated charity. Alternatively, you can have one designated person from the family to collect the donations and send them off.
Another option is contacting the charity directly and having them send out donation envelops which can be given to mourners on arrival by your Funeral Director and Funeral Assistant. Using this method is a great way to go about it because then you aren’t reliant on people having cash on them (and who even carries cash anymore in this modern cashless society?), they can simply complete the section for credit card details. At the end of the service the envelopes are gathered together and sent back to the nominated charity to be processed.
It is important to let the Funeral Director know when you are going through all the finer details and putting together the funeral arrangement that you would like donations in lieu of flowers to honour your loved one. This way the Funeral Director can make the necessary arrangements for the day and they can also include in the obituary (online or in the newspaper) that donations are to be made in honour of your loved one so that even people who might not be able to make the service can still make a donation.
It is also important to notify the charity of the intention to donate on a loved one’s behalf at their funeral because the charity will have an acknowledgement letter sent out to the family and sometimes, they will include the names of the people who made the donations.
If you are thinking ahead about your funeral and have thought that this is something that you would like done in your honour, you need to tell someone! A will doesn’t get settled before the funeral so someone in your family or close friends needs to know about your wishes so they can be put into action. This is where pre-planning your funeral is also very helpful. By telling your Funeral Director your intentions for your memorial they can have that all put on record so when the time comes they are ready to act on your behalf and will rally the troops around you so that all of your wishes are honoured exactly as you would like them to be.
For my funeral I’d like the people coming to celebrate my life to make a donation on my behalf to the Australian Red Cross, they help so many Australians and it’s a nice thought that my final send-off would be helping people struggling in Australia. What do you think? Would you have people make a donation in your name at your funeral?
If you have any questions about donations to charities or any questions in general, feel free to give us a call on 1300 043 522, email us at [email protected], shout out to us on social media or drop by and see us in the office!