10 Amazing, FREE Funeral Resources To Share With Families
August 19th, 2017
As funeral professionals, we all have one goal in common.
Whether we’re creating beautiful products or websites for funeral homes, or working directly with families in need, our purpose is always the same: make the funeral process as easy and meaningful as possible for families experiencing a loss.
It’s why we get up in the middle of the night and go on house calls. It’s why we spend Christmas morning in arrangement conferences, rather than at home with our family. And it’s why we go above and beyond to create a meaningful service every single time. Because we know better than most how difficult and trying the funeral process can be, and we have the power to make it slightly better for the people walking through our doors.
But the best part about working in a profession where everyone is after the same goal is that professionals far and wide — from funeral directors and marketers to drivers and celebrants — want to support one another in doing the best possible job for our families. So we share tips, publish helpful guides, and even create free downloads that will make the funeral process exponentially easier for the families we serve.
Today, we are rounding up ten of our favorite FREE funeral resources that you can share with your families to make their funeral planning process as memorable and meaningful as possible. Enjoy!
1. The Always Prepared Binder
There are a lot of decisions to be made throughout the funeral planning process, and with each of those decisions, there is a lot of personal information that needs to be known. Where are all of the important documents located? Who should speak at the funeral? What song should play?
If your families have the time to pre-plan with their loved one, tell them to take advantage of it. Thirty Handmade Days has created the perfect “Always Prepared Binder” that will help them document the decisions that matter.
2. An After-Death Timeline For Families
Once a loved one has passed away, everything starts to move very quickly. And it can be difficult for families to know what they should prepare for in the months, days and even hours that lie ahead. In this funeralOne infographic, we walk families through the immediate things that need to happen when a loved one passes away, including contacting the funeral home, locating end-of-life plans, and even taking the time to reflect on their loved one’s life.
3. A Checklist for Survivors
There are a lot of “to-dos” that come with planning a funeral service. Your families have to make sure that all of their friends and family are notified, they need to plan out the intricate details of the service, and make sure they have all of the proper paperwork in place.
This Survivor’s Checklist by Well Groomed Home is a great way for families to have all of the things that they need to do right in front of them, so that no important details slip through the cracks.
4. Guide To Planning A Meaningful Funeral
Planning a funeral is not just about going through the motions and checking off boxes. It’s also important that families are getting creative about the way that they memorialize their loved one, so that the service is as meaningful as possible. In their Companion Guide, Batesville created a checklist of key topics and decisions that families need to make in order to plan a meaningful funeral for their loved one.
5. Funeral Program Planning Guide
One element of a funeral service that is important for both honoring a loved one and giving friends and family a beautiful memorial keepsake is the funeral program. This is a one-of-a-kind chance for your families to tell their loved one’s life story and share the important details that made up their life. This Funeral Program Planning Guide by Memory Press will help families map out the details that they want to include in their program before they actually start designing.
6. 30 Day Free Trial of Life Tributes
Once families have documented the personal information that they want to share at their loved one’s service, they can start thinking about what kinds of memorial products they want to design and print for the funeral service. Life Tributes is a simple-to-use software that allows funeral professionals and families to choose from different personalized themes for their loved one’s memorial cards, video tributes, funeral webcasts and more!
Click here to download a free 30-day trial.
7. Quick-Start Guide To Writing An Online Obituary
After the funeral service has been planned and a date has been set, families can begin thinking about the beautiful obituary that they are going to write to honor and memorialize their loved one. But this can often feel like a daunting task… after all, you only get one chance to write someone’s final life story. Luckily, Melissa Jayne Kinsey, author of How to Write an Online Obituary: Virtual Memorials Made Simple, put together a free quick-start guide to writing an online obituary, just for our funeralOne readers.
8. Simple Steps for Writing A Eulogy
Another great opportunity to bring personalization and memorialization into a funeral service is through a loved one’s eulogy. If your families are choosing to perform the eulogy themselves, or even if they just want to say a few words in addition to a traditional religious service, this handy 6 Step Guide to Writing A Eulogy by Love Lives On will walk them through everything they need to deliver a comforting goodbye message.
9. What Song Should You Play At A Funeral?
One of our favorite ways to add a little of personality and celebration into a funeral service is through music. If the loved one that is being celebrated had a favorite song, encourage your families to incorporate it into the service in some way. If they are unsure of which song will represent their loved one the best, have them walk through this simple funeralOne infographic, which will help families determine which song they should play at a loved one’s funeral.
10. Online Grief and Healing Classes
The resources that funeral professionals extend to families shouldn’t end when the funeral service does. There are a number of ways that you can continue to show support to families in the months and even years that follow the passing of a loved one.
One of our favorite ongoing resources that we like to provide our f1Connect users with is our free e-Aftercare Grief and Healing videos that offer families an intimate, yet private means of counseling… all right from their funeral website.
To learn more about f1Connect’s Aftercare program, click here.
What is the best resource that YOU have found to share with families?! Be sure to let us know your favorite resources in the comments below!
There are some excellent suggestions. I hope you do not mind if we share them on our Facebook page. I especially like the binder idea. A good way to stay organized and give the family piece of mind that there will not be chaos and confusion when tragedy strikes. Shines a positive light on an otherwise impossible tragedy.
Todd, thanks so much for the comment. I’m glad you enjoyed the post!
Thank you for the great blog post.