This guide, co-written with home funeral educator and advocate Lee Webster, is for any family or official interested in learning about undertaker-free, family-directed funerals at home. It explains that they are usually legal, and notes the minority of states that make it difficult or impossible. This guide is helpful in educating coroners, vital statistics administrators, … Read more
Have you or anyone you know been the victim of funeral or cemetery fraud? As funeral consumer advocates, perhaps you’re not always sure where to direct people with complaints about funeral homes or cemeteries. In the past few years we have heard complaints of funeral homes fraudulently selling services they don’t provide (the most recent … Read more
If we treated feeding ourselves the way most of us approach getting active board members, it would look like this… Camera dollies in to a man with a panicked expression, clutching the phone. . John: The cupboard is bare, and I’ve tried everything, but all the grocery stores are closed. . .what will we do!? … Read more
Even if there is no statutory obligation in your state for survivors to honor specific written after deathcare instructions, it is better to have your wishes in writing than not at all. Courts routinely support all but the most outrageous wishes. The power to name a designated agent for body disposition is honored in all … Read more
What is a home funeral? With a home funeral, family or friends take charge of caring for the body after death, either alone or with the help of a funeral professional. They might bring or keep the deceased at home, wash and dress the body, arrange for a casket or shroud, prepare the necessary documents, … Read more
Member development, like meal planning, has to be an everyday, ongoing part of life at your FCA. “Getting new board members” is not a discrete activity that happens once a year (when it is, it fails). Grooming the membership to see themselves as active participants, as owners of the nonprofit mission they support, has to be as … Read more