Richard Steel and Partners raise £1m through Funeral Donation platform
Richard Steel and Partners of Winchester have raised a total of £1m since starting its online donation system in partnership with the charity MuchLoved in 2012.
The service was started so the company could offer families and the general public an appropriate and simple way to collect funeral donations by credit and debit cards.
They combined this with a tribute page facility as an additional bereavement support service for their families, which can be personalised with photographs and visiting donors can also leave a personal message for the family and opt to light a virtual candle.
Richard Steel and Partners found that this new initiative was really appreciated by the families they served, and as well as reducing the administration of processing charitable donations it directed funeral guests to their website, significantly improving overall awareness of the services they offer.
Iain Steel, the fourth generation of the Steel family to lead the firm, said: “All my long-standing team really like using our MuchLoved service and the rise of funeral online giving has significantly reduced our manual donation administration. More importantly, the families we serve greatly appreciate the personalised online tribute pages we establish for each person, together with the ease of sharing this via social media and the simplicity of donating. It is amazing to reach the cumulative one-million-pound threshold and is testament to the real value of the service.”
MuchLoved trustee Jonathan Davies added: “Richard Steel and Partners were one of the first funeral directors to decide to introduce online funeral tributes and donations for their clients which made them a very early adopter of the service. We’re delighted that they’ve now reached such a fantastic milestone and look forward to helping them raise more money for good causes in years to come.”
MuchLoved is the registered charity that pioneered the development of Tribute sites in the UK over the last decade and offers funeral directors a simple method of publishing funeral notices and processing donations whilst at the same time offering families a way of sending condolences and sharing memories.
Contact MuchLoved on 01494 722818 or via www.muchloved.com for more information.