Families facing unexpected funeral expenses may get stuck with a bill for thousands of dollars. Even with price comparison and a small funeral, the financial burden of these events can leave families in debt for years. This is why popular sites like Ever Loved and GoFundMe provide a platform for grieving families to hold a fundraiser for funeral expenses.
Overview: Our Top Picks
Best free fundraising websites
Best paid or subscription-based fundraising websites
Jump ahead to these sections:
- What Is a Funeral Fundraiser Website?
- What Features Should You Look for in a Funeral Fundraiser Website?
- Free Funeral or Memorial Service Fundraiser Websites
- Subscription or Fee-Based Funeral Fundraiser Websites
- Where Can You Post or Promote Your Funeral Fundraiser?
- Frequently Asked Questions: Funeral Fundraisers
Thanks to the extensive reach of the internet and social media, fundraising for funeral expenses might end up a lot easier than you expect. Platforms have a variety of tools to help you share your needs, raise awareness, and get the help you need from friends and family members everywhere.
What Is a Funeral Fundraiser Website?
Funerals are averaging around $7,500 across the nation with funerals in some locations costing thousands more. Families are often faced with the decision to use up most or all of their savings or not have a funeral at all. What’s worse, these prices are only expected to rise.
If your relative didn’t have much put aside for end-of-life expenses, taking care of funeral costs can be overwhelming. A funeral fundraiser website provides you with a platform to raise funds for funeral and other end-of-life expenses in honor of your loved one.
Funds gathered through the fundraising website are secure and provided directly to the designated recipient. These sites provide a highly reputable way for friends and family members to honor your deceased loved one while helping family members cover unexpected or overwhelming costs.
Fundraising doesn’t have to be limited to funeral costs, either. If your loved one had a policy that covers their funeral costs but they left behind thousands of dollars in medical bills, you can also use a fundraising site to gather funds for these expenses, as well. All funds go to the recipient for end-of-life expenses, whatever they may be.
What Features Should You Look for in a Funeral Fundraiser Website?
There are many funeral fundraiser websites available online, and more are being added all the time. So, how do you choose from among the many sites? These are the features and perks we suggest looking for before committing to a site for fundraising.
Cost: Most funeral fundraising sites are free. Keep as much as possible by eliminating any sites that charge a monthly fee to host your fundraising page. Some sites have a one-time charge for pro features and reduced transaction fees. One-time purchases are often worth it while monthly charges are not.
Fees: Many funeral fundraising websites charge a transaction fee for each donation as well as an administration fee. For example, they might charge 2.9% plus .30 cents per transaction, and a 4% administration fee. That brings total fees up to nearly 7% for each transaction.
Here’s what this looks like practically. If someone donates $100, $7 will be removed from the donation and you’ll receive $93. That may not sound like a lot, but fees add up quickly. If you have thousands to fundraise, you’ll want to reduce the amount deducted as much as possible.
User-friendly interface: Going through the death of a loved one is already hard enough. The last thing you need is a difficult-to-use fundraising website. The best websites should have a user-friendly interface making the site intuitive to use and set up.
Templates: The best sites either have one excellent template that works for any memorial or fully customizable templates you can choose from. Having a template to use when setting up your site makes the process a lot faster and easier.
Customization: Check examples from the site you’re considering to see if you can customize the page with things like custom headers and a featured picture of your loved one. These little touches help personalize your fundraising webpage.
Guestbook: Not all sites have this, but a digital guestbook is nice to have if you want to give friends and family members an opportunity to share words of sympathy or condolence messages when they donate.
Best Free Funeral or Memorial Service Fundraiser Websites
These websites cost nothing to set up and use for your fundraising needs.
1. Cake
- Cost: Free
- Fees: Payment processing fee only (2.9% + $0.30 per transaction)
- User Experience: Excellent, intuitive interface with step-by-step instructions
- Templates: One beautiful easy-to-use memorial template
- Customization: Simple photo customization
- Guestbook: Guestbook with photograph upload capability
Our top recommendation for a free memorial service fundraiser website is our own memorial tool. It's easy to build a free, personalized memorial page in honor of a loved one complete with an obituary, memorial guestbook, tributes and photos, and fundraising all in one place.
Raise money for funeral funds, family needs, or a cause near and dear to the deceased, while simultaneously organizing friends and family around a single page where they can upload memories and messages in tribute, read about the deceased, and return back to it for years go come.
2. Ever Loved
- Cost: Free
- Fees: Payment processing fee only (2.9% + $0.30 per transaction)
- User Experience: Simple, straightforward interface with step-by-step instructions
- Templates: One standard template
- Customization: Extensive photo customization
- Guestbook: Guestbook with photograph upload capability
Ever Loved, a free memorial-focused funeral fundraising website, offers a stylish setup with a layout similar to a GoFundMe page. Those who visit the site will find it incredibly user-friendly and easy to access.
Setting up a memorial or funeral fundraiser results in a customized web page that highlights the life of your loved one. It also provides family and friends with an opportunity to contribute funding in their honor without advertising added to the mix.
Wondering how to ask for donations for funeral expenses? Thankfully, this site makes the donation process memorial-focused, so visitors can contribute in a person’s memory. It becomes less a question of how to ask for donations and more an opportunity to provide for people to honor their friend or loved one through donations.
Those who donate will pay a 2.9% transaction fee plus 30 cents per donation.
3. GoFundMe
- Cost: Free
- Fees: Payment processing fee only (2.9% + $0.30 per transaction)
- User Experience: Simple, straightforward interface with prompts and instructions
- Templates: One basic template
- Customization: Basic photo customization
- Guestbook: Guestbook with photograph upload capability
GoFundMe, one of the most well-known fundraising websites on the internet, raises funds for everything from keeping businesses afloat to covering unexpected medical expenses and helping with a pet’s vet expenses. You can also use the platform to raise funds for funeral expenses.
The user-friendly website provides a basic template to set up a fundraiser in minutes, completely free for the organizer. The only fee involves a 2.9% transaction fee and 30 cents per donation. These fees go directly to keeping the GoFundMe platform functioning well.
If you need some inspiration or guidance, read through several GoFundMe examples for a funeral. A quick search through GoFundMe’s website also provides excellent memorial fundraising ideas.
4. Keeper
- Cost: Free
- Fees: N/A - users directed to donate through third-party website
- User Experience: Basic and straightforward
- Templates: One primary template
- Customization: Customizable theme and design
- Guestbook: Guestbook with commenting capability only
Keeper, best known for its main feature of providing an online memorial site for friends and family members, allows you to upload images and video files. You can also add a full biography and highlight important life events, such as weddings and anniversaries. You can also include a family tree. You can customize every page with themes and designs and you can upload your own themes as well.
Several particularly meaningful features include a guestbook and tribute center and an "in memoriam" donation link. The donation link can direct memorial website visitors to a separate donation page such as GoFundMe.
As with most web hosting sites, you can buy the pro version for a one-time fee. Once you purchase the pro version, it’s yours forever and you never pay again.
5. Plumfund
- Cost: Free
- Fees: Payment processing fee only (3.49% + $0.49 per transaction)
- User Experience: Basic and straightforward
- Templates: One very basic template
- Customization: Minimal customization
- Guestbook: Guestbook with commenting capability only
Plumfund, a free crowdsourced fundraising platform, was created to help families raise money for a variety of expenses, including funeral and memorial expenses.
The simple platform offers an excellent way to raise awareness for the needs of your family. The ready-to-customize template is simpler than most platforms but much less expressive, as well.
You can use two methods for fundraising: offline donations and PayPal contributions. Offline donations occur when someone mails in a check for the campaign. Families receive 100% of every offline donation. For those who would rather donate with credit or debit cards, Plumfund processes these donations with the help of PayPal. PayPal charges a 2.9% plus a 30-cent fee per transaction.
6. FundRazr
- Cost: Free
- Fees: Payment processing fee only (3.49% + $0.49 per transaction)
- User Experience: Sleek, intuitive interface
- Templates: One modern template
- Customization: Photo and video header customization options
- Guestbook: Guestbook with commenting capability only
Though now as well-known as GoFundMe,FundRazr offers an up-and-coming crowdsource fundraising platform. Along with campaigns that support community projects, animal rescues, school projects, and nonprofit ventures, FrundRazr can help with funeral and memorial expenses as well.
The free user-friendly platform offers features like unlimited video and photo uploads, and the ability to price out your campaign into “wishlist” items unique to FundRazr. It allows page organizers to put dollar amounts on specific items. This helps donors understand where their contributions go. A funeral expense page might have a breakdown for items such as:
- Burial plot: $2,000
- Funeral services: $5,000
- Casket: $5,000
- Memorial celebration: $2,000
- Loss of income: $10,000
You can price out items as an excellent visual for your funeral expenses. FundRazr charges a standard base fee of 3.49% plus 49 cents per transaction to cover credit card fees.
Best Subscription or Fee-Based Funeral Fundraiser Websites
You don't pay anything to use the five funeral fundraiser websites listed above. If desired, you can subscribe or pay a one-time fee to access pro features not available with the free version. These sites listed below, however, require a subscription or fee. You cannot fundraise without payment.
7. Funeralfund
- Cost: Free + package options available
- Fees: Payment processing fee (2.9% + $0.30 per transaction) + 5% administration fee
- User Experience: Very basic, straightforward interface
- Templates: One very basic template
- Customization: Minimal photo customization
- Guestbook: Guestbook with commenting capability only
Funeralfund, a crowdfunding website set up specifically to raise funds for funerals, is free for organizers to use. If you do, you’ll end up paying for it through a deduction in donations.
Like many fundraising sites, you can add pictures, biographical information, and share the link to any social media platform.
The one twist to this platform includes the automatic time limit imposed on each campaign. Every campaign gets 14 days to run. After 14 days, the campaign automatically closes whether or not you reach your goal. If you need more time, you can contact customer service for another 14-day extension.
You'll pay more in fees compared to many other sites. Like all platforms, they charge the basic 2.9% plus 30 cents per transaction for credit card fees. Unfortunately, it also charges a 5% administration fee per transaction to run the platform. All told, around 8% of every donation is lost due to fees.
8. Fundly
- Cost: Free + package options available
- Fees: Payment processing fee (2.9% + $0.30 per transaction) + 4.9% administration fee
- User Experience: Basic, easy-to-use interface
- Templates: One basic template
- Customization: Minimal photo customization
- Guestbook: Guestbook with commenting capability only
Fundly is another crowdsourcing fundraising platform that charges high fees. Though it is free for organizers to use and set up, organizers will need to raise more in order to cover administration fees deducted from each donation.
The site provides easy-to-use templates that include a photo and video gallery, journal entries, and updates to keep contributors updated. When you sign up, Fundly provides you with a quick start guide, templates, and helps you connect your page to social media.
Unfortunately, Fundly charges a basic fee in addition to administration fees, making this platform less efficient when raising funds. When using this platform, Fundly charges 2.9% plus 30 cents per transaction in addition to a 4.9% fee per transaction. Platform fees end up costing you around 8% of every donation.
9. GoGetFunding
- Cost: Free + package options available
- Fees: Payment processing fee (2.9% + $0.30 per transaction) + 4% administration fee
- User Experience: Basic, easy-to-navigate interface
- Templates: One basic template
- Customization: Minimal photo customization
- Guestbook: Guestbook with commenting capability only
GoGetFunding and its user-friendly platform enable you to set up a campaign in just four simple steps. You can post videos, photos, journal updates, and other information about your loved one. You can share details about how friends and family can help cover funeral-related expenses.
People can submit donations directly on the fundraising page with a credit card, debit card, or PayPal account. GoGetFunding charges the standard 2.9% plus 30 cent fee per transaction.
This platform also charges a separate 4% administration fee per transaction, bringing the total percentage of lost donations up to 7%. This is certainly lower than some, but it still takes a chunk out of your fundraising totals.
Where Can You Post or Promote Your Funeral Fundraiser?
There are many places where you can promote or post information about your funeral fundraiser. Here are four of the places we recommend to get the word out as much as possible.
Online memorial site
You might not think to link or promote your funeral fundraiser to an online memorial website, but this is a perfect place to bring it to peoples’ attention. Friends and family members will already be visiting the online memorial site to read the obituary, biography, and post messages of condolence. They might also visit the site to find out how they can send flowers or contribute to expenses.
If you place a message stating that donations are being received for funeral expenses in honor of your loved one and in lieu of flowers, visitors to the website will be more apt to donate instead of sending you floral arrangements. Be sure to place the link with the announcement so visitors can go to the website and donate by clicking the link.
Social media
Social media platforms are ideal for sharing about a funeral fundraiser. Platforms like Facebook and Twitter get the message out quickly to your entire network when you have a message to send. Here is how to use the most popular forms of social media to share about your funeral fundraiser.
Facebook: Post a message explaining that you’re holding a funeral fundraiser to cover end-of-life expenses in honor of your loved one. Post a link to the fundraiser website so people can visit and donate.
Twitter: Share a brief note stating that you’re raising funds to help cover your loved one’s end-of-life expenses. Include the link to the website.
YouTube: Share a video about your loved one and include a clip from a tribute video. Share important details about the financial needs your loved one has since passing away and the fundraiser you’re running to help cover those costs. Post a link in the video description and in the comments and tell people to check both places for the link if they want to donate.
Personal website
Do you have a personal website or blog? If your audience would receive it well, consider posting some information about your loved one and the needs you/your family are experiencing with funeral or end-of-life expenses. Include the link in your post and encourage people to check it out if they want to donate.
A funeral home memorial website
Funeral home memorial websites are similar to memorial websites from third-party providers like EverLoved. These sites allow you to post a long obituary or biography, a featured picture of your loved one, and a photo and video gallery. They also provide a digital guestbook for friends and family members to sign.
You can post information about the fundraising website, including the link, in the obituary or at the top of the biography where visitors to the site will most likely see it. This info will help inform them that you’d appreciate donations instead of flowers.
Frequently Asked Questions: Funeral Fundraisers
Still have a few questions about starting a funeral fundraiser? See if one of these answers might just be what you need.
How long does it typically take to receive funds from a funeral fundraiser?
Most platforms let you set up automatic fund transfers to your linked bank account as soon as a donation is given. It usually takes two to five business days from the start of the transfer to the funds getting deposited into your bank account.
What are some wording examples for a funeral fundraiser?
- On September 3, 2022, Daniella Rosales was given her wings and flew away. Her courageous journey through colon cancer has inspired us all but has left her family with medical bills that will be difficult to pay. This memorial donation page has been set up in her honor. All funds will be provided to her husband, David Rosales, to help with medical bills and funeral expenses.
- Dear friends and family, we are all deeply saddened by the sudden loss of Steven Whitfield, husband, father, brother, and friend to all. His absence is felt keenly by his wife, Melanie, of 10 years, and his children, Aiden and Madison, aged 8 and 5. In lieu of flowers, this donation page has been set up to give Steven's friends and family an opportunity to help his wife and children cope with the days ahead. All funds will be given to Steven's wife, Melanie, for funeral expenses and bills.
- Sheryl Lynn Jacobson was the light and life of her family. A single mother, she was the model of what it meant to be a mother and a best friend to her two girls. Though her terminal illness left her with little time, she worked hard to make sure Ally and Kelly were provided for when it was her time to leave them. Her one concern, however, was for their college funds. So, in lieu of flowers, we're asking friends and family to donate to Sheryl's memorial fund. Per her wishes, funds will be held in trust for Ally's and Kelly's college tuition.
How can you encourage loved ones to share the fundraiser?
The best way to encourage people to share the fundraiser is by simply asking them to share it. Here are several wording examples to help get you started.
- Please feel free to share this memorial fundraiser on Facebook or your favorite social media profile to help spread the word.
- Feel free to share this fundraiser via email, text, or social media.
- To share this memorial fundraiser, please click the 'share' icons and choose your preferred method of sharing.
Honor Memories and Raise Funds
Families shouldn’t have to worry about the financial burden of planning a funeral. Use a fundraising website to alleviate the fear of going into debt while providing for expenses associated with saying goodbye.