Charity News from MuchLoved

MuchLoved is constantly evolving as a platform, and we are always delighted to be able to roll out new features and enhancements.

Our most recent enhancements will benefit MuchLoved tribute owners as well as our charity partners.

Tribute owners can see if a charity has received their donations 

Tribute owners frequently ask us if their donations have been transferred to their chosen charity.  They can now check the payment status at any time using the simple icons on their My Donations page.  These show whether each donation has been paid, when it was paid, or whether payment is pending or not applicable (for an offline donation).   

We’ve also added some text to remind tribute owners that payments to charities are made around the 15^th of the month after the donation was received.   

  

Contacting tribute owners to thank them – Whilst tribute owners can now see if donations have been paid, we still encourage charities and good causes to thank the tribute owner as we know it means such a lot to bereaved families.  Our partners can access contact details for tribute owners through the reports within their Partner Area. 

Tribute owners can download a QR code to share their tribute 

A QR code can be scanned on any mobile device with a camera to take the visitor directly to a tribute page, making sharing easy.  QR codes are straight forward to download and have many uses.  For example, they can be printed on the back of an Order of Service or memorial brochure, and they can be used to promote in-memory events, added to stickers, books, slides, videos and much more.

Tribute owners can download the QR code from their Privacy & Sharing settings.  They will also have a link to download the QR code in the email they receive when they create a tribute. They can then go ahead and add the QR code to anything they print or display.

If the URL changes, does the QR code update and work for the new URL? Yes, that is why it’s important to use our QR codes and not create one from QR code generators online.   

Optimum Charity Partners can now download QR codes from their Partner Area for all tributes that are fundraising for them, including those created by funeral directors and families.   

Tribute page design has been improved for mobile users  

Many of our users access tribute pages on their mobile.  Tribute owners and families can carry memories of their loved ones with them wherever they go.  Funeral attendees can make a donation straight after the service.  And friends and family can post a thought or light a candle anytime, anywhere. 

We have improved how MuchLoved tributes appear on mobile devices, so visitors get a great view whatever device they are using. 

In line with best practice for mobile design, the header is now fixed so it remains in place as you scroll, and the three-line menu has moved into the header.  It’s now easier to return to the home page either by clicking on Home in the menu or clicking on the header banner. 

We hope you will agree that these changes will deliver improvements for MuchLoved users.  We love receiving your feedback and suggestions so please do contact us anytime.  
Email support@muchloved.com or call our team on 01494 722818.

Building good relationships with the funeral  profession can benefit your income and increase awareness of your charity. Here are some tips for ways to potentially connect and work with them.

Who are funeral people and why should you get to know them? 

A funeral firm will include people in various roles who are involved in different aspects of each funeral arrangement and running the business.  Some funeral homes are part of a large group, such as Co-op Funeralcare and the regional Co-operatives, others are independent businesses with one or more branches. 

The funeral profession also includes people working in crematoria and burial grounds, and celebrants. Many funeral people are closely connected to their local communities and are experienced in supporting bereaved families. 

Families often build trust in funeral people, especially during the early days of their bereavement. By establishing relationships with funeral businesses, you can help to ensure the baton of trust passes to charities to care for supporters after the funeral.  Funeral directors care about their communities and are often keen to work with charities and support in-memory fundraising. 

Understanding funeral notices and tribute pages  

Funeral notices were traditionally displayed outside the funerals director's premises. Now, many display funeral notices directly on their websites, with MuchLoved's funeral notices.

Funeral notices give families a place to find out details about the funeral and make donations in lieu of flowers, and also a tribute page that can help a bereaved family in the longer term.  

Friends and family can be signposted to the tribute page via a QR code on the Order or Service.  This all helps to increase brand awareness for funeral businesses and charities and can help increase donations if the family is fundraising for a cause.

  

Some practical tips to help you build relationships 

• Invite funeral people to work with you on community events. For instance they might be willing to help with stewarding duties or provide some sponsorship. Under Competition and Markets Authority rules, funeral businesses can sponsor up to £250 without having to declare it. 
• Share photos and social media posts after events so that funeral firms can use them for promotion and brand awareness. 

• Think about what your charity can offer to funeral people. You might be able to provide training for their Continuing Professional Development, help them with their branch window display, or provide a room for a local meeting of a funeral trade association.  
• Don’t ask funeral people to give out charity literature to the families they are looking after. Bereaved people often find it difficult to concentrate and take in lots of new information. Funeral people are sensitive to this and try to keep things simple. They don’t usually recommend charities, instead their role is only to offer options, and most families have already chosen their charity.  

• Think carefully about how donations are collected.  Envelopes are unpopular for several reasons, most notably the time needed to distribute and collect them. Crematoria have strict limits on the time for each service and any overrun results in extra cost. A collection box may be an alternative option, or some funeral directors are moving to online donations only.  
• Consider offering your supporters the opportunity to create an online funeral collection from your website. We can supply you with a ‘funeral collection create’ link or widget to add to your website, enabling your supporters to create an online funeral collection, at any time. 

• Be aware that November, December and January are busy times for funeral people when the death rate is at its highest. Tuesday and Wednesday mornings can be a good time to contact them but ask what works. 

Learn more from MuchLoved’s experience  

MuchLoved works with over 2000 funeral businesses and branches. We recently hosted a webinar to share some of our expertise, with input from AG Down, a funeral director based in Bridport. Watch the recording to find out more.  

If you are interested in the MuchLoved service, you can contact us on support@muchloved.com or call our team on 01494 722818.

A targeted email campaign can help you build a relationship with your tribute owners that maintains their attention, interest and passion for your work

This article provides ideas for an email trigger campaign to encourage your tribute owners to visit, contribute to or share their tribute.  It is also a way for you to build your relationship and support them, especially if recently bereaved.   

The campaign could  be a monthly rolling set of communications, or a series of standalone messages would work just as well.  If you have the MuchLoved subscription service, you can access contact details for your tribute owners, but you’ll need to use your own email marketing platform to run the campaign. 

What are the benefits of the campaign for your tribute owners? 

• Tribute owners feel truly valued because the communications are not just about financial contributions but include emotional involvement and support from the charity  
• They also feel connected to the charity or hospice which helped them at a very sad time, and this can help them as they grieve 

  

Tips for making your campaign a success 

Personalise - If you have the resource available, personalise the emails so that you address recipients by their name and also  include a link to their loved one’s tribute page so they can find it easily.  
Thank your tribute owners - Kick off your campaign with a simple ‘thank you’ message. Let them know that you are grateful that donations in memory of their loved one are coming to your charity and show them what difference the money makes, for instance helping to fund an extra member of staff or buy a price of equipment. 
The financial ask comes later - Don’t rush to ask for a further financial contribution to your charity. Focus on building a mutual relationship and also remind tribute owners of all the ways they can use the tribute page as a place to remember their loved one, such as lighting a candle, writing a story, or adding a virtual gift. 
Share your fundraising ideas - Once you have formed a connection, introduce ideas such as regular giving and fundraising events. Families and friends often find comfort in organising or taking part in an event, either to raise funds for charity or just to remember their loved one. 
Design the campaign to suit you - Be flexible in how you design and deliver your campaign. Emails can be timed to fit with other stewardship activities or designed as the in-memory part of a wider campaign.

Looking for more practical help to build a successful stewardship campaign? 

Watch this 30-minute webinar presented by MuchLoved Account Managers, which includes ideas and suggested content for a rolling campaign of 10 emails. 

Please note that the example we’ve used in the webinar is MuchLoved's fictional charity, called ACSS. Subscribers are welcome to use the imagery suggested for the different communications together with your own branding. 

Our MuchLoved subscription service gives charities access to contact details and GDPR preferences for their tribute owners. To find out more you can contact us on support@muchloved.com or call our team on 01494 722818

Unlock joy for your supporters

Our virtual gifts are available throughout the year with a choice of beautiful and sweet virtual images to leave on a tribute as gifts. These have proven incredibly popular for any occasion, but also for those 'just because' moments, with more than 2,500 gifted every month.

What's more, MuchLoved charity partners get access to additional virtual gift choices on special dates throughout the year. MuchLoved Special Edition Gifts are available for a limited time only, to inspire virtual gifting. They are released about 2 weeks before special dates, to help you as you steward your supporters, and they have a special seasonal touch about them.

Say thank you and so much more

To help you plan your stewardship activities, we're sharing the release dates for our Special Edition Gifts. You can expect to find the Special Edition gifts in your Partner area on these dates:

Explore our gifting features

Gifts are visible to you in your Charity Partner Area, and can be added to tributes by either your tribute visitors and owners or by yourself. Year-round, we're providing a variety of gifting features to you, so they can be as special as your supporters:

Virtual Gifts are available throughout the year, and there is something for every one.

Special Edition Gifts are available for a limited time only on special dates throughout the year.

Bespoke Gifts are your own branded virtual gifts that we create at your request. These are added to your Partner area for use all year. Think badges, ribbons, or branded cuddly toys. What will you commission?

Supporter-centric and always evolving

A postcard 'sent' from your holidays; a box of chocolates for a choco-holic; some flowers on a special day - gifts are just one of many ways to show we care. The opportunity to personalise a tribute is central to helping bereaved individuals remember their loved one. Our Special Edition Virtual Gifts are just one example of how personalised MuchLoved tribute pages can be, and how we are constantly developing and adding features to delight supporters and fundraisers alike.

We also personalise for you! The opportunity to have branded gifts adds an additional flair to our tribute fund scheme. We also release seasonal social media assets to help you create beautiful scroll-stopping posts for all your feeds, and to celebrate your achievements. A fully branded dedication page can be created in a matter of minutes, for a memory wall, a special campaign or more.

Some ideas for gifts and stewardship

What would you give a devoted father or father-figure? What would you bring back from your summer holidays? Virtual gifts are such a special way to continue the bond with a special loved one, and show you care. Beyond the joy of giving, virtual gifts are a wonderful opportunity to steward your supporters.

There are many creative ways to use Special Edition Virtual Gifts, so to get you thinking about what your supporters might like, here are a few ideas:

• Leave gifts on tributes on special occasions to show your tribute owner that you are thinking of them.
• Invite your donors and tribute owners. They may re-visit the tribute and add a new gift of their choice if they wish.
• Check in with them. Virtual gifts are a part of bereavement care, allowing the family to maintain a connection with their loved one.
• Encourage all ages to get involved in gifting! Giving gifts helps the extended family, especially children, do something meaningful and special in honour of the person who has died.

To find out more about using virtual gifts contact our support team on 01494 722818 or email support@muchloved.com

We were fortunate to be joined on one of our MuchLoved Modules by grief expert, John Wilson. Here we explore six myths of coping with loss that John sets out to dispel and look at how people experience grief differently.  

Myth #1 Grief comes in stages

We often hear about the five stages of grief as identified by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance.  What may be news to many is that this framework was not original but based on earlier work by John Bowlby and Colin Murray Parkes, whose stages are: Shock-Numbness, Yearning-Searching, Disorganisation-Despair, and Reorganisation.

The Kübler-Ross stages were devised to help people come to terms with a terminal diagnosis, not a bereavement.  Furthermore, they were meant only as a loose framework.  According to John Wilson, the model is not helpful for people experiencing grief.  Read an article on this topic. 

Myth #2 You need to let it out

A popular myth is that bereaved people need to ‘let it out’ or discharge their emotions in some way to come to terms with their loss, but this idea has been thoroughly disproven.  Many people are naturally resilient and able to cope without experiencing intense grief and distress.   

The Dual Process Model, by Margaret Stroebe and Henk Schut, is a useful tool and shows that people can move between periods of grief whilst carrying on with their life.  

Those who do not feel an intense sense of loss sometimes think there is something wrong with them, but there is no right or wrong way to grieve, and we all experience it in different ways. Family, friends, work and hobbies can provide a welcome source of comfort and distraction from grief.  

Myth #3 You need to let go and move on

Over time, most of us will adapt and learn to live with our grief.  Grief counsellors observe that maintaining continuing bonds with a loved one is incredibly important.  These bonds are unique and personal, but could include:  

• Maintaining family traditions, for instance around Christmas or birthdays 
• Talking about the person you have lost and sharing memories of them.  It can be particularly valuable for children to keep memories alive    
• Setting up an online tribute page as a place to record and share thoughts, memories, photos and more      
• Revisiting your favourite places or continuing with hobbies that you shared 
• Thinking about what you learned from your loved one that will stay will you 

You do not need to let go of your loved one to move on.  Instead, these continuing bonds can help you to move forward, whilst maintaining an enduring connection, taking your loved one with you into the future. 

Myths #4 and #5 ‘I won’t mention it in case it upsets you’ and ‘Don’t cry, you’ll upset yourself’  

It is important to think about what to say and do when relating to newly bereaved people.  They can feel hurt or angry at the reaction that others have to their grief, and we should not underestimate the harm done by avoiding talking to them.  

Bereaved people should not have to worry about managing their own grief so that others don’t feel uncomfortable.  

If a friend or family member has lost someone, don’t try to cheer them up or change the subject.  It’s ok if you don’t know what to say. Tell them that you don’t know what to say and just be there for them. Simply be with them in their grief.  

Myth #6 Grief is an illness, even a psychiatric disorder 

This is a particularly difficult area according to John Wilson.  He believes there is such a thing as grief disorder, whereby people experience prolonged or chronic grief, but this is rare.  The word disorder matters in countries where a diagnosis is required to access counselling (e.g. the US).   

People who experience severe, complex grief disorder can get through it with the help of a skilled grief counsellor.  For others, the experience is less intense and they will recover gradually, with time and support.  Around half of people will grieve healthily and do not need the help of counsellor.  Whether or not to seek counselling is a personal choice for each bereaved person, whatever the nature of their grief.   

Learning to live with grief 

Typically, bereaved people will go on grieving but will reconcile and adapt, learning to live with their grief.  John Wilson has spent many years researching what people do that eventually makes life easier: 

• They can talk about the death without becoming overwhelmingly upset 
• They can make sense of the death.  Covid has made this hard for the many people who weren’t there when their loved one died 
• They can move between feeling sad and getting on with life (Dual Process Model) 
• They can form continuing bonds with loved one which will take them into the future 
• They can find new meaning and purpose in life without their loved one, this can often involve fundraising or participating in activities in their memory  

If you would like to watch John Wilson’s presentation, a recording of the MuchLoved webinar is available here.

As of January 2024, MuchLoved has some exciting news to share - our transition from a charitable trust to a social enterprise.

This new phase represents our unwavering commitment to providing you and the families you serve, as we have for the past 17 years - providing a trusted and beautiful space to remember loved ones. Our aim is to sustain this service for many years to come, and we're delighted to have you by our side on this innovative venture.

Read on to find out what the changes are, what they mean for your business, and how they will help ensure that MuchLoved is the place to remember, long into the future.

What's changed?

From January, the MuchLoved Charitable Trust will exist alongside MuchLoved Ltd, our new social enterprise arm, continuing to provide the UK’s leading tribute platform, funeral notice and donations service. The MuchLoved Charitable Trust will continue to process donations and Gift Aid, but the tribute platform will be run, maintained and improved by the new social enterprise, MuchLoved Ltd.

Whilst this is an updated structure in the way we maintain and develop the service, for families using the tribute pages there is no change at all, and our services remain the same.

Why the change?

We're in this for the long term. To ensure we stand by your side for the next decade and beyond to support bereaved families in your communities, we've carefully considered what it takes to secure a future where MuchLoved continues to be a trusted haven for remembrance.

Creating a social enterprise enables us to continue to provide you, our partners, with the services and enhancements that future-proof us.

Two decades ago, we were the leading developers of the new technology needed to bring tribute pages to you. To maintain this level of innovation and development, we need to continue to invest in our technology services. Imagine a platform that evolves with your business needs, providing a seamless and efficient business support service while offering an even more meaningful experience to commemorate your families' loved ones. We're working towards all that and more.

Our new social enterprise will enable us to generate sustainable income through our business activities and allow us to invest in our platform, to continue to develop everything we offer you, while still upholding our fundamental commitment to supporting bereaved families.

We are here for our partners

As we envision the next ten years and beyond, we want to take a moment to share the key aspects driving this change.

Continued focus

Bereaved families are at the heart of everything we do, and will remain so, always. Our focus remains steadfast on continuing to support them, and this is why our tribute pages continue to be an entirely free service for them to keep and use as long as they wish.

We are committed to looking after you, our partners, to help you in your important work. Your satisfaction is at the foundation of everything we do. We're excited to introduce new ways to serve you, providing support, resources, and value-add services that exceed your expectations. We are constantly enhancing our platform and services with new features and integrations and look forward to sharing news on these in due course.

Meaningful impact

MuchLoved has always been focused on service in the community. We are inspired by the meaningful impact that tribute pages and dedication pages have had on many lives and look forward to continuing to be a force for good. Together with our partner community, we achieved the milestone of raising £150 million for charities to date. Tribute pages are forever, and we're here to offer meaningful ways to remember loved ones, fostering a lasting impact. Together, we can expand our positive impact, and provide comfort and solace, as well as a lasting legacy by supporting causes close to families' hearts.

Since our inception, we've supported 300,000 bereaved families. Every action on our platform - from the moment of lighting a candle, to handing the tribute page over the family, to sharing messages, stories and uploading pictures - holds profound meaning for the bereaved. We firmly believe in the positive influence of our service.

We're excited for this journey ahead and grateful to have you as our partners.

If you have any questions relating to this, please do get in touch with your account manager or contact our support team at support@muchloved.com or 01494 722818.

Thank you for your continued support, collaboration, and for helping MuchLoved be a force for good.

What makes MuchLoved different? It's all the extras we provide for our partners.

Here at MuchLoved we always want to provide the best possible support to our partners. This includes helping them with their social media. We understand that charities are very busy, so we've done all the hard work for you.

We have just added a beautiful new selection of autumnal-themed images to our charity support site. These resources can help our partners not only promote our partnership but also promote your in-memory donations fund.

All images are available free to download and use, and are pre-sized to fit on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter.

We've also added some raw artwork elements, should our partners wish to create their own bespoke designs.

As always, please don't forget to tag us so that we can respond to your posts and share where we can. Our name is different depending on what platform you're posting to, so please see the list below. Thank you.

• Facebook: @MuchLovedHQ
• Instagram: @muchloveduk
• LinkedIn: MuchLoved
• Twitter: @MuchLoved

To download the assets and find all the resources available for our charity partners, please just visit our charity support site. If you have any questions please contact your account manager or our support team.

Not yet a partner?
If you've not yet signed up to MuchLoved, but are interested in how we can support your charity please just get in touch with our support team on 01494 722818 or email support@muchloved.com.

MuchLoved's free dedication pages are perfect for seasonal campaigns and fundraising.

MuchLoved offers all our charity partners access to our dedication page service, flexible, standalone campaign and fundraising pages where your supporters can add a photo, a message and a donation. Best of all, they're free for our partners to use!

What a dedication page offers your charity

Perfect for everything from a Light Up A Life Campaign to a Santa Dash, here are just some of the benefits of using our dedication pages:

• Quick and easy to create - pages can be live in just a few minutes with little staff resource required
• Low cost and low risk - our template pages are free for partners, or if you'd like a bespoke page with your own imagery it's only £130 + VAT
• Customisable - you can edit your links and wording make the page your own
• Donation options - make donations optional, required or switched off entirely
• Permanent or seasonal pages - dedication pages can remain open for as long as you wish, or can be switched off on a certain date
• Ability to turn off new dedications - if you want to keep the page visible but prevent new dedications
• Data-capture options - a great way to build your supporter base.

Dedication pages offer your charity an easy and meaningful way to give back to your supporters, and engage with them to develop your in-memory supporter base. Quickly and efficiently gather both existing and new supporter data, as a way to build long-term relationships.

You can combine a dedication page with an offline stewardship plan, so the dedication page could be the first touch communication, with further communications tailored after a supporter has engaged with the page. It also allows you to view supporter stories, to help build a case study bank on an individual basis.

Some seasonal examples of dedication pages

Dedication pages let you engage with your supporters and raise vital funds. They can be a key part of your in-memory stewardship plans, at low risk and low cost.

If you're not yet a partner and would like to learn more about dedication pages, or any part of our service, please contact our team on 01494 722818 or email support@muchloved.com.

• Facebook
• Instagram link to MuchLoved Account
• LinkedIn
• Twitter

After generating over 1,250 supporter engagements in only two weeks from their first in-memory dedication page, the Mental Health Foundation (MHF) are already looking to use their page again in the future. We spoke to them to find out the secret of their success.

Isabel Collinge, Individual Giving Officer at the MHF, was delighted with the results of their recent campaign. Prior to starting to work with MuchLoved in April 2023, the charity only had a small in-memory program in place, receiving organic donations through our site and with little in the way of stewardship, particularly since homeworking became a way of life in the wake of the pandemic.

Creating a dedication page for their campaign has helped them start to build their in-memory supporter base, helped improve their stewardship and helped them raise funds in one easy sweep. But how did they do it?

To coincide with Mental Health Awareness Week, the charity launched an online campaign using a MuchLoved dedication page, asking people to share a memory, or to say their loved one's name on the page.

They used the increased web traffic from the awareness week to launch their campaign to grow their in-memory giving. The team wanted to create engagement amongst their supporters and generate income, aiming to reach and engage with their existing supporters, as well as connect with a new audience.

Isabel and her team promoted their dedication page on social media, using simple paid ads on Facebook and Instagram, produced by a digital agency. They targeted a broad audience to reach potential new supporters.

Below are a few of the simple but effective ads they used in their campaign:

Measuring Success

For Isabel and the MHF team, success was measured in engagement and a secondary goal of income generation.

Their page went from 0 dedications to over 1,250 in two weeks. They also received emails from people thanking them, who thought it was a lovely thing to do and appreciating the space to share their loved one's story.

They also received over £1,200 in donations, from a very soft ask - which exceeded their expectations.

Following the campaign, one supporter decided to set up a tribute fund and funeral notice, raising nearly £2,000 - all from leaving one dedication on the page.

Isabel said, "Our choice to use ad spend on this campaign meant we knew it would not bring immediate high returns on expenditure – however, it created a page we can promote again in the future, and gave us a start in developing an in-memory audience for the first time. I look forward to seeing how else we can use our page to engage with our supporters throughout the rest of the year. "

Making the most of your page

Finally, Isabel shares her top tips for creating and making the most of a dedication page:

1. Have a good knowledge base surrounding grief and signposting before you begin - especially if you promote your page on social media, or with ads.
   
2. Have strong safeguarding processes in place. Many of our messages were about suicide, so social media needed moderating, and staff who were dealing with the wall every day may need support. 
   
3. Know that journeys with grief are personal – tribute funds and in-memory giving are a big ask and only appropriate at certain points in that journey. A dedication wall is an opportunity to share and reflect, no matter where you are with your grief.

If you're interested in learning more about setting up a dedication page or any aspect of our service, please get in touch - we're here to help. Call 01494 722818 or email us at support@muchloved.com

2023 is flying by, and it's already time for some new social media resources. Our latest summer assets are now available to download from our support site.

Our design team has created a range of lovely social media optimised images for summer. They're ready for you to add your charity branding and tribute fund info, and share across your channels. Promoting both tribute pages and our partnership, they're seasonal assets with lots of colour for your social feeds. All images are set for 1080 x 1080 pixels, and will work across Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram posts (please note this will not work for a reel but there are individual assets you can use to build your own artwork too).

Top tip: Please don't forget to tag our accounts on each social channel! That way we'll be able to respond and reply to your posts to increase the reach for both our organisations.

All of this information is also available on the same section on the support site for you, but if you have any questions please don't hesitate to get in touch.

Going the extra mile

All of these resources and assets are all available on our support site. There's also some MuchLoved logos and some 'about us' wording (short, medium and long versions) to make life easier. Just go to 'Partner Resources' in the top menu, and then select 'Social Media'. As always there is a host of other information on the support site, from quick access 'how to' videos, to signing up to our newsletter.

All of this; our support site, seasonal assets, training videos, and our dedication page service to name but a few, are just some of the ways that MuchLoved goes the extra mile, to make sure we offer you the best service and support. If you're a partner and are unsure about any aspect of our service, please just get in touch. We can provide bespoke one-to-one training, or guide you to online learning you can access at your convenience. We're here to help.

Not yet a partner?
If you've not yet signed up to MuchLoved, but are interested in how we can support your charity please just get in touch with our support team on 01494 722818 or email support@muchloved.com.
As a charity with over 15 years experience in tribute funds, MuchLoved is the leading choice for in-memory giving, and can not only help you improve your income, but help you offer your families even more.

Father’s Day can be incredibly difficult when you’re grieving, especially if you’ve recently lost a father, father figure or a child. We know you want to offer the families you work with all the help you can, and build relationships with them, but how do you do that?

Promoting your tribute fund scheme for Father’s Day not only offers a great way to illustrate how tribute pages can help families, but it can also help demonstrate your need for funds, how you help your supporters, and the impact donations can make.

We’ve come up with a few suggestions of what you can post to connect with your followers and prospective supporters on social media. It’s a great way to show your charity’s case for support without a direct ask.

1. Offer something to your supporters – no ask included

Promote your tribute fund scheme and make it clear that this is a special place to cherish memories of their loved ones. First and foremost, it’s a way to remember and celebrate the life of the person they’ve lost. Emphasise that pages are theirs, for free, to keep for as long as they wish. Make no mention of fundraising; instead focus purely on what a page can do for your families. This is a great place to start if you’ve not promoted tribute pages as yet on your social media channels.

2. Share all the ways that a page can help families

A page is a beautiful, safe space to store their precious memories, and they can make the page as unique as the person they’re remembering. They can add photos, stories and memories, videos and music, and connect with family worldwide to remember that person. Focus again on what a page offers families, and offer your support to create a page if needed.

3. Share the impact of your tribute fund scheme

Rather than ask for in-memory funds, focus on what funds have already done for your charity. Have you been able to buy a particular piece of equipment? Carry our research, or employ new staff? Seeing the tangible results from in-memory giving can be very important to grieving families and may be the push they need to set up a tribute page themselves.

4. Share your tips on coping with grief  

Write a blog about coping with Father’s Day – and share it across your social feeds. Showing your expertise like this can be a great way to build trust in your charity. It doesn’t have to be very long; simple is often better. Alternatively, you could share our latest public blog about grieving on Father’s Day – we won’t mind (though please tag and credit us appropriately!).

5. Share a case study

If you have one, share the story or case study of a supporter who already has a tribute page, detailing how it has helped them, with a quote and photo if possible. Having ambassadors like this for a tribute fund scheme can make a real difference to potential in-memory donors, as they can connect with the person featured in the story.

And finally...

We’ve created some beautiful images to accompany these posts, all available to download for free on our charity support site. Just visit the ‘promotion’ section and choose social media to learn more.

If you're not yet a MuchLoved partner, contact us to learn how we can help your charity thrive. Our partnership offers the leading online tribute fund and in-memory donations scheme, and provides regular ideas and resources to help your charity grow. With free unlimited training and support whenever you need it, there's nothing like MuchLoved.

Get in touch on 01494 722818 or email our team at support@muchloved.com (no bots for us; you’ll get through to the team in Amersham, Bucks, who can answer all your questions).

In-memory events are a fantastic way for your supporters to remember their loved ones, and they offer you a unique opportunity to engage with your supporters at the same time.

Our events module allows supporters to create both fundraising and memorial events on their tribute pages, a service unique to MuchLoved. This means your supporters can use their MuchLoved page to co-ordinate memorial events with family, for example memory walks, or a celebration of life event, and connect through our pages. They can also then organise fundraising events in the same way, anything from a crafting or baking event to a family skydiving day.

This means our events are not only a great way to connect with bereaved supporters who are actively fundraising for you, but also they also allow you to connect with supporters who aren't quite ready to take on fundraising, so you can nurture the relationship and build long-term connections.

There is often a relationship between in-memory giving and legacy giving, so cultivating supporters in this way can be the start of an important pipeline. Tribute pages with events are also often those that raise the most funds, and there are a wide range of event types with pre-loaded images to help you set them up quickly and easily - the video below shows just a few of the possibilities.

As a charity, you can also organise events through our platform, and then share them directly to your supporters using MuchLoved pages. So for example, if you were organising a memory walk yourselves, you could upload this to the Events section in your partner area, and it would appear for your supporters on their tribute pages, so they can join the event. You can either specify an event on a particular date for supporters to join, or you can create an event to use as a template, that supporters can then organise themselves, all linking back to your charity.

If you have any questions about the events module, or would like to learn more, you can either speak to your Account Manager, or visit the New User Training section on our Charity Support Site, where there are a number of step-by-step videos to guide you through everything.

If you're not yet a partner, but would like to learn more about our events, and the other ways we can help you boost your in-memory giving income, please just get in touch. Call us on 01494 722818 or email support@muchloved.com. We can set up a demo for you and talk you through all of the features we offer our partners.

By Ali Haines

At MuchLoved, we work hard to provide the best possible service to our partners, but at the heart of what our charity does are the bereaved families that need support. 

Our tribute pages are much more than a tool for managing online donations or funeral collections.  They can offer your supporters long-term bereavement care by giving them a beautiful, dedicated place to remember that special person. 

Many MuchLoved tribute pages are created by funeral directors as part of their service to the family and are integral to the funeral organisation.  The Funeral Notice feature on the tribute helps bereaved families to share funeral details with their wider family and friends.  It also provides a place to share a live streaming link, for those not able to attend in person, and to post the Order of Service, which is often a carefully and lovingly crafted tribute in itself.  

Once the funeral is over, the funeral details can be archived (we do this automatically for our funeral partners) so they are no longer the focus of the tribute page but can still be found in the tribute page Galleries.  

In the weeks, months and even years after the funeral, tribute pages give families a dedicated place to remember that special person.  They offer a beautiful, unique space to share stories and thoughts about their loved ones, or to post photos and videos as a way of sharing precious memories.  Many bereaved people find comfort in lighting candles, and return to the page every year on their loved one’s birthday, for instance, to light a new candle.  Wherever they are in the world, friends and families can connect and celebrate, and commemorate the life of the person they’ve lost.

Families can now organise events through their tribute page, for example, a memorial walk or a special meal, serving their loved one’s favourite dishes, to commemorate them. Many also continue to donate to their chosen charities for a long time afterwards, and may even organise fundraising events through their page. We’ve seen family skydiving days, walking challenges, fun runs, and gala dinners, to name but a few - all fundraising for amazing causes and allowing the family to do something positive in the face of their loss.

Online tribute pages continue to grow in popularity.  Last year, over 62,000 MuchLoved tribute pages were created, meaning an average of more than 5,100 families each month set up a special place to remember their loved one, often with the help of their funeral director or a charity close to their hearts.  Tribute pages can remain open for as long as the family wishes, free of charge.

Tribute pages also play a key role in driving in-memory donations and fundraising.  Since MuchLoved was founded we have donated over £130 million to good causes, raising £25 million in 2022 alone, thanks to the generosity of families and our partnerships with charities and funeral directors.  To date over 6,000 charities, community organisations and other good causes have benefited from these in-memory donations.

Help to Create Their Place to Remember 

If you'd like to find out more about working with MuchLoved, and how you can offer this valuable service to your supporters, please contact us at 01494 722818 or email us at support@muchloved.com.

Ali Haines & Rebecca Noble

“Digital in-memory giving is here to stay”, according to Kate Jenkinson, Head of In-Memory Consultancy at Legacy Foresight. In this article, we explore the growth of in-memory giving and its power to generate much-needed funds for charities and good causes, as well as celebrate the lives of our loved ones.

The origins of in-memory giving

When someone we love dies, supporting their favourite cause, or an organisation that was involved in caring for them can be a positive and meaningful way to commemorate them.

Traditionally, this would have been a collection in-person at the funeral, with cash and cheque donations processed by the funeral director. Many families now instead prefer to request donations to a favourite charity in lieu of funeral flowers, boosting the trend for in-memory giving. This can often lead to longer-term support for a charity or good cause, and regular supporter engagement with the charity. 

Online tribute pages play an increasingly key role in driving in-memory donations and fundraising, which is a crucial income stream for charities across the UK. Last year, our award-winning funeral notice, donations and tribute service raised £25 million for good causes, in partnership with over 300 charity partners and 500 funeral directors.

The pandemic effect

A 2019 report by Legacy Foresight predicted that legacy and in-memory donations to UK charities would be worth twice as much in real terms in 25 years, reaching £10 billion by 2045. Further research conducted during the pandemic noted that donors had used tribute pages more than ever to donate, light virtual candles, or simply leave thoughts and memories. 

Kate Jenkinson reported in August 2020, during the heart of the pandemic, that “In-memory giving is moving online. The trend has been propelled this year, partly born out of the restrictions of social distancing, but also because the online connections people make are highly relevant. They reflect the ways that many of us live our daily lives and answer many of our fundamental needs in the aftermath of bereavement.”*

A Growing Trend

Here at MuchLoved, the number of tributes created each month continues to increase, growing to over 5,100 tributes being created on average each month in 2022. This is a 160% increase since 2018.

Not only that, but we’re also seeing more families revisiting and developing their tribute pages as a lasting memorial tool - which is not only hugely gratifying for us but also means that families are finding comfort in their pages.

Candles are also increasingly popular - quadrupling in use between 2018 and 2022, with over 16,500 candles being added each month last year. People have become more comfortable with engaging with online tribute pages, and using them to remember their loved ones - especially for those milestone moments like birthdays, anniversaries and Christmas. 

Similarly, we saw an increase in the number of Thoughts being posted on our tribute pages - with a 60% increase from 2020 to 2022 - perhaps reflecting the broader social trend for connecting and sharing online.

A growing number of families are also using the Events feature on their tribute page to help their in-memory fundraising efforts. We say a 100% increase of Events being added to pages between 2020 and 2022.

We are delighted that our enhanced Events functionality, introduced last year, is helping many of our charity partners with their own events programmes. Of course, events don’t have to raise money and we’re pleased to give families the option to share details of memorial and celebratory events too, like a family memorial walk or tree planting. 

Boosting your fundraising

If you'd like to find out more about working with MuchLoved, and how we can help grow your in-memory income, please contact us at 01494 722818 or email us at support@muchloved.com.

*Source: Fundraising.co.uk

By Ali Haines & Rebecca Noble

Christmas can be a difficult time when someone close to you has died. With potential reminders everywhere it can be tough, especially when people around you are celebrating. 

We share some quick and easy ways to connect with your supporters this Christmas using their MuchLoved tribute pages, as well some simple suggestions to help them through the festive season.

Connecting with your bereaved supporters this Christmas

Christmas for many is a time for joy and family, but for someone bereaved, it can be an incredibly painful time. Connecting with your supporters using your MuchLoved tribute fund can be a great way to let them know you're thinking of them, and to help build longer-term relationships.

Light a virtual candle on a tribute page

It's quick and easy to light a virtual candle on a supporter's tribute page. We have a variety of candles that last for different lengths of time, from our Christmas candle that lasts one month, candles that last for one day, and even a candle that lasts for 100 years.

You can schedule candles to be lit in advance, so you can save time and arrange all your candles at once, and then get in touch with the families as a follow-up communication.

Add a virtual gift

Along with virtual candles, we also offer a range of Christmas-themed virtual gifts; beautiful images that can be added to a tribute page, at no additional cost of course.

Like candles these can be scheduled in advance to appear on a tribute page, to save you time. You can add a personal message to the family to let them know you're thinking of them.

You could even choose to have a bespoke charity-branded virtual gift - speak to your account manager if you'd like to know more.

You could also contact your tribute fund holders to let them know that virtual gifts and candles are available for them to add to their tribute pages this Christmas. They may not be aware, and you can encourage engagement and interaction both with their pages and with your charity.

Virtual gifts available this Christmas

You could view the reports in your Partner Area to see which tribute funds have received donations over the festive period, and connect with those supporters who are actively donating in memory of their loved ones at this time of year, to engage with them and offer further support. Alternatively, you could also choose to add gifts to tribute pages that haven't had much activity, to see if this can re-engage your supporters and give you a conversation starter to get in touch.

Whatever you choose to do, your supporters will appreciate the fact that you're thinking of them at a difficult time of year.

For Your Supporters: Coping this Christmas

1. Celebrate their life

As a family, your supporters may like to decide together what they want to do to remember their loved one. They may wish to start some new traditions, or incorporate them into the traditions they already have, as a special way to remember them.

This could be visiting a special place, lighting a candle, or buying a new decoration for the tree.  They might like to visit the grave or the place where the ashes were scattered and place a Christmas card there, or ask friends and family to write special messages on star-shaped cards and hang these up with ribbons. 

They could remember their loved one by cooking their favourite meal, or listening to their favourite music, and of course, they can add a beautiful virtual gift to their MuchLoved tribute page, like a card or a teddy, or even light a virtual candle on their page. 

2. Be Kind to Themselves

As we approach Christmas, it's important your supporters give themselves permission to look forward to the season if they want to.  Equally, they should also allow themselves not to be ok if that’s how they feel. If they want to cover their house in decorations, that’s fine. If they don’t want a hint of glitter or tinsel and want to ignore the season entirely whenever possible, that’s fine too. It's all about what works for them.

It’s important to allow time for themselves, whether that’s having a hot bath, a cup of tea with a friend, a walk, or reading a favourite book. It is perfectly ok to want to have some time to just be alone with their thoughts and emotions. This is not the time to put themselves last to please other people.

Christmas is a time for kindness, so the main thing that they should try and remember is to be kind to themselves, whatever that entails. Being honest with family and friends is crucial, explaining what they feel comfortable with at this time of year.

All of this being said, if your supporters do feel like celebrating, even in part, and laughing and smiling too, that’s also fine. It’s okay to feel happy when you’re bereaved.

3. Find some structure

If they can, your supporters could try and stick to some sort of routine over the festive season. It’s all too easy without our normal patterns to guide us to forget to look after ourselves. Whether it’s walking their dog at the same time each day, calling a relative each evening or reading another chapter of a book, some sort of structure and sense of routine can be helpful. 

4. Allow themselves to grieve

They shouldn't feel that they have to hide their grief over the festive season and pretend that everything is okay. Reaching out to someone and talking about the person they've lost can be helpful, be that family or friends who can share memories of that person, or connecting with a counsellor, like the experts at GriefChat. Sharing their feelings may help them cope, and make the season a little more bearable. 

5. Give to others

At a time when nothing feels normal, and it can be easy to feel overwhelmed, sometimes giving to others can be incredibly cathartic. For example, your charity could ask for a charitable donation in honour of your loved one, in a Light up a Life campaign, or set up one of our Dedication Pages as a simple and accessible way for your supporters to honour their loved ones and support your work.

You could also suggest that your supporters involve themselves in volunteer work over the festive season, to help fill their time if they need, or to do something different. They could volunteer to serve festive meals on Christmas Day, or deliver food parcels to families in need. Helping others can offer a break from their normal activities, and help them focus their attention on something positive over Christmas. 

Our latest update sees some big changes to our search function, as well as some changes to your reporting area. Read on to find out the full details.

Everything in One Place

With our latest release in November 2022, we've changed the search function of our platform. Instead of having to search by name or reference in multiple places, now you can search for one key term in the search field, and the system will bring up all corresponding results, including tribute pages, donors and tribute owners, for you to choose from.

Watch our short video for a quick run through of the new updates:

Quicker and easier to use, this means you now only have to search in one place for any information you need. We've got a detailed video explaining all the new search functions, and a step-by-step guide on our charity support site.

Updated Reporting Options

We've also made some changes to our reports, to make it easier to see everything you need.

We've added a new reporting area to your Partner Area - find it from the Reports menu. You can now:

• Download the exact information you want at the click of a button, with our new data filters
• Save your filter options for future use to save you time
• Schedule these reports to automatically download at a time convenient for you

These more detailed reports will now pull information up to midnight the day before you generate the report.

For more details about these changes, and a step-by-step guide to our new reporting area, please visit your dedicated support site.

Being innovative is one of our core values as a charity, and we continue to work to offer the best possible service to all of our partners. If there's something that you think we could improve or develop, please do let us know, we always like to have feedback from our partners.

If you'd like to find out more about working with MuchLoved, and how we can support your charity, please contact us at 01494 722818 or email us at support@muchloved.com.

Christmas can be one of the best, and busiest times for fundraising. At MuchLoved we can help boost your fundraising quickly and easily this festive season, with our standalone campaign pages, and our stewardship options to connect with your in-memory supporters.

The best bit? They're all free for our partners.

Christmas Campaign Pages

With our Dedication Page service, you can build a standalone fundraising page to support your Christmas campaign in minutes. We have a range of templates for you to choose from, that you can personalise for your charity. We host the page, all you need to do is choose your template options, publish it and then share the link. You can ask for donations for a specific campaign or event, and supporters can share messages and photos alongside their donations.

Just a few of the many ways you can use a Dedication Page include:

• Light up a Life campaign page
• Santa Dash fundraising page
• Winter Lights/trail page - ask for donations to attend the event, paid easily via the page
• Christmas competition pages - donate and upload an entry at the same time
• Christmas memory wall - with or without donations, you can choose

Top tip: If you're organising a live event, like a Santa Dash, create a QR code for your page so supporters can upload their photos and donations on the day, quickly and easily from their phones.

** New** training resources: If you're one of our partners, we've just put together a new free MuchLoved e-learning course on how to set up Dedication Pages, and how to promote them to your supporters. There's even a certificate when you complete the course. Find out more on our e-learning hub.

Steward Your Supporters

Christmas can be a difficult time if you've lost someone, and we offer a number of ways to gently and sensitively connect with your bereaved supporters. This can help build your long-term donor relationships, and also boost seasonal income.

Light a candle on a tribute page

Available from mid-November, our Christmas candles are a subtle way to communicate with your supporters, without directly contacting them. The tribute owner will be notified that a candle has been 'lit' on their tribute, and you can add a message when you add the candle, to let them know you're thinking of them. This can often prompt communication from your supporters, and is a great way to re-engage and connect with them.

Candles can be instantly added to a tribute page, or you can schedule them in advance, and they will appear on a specific date, to save you time. You can also specify how long the candle is set to 'burn' for (appear on the page) if you wish to.*

*Christmas candles have set 'burn' times, normally for one week.

Virtual Gifts

Another way to connect with your supporters over Christmas is to add a virtual gift to their tribute pages. From mid-November we'll be releasing a range of seasonal virtual gifts to add to a page. Beautiful images that can be added to tribute pages, we have a large range of options, from flowers, garlands, cards and even teddy bears. You can also add an optional message when you add a gift to a page, and you can schedule them to appear in advance, like our candles.

Quicker and easier than sending a card, or making a phone call, candles and virtual gifts are a light-touch way of connecting with your donors and letting them know you're thinking of them this festive season.

You can also encourage your supporters to light candles and leave gifts themselves on tribute pages. It's an easy and personal way for them to re-engage with a page, and draw them back to their tribute fund, and help them reconnect with your charity if they haven't been in touch in a while.

Top tip: If you've got some imagery specific to your charity, you can send us your artwork and we can create bespoke virtual gifts just for your charity free of charge, and only available to your supporters on their tribute pages. Contact your account manager to find out more.

If you'd like to learn more about working with MuchLoved, and how we can help improve your in-memory fundraising, please get in touch with our team, at support@muchloved.com or on 01494 722818.

We offer all of our partners free ongoing training and support, from personal one-to-one training sessions to online learning modules.

We also have our expert team of support staff, based in our offices in Buckinghamshire, who are here to support you during office hours. This article will walk you through all of the resources and support we have available, and how you can access them. We're here to help.

Our Support Team

Our support staff are a wonderful team of friendly and knowledgable people here to help with all your queries and questions. From payment queries, to specific questions about tribute pages, or helping tribute guardians directly, they're on hand to answer. Available Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm by phone, email and now Live Chat, we also regularly check our messages out of hours in case there's an emergency that requires urgent attention.

All of our team are trained and based here in our offices in Amersham, Bucks (no bots for us!) so when you contact us we can give you the personalised support you need. To get in touch with the support team call us on 01494 722818 or email support@muchloved.com.

Support Site

Our charity support site is a website dedicated to helping your charity make the most of our platform, and details everything we offer in our Partnership Packages.

You can sign up for our modules, watch training videos, read step-by-step learning guides and even read our tips for working with bereaved supporters.

There are also suggestions and ideas for promoting your tribute fund scheme, including social media assets for you to download.

Training

Your charity can access direct, personal training over the phone (or Zoom if prefer), whenever you need it. New starter joining your team? We can run a quick zoom session to get them up to speed.

A query or something you're not entirely familiar with? We can run a tailored session for you and walk you through the process step-by-step until all your questions are answered. All of this training is free and available as often as you need. This can be particularly helpful when training new team members keen to use our service.

E-Learning

Our e-learning hub is an online learning resource, with easily accessible modules covering the key parts of our service, including our new Events Module. Simple to use, courses are quick and easy to follow, and you can learn when convenient to you. There are even certificates for completing a course, for you to display with pride.

Our courses cover basic use and how to get started, advanced features and the extras we offer as part of our Partnership Plus (all included for free of course). All of these courses are under 20 minutes in length so you can be up and running in less than half an hour.

MuchLoved Modules

MuchLoved Modules are our regular online webinars, focusing on a particular topic or aspect of our service, with our team on hand to answer any questions you may have. We also look at best practices and ideas sharing between organisations, and share our expertise and insights to help you make the most of your MuchLoved service and improve your in-memory fundraising.

Modules are run throughout the year and are advertised on our support site, as well as via our monthly emails.

If you have any questions about our service, or would like to know more about working with us, please get in touch on 01494 722818 or email support@muchloved.com.

Promoting your tribute funds and dedication pages is a key step to a successful scheme. Here we share our top tips for sharing them with your supporters.

What to say

1. Focus on your supporters

A tribute fund, while being a great way to encourage donations, is first and foremost a bereavement care tool. It allows your bereaved supporters to remember the person they’ve lost, and celebrate their lives, all online, whatever the restrictions they may be facing.

They can connect with family all over the world, and share their memories, stories and photos, to help them grieve and help support them. Any promotion using this as the focus, with fundraising as a gentle secondary message is a safe bet and is unlikely to offend; you’re thinking of your supporters and trying to help them.

This is often a good first step in tribute fund promotion, to get your supporters used to the idea if you’ve not promoted tribute funds previously. 

2. Talk about outcomes

We know that people give to people; donors give to causes that they can empathise with and they like to see tangible results.

If you can, share how the tribute funds set up for your charity have made a difference. For example, how much the tribute funds have raised this year, and the equipment/service that this sum can pay for.

3. Real-life examples 

Case studies are a great way to demonstrate what tributes are about, and how they can help a bereaved family. If possible, build a small bank of shareable stories that you can share, with quotes and photos from existing fund holders, to share across social and print media, and your website. 

If you have a supporter willing to share their story, could they be a fund ambassador? Involving a real-life fund holder who can talk about their own experiences can promote a powerful message, which you could share in print and on your website and social media.

Top Tip: Don’t forget to look at our social media example posts on our charity support site if you’re an existing partner.

Where to say it

1. On your website

There’s no point in having some wonderful social media posts or flyers if your website doesn’t include the information your potential supporters need. The links to your tribute fund scheme need to be easily accessible and visible, and use the same language and if possible imagery as any social posts, to make it recognisable for supporters. Someone recently bereaved has a lot to cope with, so you need to make it especially easy for them. 

Explain what a tribute fund is and how it works very clearly and visibly, with obvious signposting to set up a page. A good way to engage supporters is to include the personal contact details of the In-Memory Fundraiser (if you have one) or the person responsible for this area, so that if there are any questions they can be easily answered. 

Top tip: Don’t forget about information for funeral collections, this is often the first point of contact and a good way to introduce your tribute fund scheme. 

2. Fundraising events

As well as a remembrance tool to share memories and make donations, a tribute fund page is also a central hub for fundraising events and activities for families.

For example, if a family want to host a game night in memory of an avid card player, or take on a skydive in honour of someone special, this can all be collated into their tribute fund, including photos and even videos of these special events.

The tribute fund can show the family how much they are all raising collectively, and seeing that sum increase and being able to do something tangible can be of great comfort to bereaved families. 

Families often don’t realise that all of this can be done on their unique tribute fund page, so it’s worth pointing out to them. Let your existing tribute fund holders know and spread the word to reach a wider audience of potential fund holders. 

3. Print Materials

You may want to consider having promotional materials to distribute, at events (when they can happen again) or to staff that are public-facing. Make sure that there are obvious web links back to your tribute scheme home page.

You could try different formats to deliver the information, from a simple leaflet, business card, notebook, pen, or even a bookmark.

Depending on your available resources, you could create a bereavement pack and include a leaflet about tribute funds, or simply mention tribute funds in your in-memory ‘thank you’ letters.

And finally, build relationships with Funeral Directors. Your tribute service collects and processes donations from funerals set up by Funeral Directors, but it can also be used to set up collections directly on your website. Building good relationships with Funeral Directors may mean they choose to recommend your charity to the families they work with. Find out more in the section on partnering with funeral directors on our charity support site. 

If you'd like to find out more about working with us, and how we can help your charity increase your in-memory income, please give us a call on 01494 722818 or email support@muchloved.com

Good stewardship is a crucial component of in-memory fundraising. We explore the best ways to promote and encourage in-memory giving from your supporters, and help them draw comfort from their tribute page and funds.

We know that in-memory giving makes a vital difference to charity income. In-memory givers are three times more likely to make a legacy pledge*, and a report** suggests that in-memory donations to UK charities will be worth twice as much in 25 years’ time, even up to £10 billion. So how do you maximise your in-memory donations?

Stewardship

Putting your supporter at the heart of your activities is the key way to offering them great stewardship. Tribute funds are not only a way to help raise funds, but crucially they are a fantastic bereavement support tool and can bring comfort to the families you’re working with. 

A tribute page helps bereaved families to remember their loved ones and celebrate their life, and share these memories far and wide with family and friends easily. Using a page to add thoughts and memories, photos and videos can help them during their grief. 

A tribute page not only allows the family to keep their loved one’s memory alive, but they can remember them on special occasions and milestones, which can be especially difficult to manage. For example, the first Christmas, birthday or anniversary without them can be incredibly hard for the family to cope with. A tribute page gives them a safe, secure space to remember the person they've lost on these special occasions; they can share pictures and light candles, and even add a virtual gift to their page.

Careful stewardship and support of your tribute fund holders is key to helping them get the most from a tribute page, and to supporting their in-memory donations. If families have a good experience and receive good care they are far more likely to become repeat donors in the future.

1. Remember the why

In our experience, the most important thing in connecting with and stewarding bereaved donors is to remember why they are supporting your charity in the first place. In-memory givers are very different to other fundraisers; their motivation is very different, and this needs to be acknowledged, preferably straight away. Don't be afraid to mention the loved ones they have lost, they are likely to be thinking of them anyway and acknowledging them validates their donations and support. Of course, you have to be tactful and careful - even with donors who lost someone a long time ago - but don't shy away from mentioning them, they are the reason your donor is connecting with you.

2. Start early 

It’s often difficult to know what to say when one of your supporters is recently bereaved, but offering them a tribute fund early on can be one way to help them. It offers something practical for them to do and a beautiful way to remember their loved ones. Starting the conversation early can mean the whole family can become involved and they can consolidate all the fundraising in memory of the person they've lost, to see what they have achieved. 

3. Send a welcome pack

It’s a great idea to send your supporters a welcome pack with all the information they need to know, to engage them early on. This can be a simple leaflet or booklet, or even a PDF if your budget is tight. It could include:

• Cover letter or handwritten card, personalised for your supporter
• Case study - an example of how another family has used a tribute fund to remember their loved one, and ideally how it has been a positive experience for family and friends to remember that person
• Clear instructions on setting up a tribute page with links to your website
• Ideas and suggestions on how to raise funds
• Information on how funds raised will help your work, and if there is a commemoration event/item that could be purchased i.e. raising £50 helps us send a family a support pack, or £1,000 buys us a new piece of equipment.

You can tailor your pack to suit your available time and resources, but anything you send will help start to build your relationship with the family. If possible, always personalise communications, as this personal touch can make all the difference to a grieving family. 

Top Tip: Bonjoro allows you to send short personal videos via email, really allowing you to add that personal touch for your supporters, as a great alternative to a handwritten card or letter. Best of all they offer free packages!

4. Let them know you’re thinking of them

Tribute pages offer a fantastic reason to stay in touch with your supporters in the long term, and give them ongoing comfort and support as they process their grief. When a big milestone is coming up for the family, perhaps their first Christmas without their loved one, or a birthday or anniversary, you can simply light a candle or add a virtual gift on their tribute page. This is quick and easy, and a very ‘soft touch’ means of letting the family know you’re thinking of them. You can even set up an annual anniversary date alert in the MuchLoved system, so you’ll be notified automatically.

5. Support them in their fundraising 

From a fundraising perspective, a tribute fund allows the family to see all of the funds raised in their loved one’s honour - and seeing this total rise, along with clear information on how this can help your charity can be a great comfort to them. 

Fundraising gives the family something to focus on, and something tangible they can actually do. Often families find focusing on events, activities and fundraising gives them some measure of solace. Try and ensure that the family understand that a tribute fund can act like an ‘umbrella fund’, so all of their activities, including merchandise purchases, event fundraising, regular gifts etc (depending on your charity’s policies) can all be counted in a tribute fund, to encourage them to support you in different ways, and that wider family can participate too. 

Keeping in touch with the family with an annual thank you letter or note including their updated fund total will keep their fundraising fresh in their mind and encourage them to continue supporting your work. If they hit a milestone amount e.g. £5,000, it is also a good way to stay in touch and let them know what their fundraising has achieved. These outcomes can be of great comfort to a family when they see what they have achieved, and this communication can renew your relationship with the supporter.

*https://www.legacyforesight.co.uk/consultancy/news/#giving-tomorrow-legacy-and-in-memory-2045
**https://fundraising.co.uk/2020/01/22/in-memory-givers-three-times-more-likely-to-make-legacy-pledge/

A special guest post by Kate Jenkinson, in-memory consultant and researcher for the In-Memory Insight Consortium. Contact Kate at kate@legacyvoice.co.uk or visit www.legacyvoice.co.uk

Kate has kindly shared five of her top tips to help charities take a fresh look at the in-memory content on their website, and the principles that have a big impact on this area of income.

Why does your online in-memory content matter so much?

Firstly, your landing area has always been your charity’s main shop window for in-memory opportunities. It’s your best, most cost-effective channel for creating awareness of in-memory giving as an option; for inspiring people to think about their own personal choices; and for equipping them with the fundraising and donation tools they need. 

If you imagine that many people trying to access your in-memory information are in a state of emotional stress, they really appreciate ‘pull’ rather than ‘push' information that they can access easily – on their own terms, in their own time. 

I said this has ‘always’ been the case, but then of course, this time two years ago, the world changed.

The age of online giving is here

From then onwards, the most remarkable trend we’ve seen in the in-memory world has been this huge shift to online giving; and with it, a general move towards a higher number of lower value donations.

With this in mind, one fundraising area that we expected to continue growing throughout the pandemic is in-memory giving through online collection pages; and it has done just that.

What's changed

Back in 2018/19, tribute funds only actually accounted for about 6% of total in-memory income – this has now risen to 14%. In our benchmarking, the average number of active tribute funds almost doubled between March 2020 and March 2021. The average annual income per active tribute fund also increased by around a quarter.

In effect, tribute funds have doubled their importance; and this growth has been seen across all different sectors of charities.

We don’t think that these are trends that will reverse – we think acceptance and familiarity with online giving have grown way beyond the point of return.

Digital in-memory activity is here to stay. It’s embedded into people’s lives through administration and communication and also has a deeper role to play in people’s holistic experience of loss. This just makes it even more critical that your online offers are working as hard for you as they can. With that in mind, here are five of my top tips for making your online content work for you.

1. Take your supporters straight to your in-memory offering

The first thing to do is to sense-check that you’re taking prospects to your in-memory information by the most direct route you can, with the minimum number of clicks. 

It’s so important that people in this situation don’t have to try too hard to access your content, because really they need very little incentive just to leave your site.

Bear in mind that people might try different things to locate your content, so they might go straight to your website search function and use a keyword like ‘funeral’ or ‘remember’ – it’s really worth testing out a few of these search terms for yourself and seeing what results come back.

You need to make sure that you’ve got all these potential routes covered and that from every point of entry you’re sign-posting prospects back to your main in-memory landing page.

2. Listen hard to your in-memory voice

The tone of voice is probably the most important constituent of the overall look and feel you’re trying to create with an in-memory audience, so it’s surprising just how many landing pages are still falling short.

Some of the main things we come across in this area are: 

• A lack of context – not welcoming the visitor to the landing area, or not expressing gratitude that they are even considering a gift in memory.
• Lack of empathy – failing to acknowledge that the supporter may be visiting at a very difficult time for them.
• Brevity and abruptness – your charity may well have style guidelines for your whole website about minimal copy, but if someone’s just lost the person they love most in the world, I just think this is an area where they need softness, appreciation, explanation and reassurance – and I’m afraid to say, this might mean being just a bit wordier.
• Quite frequently these pages can have a directive tone – ‘give in memory’; ‘do this/ do that’ – with no please or thank you being offered.

In-memory donors want the charity to regard any gift they make not just as another (standard) donation, but held in equally high regard by the charity – because it symbolises the ‘value’ of the person they’ve lost.

3. Keep their loved ones front and centre

For the supporter, this is all about the special person they’re remembering. A  great starting mantra is to never lose sight of your supporter’s ‘why’. What’s their reason for doing this in the first place, i.e. keeping alive the memory of their special person. 

As the charity they’re supporting, there are lots of practical things you can do to help them keep their loved one's front and centre of the experience.

One of the most effective ways you can use your in-memory landing area is to talk directly to the supporter about the person they’re remembering. Make their loved one the main subject of your in-memory proposition, so your supporter feels valued, and they understand the impact of their donation. We know from our research that the more personal in-memory fundraising can feel, the better it will work, so keeping your supporter and their needs at the centre of your messaging is crucial. 

4. Give your operation a human face

Creating a more personal feel can make a real difference. If you have a named contact (even better with a picture) instantly a sense of relationship is built up. Follow this through for offline communications to help your supporters really connect to your charity. 

In our stewardship research, we also found that staff at the charity really do have a pivotal role in effective in-memory fundraising relationships.

Compassion is seen as an essential requirement, both for clinical but also fundraising staff, and the in-memory supporters we’ve spoken to actually rate this above fundraising know-how. 

Other qualities that supporters feel are important to good stewardship include being friendly and approachable, efficient and practical, and appreciative and encouraging. All of these qualities are much more instantly communicated by a real person.

5. Offer a little context

First of all, bear in mind that many people visiting your site will have been bereaved for the first time; they may well be completely new to your charity; this may even be the first time they’ve engaged with any charity.

So when they click, eg ‘Remember a Loved One’; they need a little scene-setting. The supporter should be told that there are all sorts of different ways they can support the charity in their loved one’s name, hopefully, one of which will be right for them. I think they also need to have their decision for visiting your page validated; they need to feel that supporting in-memory is normal and appreciated and valued. 

Try to focus on the needs of the supporter, lead into the range of in-memory products that the charity has, reassure the supporter that they’re in the right place, for the right reason, and demonstrate the care and empathy that the charity personifies. This will help reassure bereaved supporters they are in the right place and encourage them to support your work.

For more in-depth analysis and more tips and suggestions from Kate, listen to her guest webinar - available to our partners on our Charity Support Site.

If you'd like to find out more about working with MuchLoved, and how we can support your charity please contact us on 01494 722818 or email support@muchloved.com.

Dedication Pages: FREE fundraising pages you can make your own

MuchLoved offers all of its charity partners access to our Dedication Page service; flexible, standalone campaign and fundraising pages where your supporters can add a photo, a message and a donation. Donations can be made mandatory or optional, or can be switched off - entirely up to you.

You can create a Dedication Page in just a few minutes using our new template service in your Partner Area - everything is designed and ready for you, so all you need to do is select the relevant template and add your wording. (You also have the option of requesting a bespoke Dedication Page, where we use your own imagery and create a page to your specifications for a small fee of £130 + VAT).

To help inspire you, and demonstrate how versatile Dedication Pages can be, we've put together a calendar of pages throughout the year.

Engage with your supporters and raise funds year-round, at no extra cost to your charity.

Spring

Summer

Autumn

If you're encouraging your supporters to engage with a home-based activity, either fitness or craft-based like a baking competition, a Dedication Page is the perfect option. Supporters can upload their images, get recognition for their efforts and pay in their fundraising in a few easy steps. Admin is simplified for your charity, as you can get regular alerts for new updates to your page.

Winter

Find out how you can offer expert bereavement counselling to your supporters, included free as part of your MuchLoved partnership package.

MuchLoved works in partnership with an organisation called GriefChat, an expertly staffed bereavement organisation, designed to offer anyone bereaved a safe space to grieve and explore their feelings, wherever they are.

GriefChat was founded so that bereaved people could communicate quickly and easily with a professional bereavement counsellor - and not have to wait for long periods of time for a call back from a service, or be on a waiting list for support. In the wake of the pandemic, bereavement care services are in even higher demand; so this instant access to support is even more critical.

What GriefChat offers your supporters

• A safe, dedicated place online to connect to experienced bereavement counsellors
• Support, advice and signposting to further avenues of help
• Help to identify good methods of self-care
• Information about grief and local bereavement care services across the UK
• Access to longer-term counselling; face to face, by telephone, webcam, email or pre-booked live online chat sessions

How it GriefChat works for your business

Up to 500 chats per year are included free of charge as part of your MuchLoved partnership package. Chats are available from a simple GriefChat plugin integrated into your website.

This plugin then opens when a particular webpage is visited, and allows bereaved families to connect directly with a counsellor. It's quick and easy to install; we create the widget and pass the code to your web or digital developer, who simply has to paste the code into your chosen webpage.

Top tip: We recommend that the GriefChat box appears on your in-memory page rather than on the home page of your website. We can help you to create this page if you need any support.

About GriefChat's counsellors

All of the counsellors that work for GriefChat are experts in their field, they are qualified as a minimum to diploma level in counselling and/or psychotherapy and many have degrees and postgraduate qualifications, as well as specific training and experience in bereavement. They are all DBS checked and have regular ongoing training and development relevant to supporting bereaved people through the service.

If you'd like to find out more about offering GriefChat to your supporters, or you'd like to know more about working with MuchLoved, contact our support team on 01494 722818 or email us at support@muchloved.com.

It might be a little early to start putting up fairy lights, but you're probably already planning your Christmas campaigns and fundraising ideas.

That's where we come in. We can help not only boost your festive fundraising, but our platform also offers some easy and effective stewardship options for your in-memory supporters. So if you’re looking to get your Christmas fundraising wrapped up early, read on.

Christmas campaign page ready in ten minutes or less? We can do that.

MuchLoved's Dedication Pages are the perfect way to fundraise over the festive season. Standalone campaign and appeal pages, they can be set up in minutes using one of our templates. Add your branding and wording, choose a design and the page is ready to go. We host the page, so all you need to do is share the page link.

Dedication Pages allow your supporters to add their own photo, message and an optional donation, perfect for the festive season.

The best bit? Dedication Pages are free for our partners to use.

You could use a page for a seasonal in-memory campaign, and ask supporters to add a photo of a loved one they're thinking of.

Or you could have a festive fundraiser, where supporters make a donation in lieu of a gift, and upload their message of support to your charity.

You can even choose to have pages with no donation request at all, and simply ask supporters to add their message and photo - it's entirely up to you.

Supporter Stewardship: Candles, gifts and cards

Alongside Dedication Pages, we also offer virtual candles and gifts. Not only can your supporters add them to their tribute pages, but you can use them quickly and easily to steward your supporters.

Available from mid-November our Christmas candles are a perfect way to communicate with your audience, to connect with them and improve donor relations. Optimum partners can easily add a virtual candle to your supporters' tribute pages, along with a message to let them know that you are thinking of them.

Candles can be instantly added to a page, or you can delay them so they are visible on a specific date, and can be set to 'burn' (appear on the page) for a specified time.

Virtual Gifts

Along with candles we also offer virtual gifts, beautiful images that can be added to tribute pages, such as bouquets of flowers, garlands, cards and even teddy bears. We have a large range of virtual gifts that can be added to pages, under the 'contribute' section of a page. We will also be adding festive virtual gifts in mid-November, for you to add to supporters' pages.

Bespoke Gifts

We also offer a bespoke option, included free as part of your Optimum Partnership. We can develop branded, individual virtual gifts for you to share with your supporters this festive season. A beautiful bauble or candle, flower arrangement or wreath for example, to add to the tribute pages of your supporters, featuring your charity's branding.

You can share your branded virtual gift with your supporters and ask for a suggested donation when they add the gift, as you would with a physical pin badge or card. If you're interested in a bespoke virtual gift please speak to your account manager, or contact our support team.

If you'd like to find out more about working with us, and how we can help increase your in-memory fundraising, contact us on 01494 722818 or email support@muchloved.com.

MuchLoved offers all of its charity partners access to our Dedication Page service; standalone campaign pages where your supporters can add a photo, a message and an optional donation.

Dedication Pages are an incredibly versatile tool, they can be set up quickly and easily using our new template service, or you can ask us to make a bespoke page for you for a small fee. Your supporters can upload their memories, messages and photos, helping boost support and engagement with your charity's work.

And best of all, if you're using a template, all of our pages are free. We host them for you, you can edit the text and choose the template you want, and simply share the link.

Not just for Christmas... (but they are perfect for the festive season)

Of course, Dedication Pages are perfect for a beautiful Christmas campaign, asking supporters to add a message and donation. This can be an in-memory campaign, or simply asking for a donation in lieu of a gift.

If you're already thinking ahead to the festive season, why not start creating your page today. Visit your Partner Area to view our template pages, or contact your Account Manager if you would like a bespoke Christmas campaign page.

Because you can change the look and theme of the pages, they can be used year-round, not just for the festive period. Here are just a few of our suggestions:

• Capital appeal campaign - ask supporters to add a donation and a message for each 'brick' they buy for a new building or resource
• Celebratory giving - because pages are free you can quickly set up one for a couple's wedding. They can then ask for donations to their page and share the link with their family and friends, who can add their photos and message for the happy couple. You can also create a page in exactly the same way for a supporter's birthday donations in lieu of gifts
• Light up a life - have a virtual 'tree' where supporters add their memories and photos and make a donation in-memory of their loved one
• Foodbank campaign - if your charity is supporting your local community you could have a 'wishlist' with suggested donations in the text to help guide donations, and ask your supporters to upload their donations and messages/pictures to the page
• Emergency appeal - as pages are so easy to share if you need a quick response Dedication Pages are the perfect tool
• Seasonal campaigns - ask your supporters to upload a picture of their nearest and dearest and make a donation in lieu of a gift for occasions like Valentine's day, or have an in-memory campaign to remember loved ones on Mother's Day and Father's Day
• Charity milestone campaign - is your charity celebrating a milestone, such as being a certain age, or celebrating a special achievement? You could set up a Dedication Page to ask for supporters to share their stories, and engage with your charity, with optional donations.

Dedication Pages can be used for practically anything, from supporter engagement to fundraising across the board. Why not get started today? Just visit your Partner Area to begin setting up a page.

New to MuchLoved? If you'd like to find out how our services can help support your charity and increase your fundraising, talk to us today. Contact our support team on 01494 722818 or email support@muchloved.com. We're always happy to help.

We've recently made some big changes to our Dedication Page service, that will allow our partners to get even more out of these flexible fundraising pages.

1. Dedication Page Templates

We now offer free template designs that mean pages are quick and easy to set up - we provide the theme and imagery so all you need to do is upload your logo, wording and any navigation links that you want to include. Simple and quick to create if there's a last-minute campaign or event that needs a Dedication Page we've got it covered!

We offer templates across a range of different themes, including Christmas, Light up a Life as well as seasonal and general remembrance designs.

How it works:

Simply go to the Page Design section of the Campaign page. Here you can view the different templates, and add your logo and wording once you've chosen a theme. You can preview the template before selection, and you can amend your chosen template at any time, even once the page is live.

2. Bespoke Dedication Pages

If a template Dedication Page isn't quite what you're looking for, we can create a page that is tailored for your charity by our design team, using your branding and images, for which we charge a small fee. Please speak to your Account Manager if you are interested in a bespoke page.

3. QR (Quick Response) Codes

You can now download a QR code for your Dedication Page, making it even easier to share your campaigns far and wide. They can even have your charity's logo embedded on them - please just visit your Partner Area to download and create them. They'll even work if you amend the URL of your page, so if changes are needed it's no problem.

4. Alerts

We've updated our alerts so you now have even more flexibility over the notifications you receive. You can now sign up to real-time alerts for a specific page, so you get notified when dedications, or donations, are made. You can also sign up for a daily/weekly/monthly alert with a summary of all the dedications to your campaign. We also offer a Monthly Payment Alert so you know that payment has been sent to your charity for any funds raised from your Dedication Page.

Top tip: You can also send alerts to colleagues who aren't registered MuchLoved users, so they are also notified about page activity. See the Dedication Page section on our support site for more information.

5. GDPR

And finally, we've improved our GDPR functionality. You can now choose to have a page specific GDPR statement, rather than all your Dedication Pages sharing the same wording. Speak to your Account Manager if you would like a bespoke statement for your Dedication Page.

If you're interested in working with us and finding out how our Dedication Page service can help your charity raise funds, contact us on 01494 722818 or email support@muchloved.com.

Our special guest article by author Clare Shaw looks at how to support children who have lost a loved one.

As we all know, death is very much a taboo subject. Even more so in front of children. People just don’t want to talk about it when actually the opposite is best.

Every 22 minutes a child in the UK is bereaved of a parent. This equates to an average of 112 per day or over 40,000 every year; and sadly, these figures do not include any extended family or friends. 

With over 600,000 people dying in the UK every year, there’s every chance that many will have a child connected to them in some way – a grandchild, niece, nephew, friend, student. The list goes on. This means there are a lot of children who will experience the loss of someone close, and a lot of children who will need support through that grief.

Here are some rather scary statistics about child bereavement:

• 78% of 11-16-year-olds report that they have experienced the death of a close friend or relative *
• 41% of young offenders have suffered a bereavement as a child**
• A recent study found 25% of under 20s who died by suicide had also been bereaved***

The latter two can be reduced with support and understanding. The first number shows just how much that help is needed. 

Practical tips to support a bereaved child

1. Model and be their guide

Children look to those around them as to how to deal with situations and challenges in life. A bereavement is no different. They will model their behaviour on what they see. If the adults around them cover up their emotions, the children will think they need to do the same. This can lead to ongoing mental health problems for years after their loved one died. It can also be a big contributory factor in the latter two statistics above. 

From the age of between five and eight, children understand the finality of death. They understand that it is irreversible so being honest is always going to be the best policy. The best thing a family can do is be open. Show your own emotions, therefore letting the child know this is acceptable. 

This is true not only with younger children but for those in their teens too. Imagine going through all the usual teenage changes, pressures and difficulties, and having grief to contend with too. Teens may be more likely to hide their feelings and put on a brave face. Depending on who has died, they may feel they have to look after other family members and be ‘responsible’.

2. Teach them that everyone grieves differently

Children, as with adults, will go through a whole range of emotions. They need to know that this is ok. It’s ok to feel sad; just as much as it’s ok to feel happy. When they go back to school, it’s fine to play with friends and socialise. It’s fine to want to feel normal without feeling guilty. There is no set pattern with grief, and everyone will do it their own way and in their own time.

3. Be open and honest

Language is something else that is important. Because death makes people feel uncomfortable, often people use the terms ‘gone to sleep’, ‘is a butterfly now’ or ‘lost’. These can all be so damaging. If you tell a small child that Granny is lost, they may try to find her!

Children of all ages will have questions. There’s going to be a lot they don’t understand. Answer their questions as honestly as you can. If you don’t know the answer to something, let them know and see if you can find out the answer together. Maybe the person(s) helping to arrange the funeral would be able to help. Maybe someone else in the family might have the answer.

4. Prepare them for what’s happening, and involve them

Explain to them what will happen at the funeral. Especially if it’s the first one they have attended. With such a crossover of American TV, kids may expect to see an open coffin. They may not know the format, dress code or who will be there. It will be a difficult day for them anyway. The more you can prepare them, the easier it will be. Explain that they may see people upset but that’s ok. 

Try not to make decisions for them or they may resent this later in life. A lot of these decisions will depend on their age and relationship with the deceased. Ask if they want to be involved.

5. Use the support available 

Grief can affect a child’s appetite, sleep pattern, memory and concentration. Understanding this can allow you to offer the support they need. You could start by contacting their school to find out what help is available directly through them, and to make sure they fully understand the situation.

MuchLoved offers free bereavement counselling through our website in partnership with GriefChat, available through a chat function, which older children may find easier than speaking to someone directly. 

You could also ask them if they would like to set up a tribute page to remember that person, which you can set up and maintain for them. They can either choose to share with others, or keep as their special space to remember, with photos and videos of their loved one. 

There are many useful resources available from books to information on child bereavement websites. Here are just a few:

NHS Children & Bereavement
Winston’s Wish - support for children who have lost a parent or sibling 
Child Bereavement UK

If you feel your child may need additional support, speak to their school or seek out a local bereavement charity to offer additional support. 

About the Author: Clare Shaw

Clare Shaw writes therapeutic stories covering tricky subjects such as bereavement, including her book 'Love Will Never Die: Helping children through bereavement'.

Her latest book A Mind Full of Grief: A bereavement guide for teenagers and young adults is filled with practical information on supporting teenagers who are coping with grief.

* http://www.going4growth.com/downloads/fulcrum-why-should-anglicans-take-seriously-the-impact-of-bereavement-on-children-and-young-people.pdf
** https://www.winstonswish.org/about-us/facts-and-figures/
*** https://www.hqip.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/8iQSvI.pdf 

The last 18 months have been incredibly challenging for all charities, from the smallest up to the very biggest. With community and events fundraising severely restricted, in-memory giving has received more of the spotlight.

With estimates suggesting that in-memory donations will be worth up to £10 billion in less than a decade, this area of fundraising is becoming more and more important for charities to survive.

But why MuchLoved? What difference does our platform make to your charity’s in-memory income? We spoke to two of our charity partners to ask them just that.

Guts UK, the charity for the digestive system first started working with us in June 2020. We spoke to their Communications and Fundraising Officer, Jenny Holdsworth, to find out how working with us has made a difference to their charity.

Alzheimer’s Society is the UK’s leading dementia charity.  We talked to Ruth Armstrong who has been the In Memoriam assistant since 2020 to find out about the impact our service has had on their in-memory giving.

What did your charity offer in-memory supporters before working with us?

Jenny - Guts UK: Before partnering with MuchLoved, we never had a set platform, we were purely reactive, and accepted direct donations. We’d had a couple of funds set up on MuchLoved, but our in-memory page on our website wasn’t particularly helpful for people.  

We did have a supporter journey that we knew worked, as we had a very high amount of web traffic too, but we weren’t capturing people at the time they visited our website.

Ruth - Alzheimer's Society: We had a detailed stewardship journey already in place, which included in-memory donors receiving an instant acknowledgement, handwritten thank you card, welcome emails to donations from funeral directors and stewardship across the fundraising team where appropriate. 

How has your in-memory fundraising changed since working with us?

Jenny: Since we invested in a package with MuchLoved, we’ve seen a 4070% increase in income - via MuchLoved. It has been fantastic having a direct link embedded within our website.

We feel much more proactive now when it comes to the families we support. We love being able to offer our families a platform that remembers their loved ones in such a beautiful way. It’s so invaluable for families to have a permanent, virtual place to visit to remember their loved ones, read stories, and share photos.

Ruth: It has increased massively, it is so heart-warming to hear from supporters how they appreciate this platform and have shared their loved one’s page with family and friends. 

To put it in numbers; in January 2020 we had 157 new tribute pages created. This increased to 387 new pages in January 2021, and our income increased from £36,000 per month to over £140,000 per month.

Between January to March this year we've had 274 new tribute pages created for us - this is 154 more than this time last year - or almost 130% increase.

Would you recommend MuchLoved to other charities?

Jenny: 100%. I regularly do, on Fundraising groups on Facebook.

Ruth: Yes, without a doubt. The MuchLoved platform and in-memory giving have been imperative to our income this past year for the Alzheimer’s Society - more than ever before. We are so grateful we have this partnership with MuchLoved and already had the stewardship process in place before the pandemic hit. Without having this platform our loyal supporters would not have had the information, welcome and gratitude they required when leaving a donation in memory of a loved one. 

The MuchLoved platform ensures a longer fundraising relationship with our loyal supporters and has increased our in-memory giving income. It’s a way to remember loved ones in a sensitive way but also encourages that all-important, further support.

And finally, could you share a top tip for another charity, to help them look after their supporters and/or improve their in-memory supporter journey?

Jenny: For us, around 80% of our in-memoriam fundraisers via MuchLoved have only just lost their loved ones. They’re very early on in their grieving process.

Contacting them as soon as you can after they’ve set up their page or contacted you has been important for us. 

The same time they’re setting up the page is the time they’re in the headspace of ‘taking action’ - doing something to ensure other families don’t suffer like they did. This is when they’re more likely to engage back with you. We regularly say we help our families find purpose through the pain.

Ruth: Be well informed and welcoming. Do not be afraid to email the name of the lost loved one, share the tribute page link (MuchLoved send an automatic welcome also) and attach a welcome document showing what they can do with the tribute page.  

Even though there is not always a response initially from supporters (as they are going through a difficult time) they always know where to turn for their future fundraising in memory of the loved one the page was created for.

If you would like to know more about working with MuchLoved, and how we can support your charity's in-memory giving, contact us on 01494 722818 or email support@muchloved.com

As much as you need to share your tribute fund with your supporters, it's crucial to promote it internally too.

Your colleagues can act as advocates about your tribute fund scheme, to both existing and potential supporters who may benefit from a fund. But first, they need to know about the scheme and the key contact details, or this can't happen.

Who needs to know?

The short answer is everyone. All of the charity’s employees not only need to know the relevant details about the tribute fund scheme, but also why it's so important, how it helps not only your charity but also what it can offer a bereaved family.

Don’t just think in terms of the charity’s fundraising team, anyone can be an advocate. Does your charity have any community-based staff or volunteers, an outreach team, nursing staff? Reception staff that meet the public on a regular basis? These front line workers can be key influencers for your scheme.

What do they need to know?

You need to tell your colleagues three main things:

Why: Tell colleagues why the tribute fund scheme is important. Explain how the income raised has made a difference, and if possible put it in tangible terms that relate to their work, i.e. ‘last year tribute funds raised enough to purchase two new pieces of care equipment’. 

You also need to share why the scheme is so important for bereaved families, what a page offers, and how it can help them in their grief. Tribute pages are at their heart a bereavement care tool, so share this with your colleagues. 

What:

This is the all-important ‘elevator pitch’. Staff need to be able to explain in a few short sentences what your tribute fund scheme is and why it matters. You can provide all this information for them in advance to make it simple, and if possible use the same language and terms that are used on print literature or your website. 

Where:

Staff need to know where to direct people internally, i.e. the name and contact details of the in-memory fundraiser, and the web link of the in-memory fundraising page on your website (this will ideally be a short web link that can be shared verbally and in print, rather than searching from the homepage.)  Staff are far more likely to advocate for you if they have clear signposting to share and know who to talk to.

How can I tell people?

This will depend on the size and resources of your charity, but if available you could consider:

• Staff info packs - brief guides to tribute funds with the above information clearly mapped out for them, especially contact information. This doesn’t need to be a large document, it can even be a business card for them to carry. 
• Internal newsletter - regular, consistent messaging and signposting to the in-memory fundraiser so staff are familiar with the scheme. This is also a great way to share the impact of tribute funds; share information about recent funds and what they have raised and how they have helped the family and the charity.
• Intranet - could you have a section on the intranet about in-memory funds? If possible have your ‘elevator pitch’ information available here. 
• Event fundraising - is there a member of the events team that could champion tribute funds for you? If events supporters are in-memory motivated then it’s a natural fit and could encourage them to support you in the long-term. 
• Induction training - if possible introduce tribute funds to new staff right from the off, and share the staff info pack with them. 
• Team meetings - could you attend other team meetings, such as supporter care team meetings, or heads of department meetings for a shared learning session, possibly with a tribute fund holder? Sharing the impact of a fund from a supporter perspective is particularly powerful, and is something managers and care team members can then use when communicating with other stakeholders. 
• Volunteers - often volunteers are a key public-facing role, in shops, receptions etc, and can be a great advocate for your tribute fund scheme. Speak to your volunteer coordinator or the volunteers directly, and give them a staff information pack too if you have one. 

Resources - some items to consider

• Staff information pack. These can (and should) be very succinct info sheets, with a brief explanation of what a tribute fund is, how it helps people, and how to set one up. You could consider putting this onto a business card, with the in-memory fundraiser contact information and web links, which could then be given in small quantities to front line workers to distribute if they wanted to. This can be an inexpensive way for staff to pass the information on, without having to retain the information themselves. You could also have a small flyer, or even a basic in-house printed sheet so staff have the details they need. 
• Flyers - for staff to distribute. Again this helps staff have the information at their fingertips, and is a good way of spreading the word about your tribute fund. These should also be available on reception if you have one, with all receptionists clear who to contact internally if someone is interested. 
• Short web links - if possible make your tribute fund page web section a memorable, print-ready link e.g. www.charity/remember. This way staff can share it verbally and it can be included in literature easily. If people have to search on the homepage or staff can’t remember where to find it, you will lose potential supporters.

And finally...

Have a backup. Who would someone speak to if you were on holiday? If possible try and ensure that another staff member can set up a fund and help supporters in your absence.

If you're interested in finding out more about working with us, and how we can help you maximise your charity's in-memory income, contact us on 01494 722818 or email support@muchloved.com.

On a practical level, it's clear how MuchLoved can help your charity improve its in-memory income. But what do we offer the families that you support?

Easy to create in-memory pages, funeral collections and standalone fundraising pages are just a few of the services MuchLoved offers our charity partners. But we are ourselves a bereavement charity, and supporting grieving families is at the heart of everything we do.

Share memories, photos and messages

Our tribute pages are designed to give bereaved families a safe, meaningful space to remember their loved ones, to bring them comfort at the most difficult of times, and into the future.

Each page allows a family to upload photos, music and videos, along with messages of remembrance and memories. Pages can be totally customised and can be made as unique and special as the person being remembered.

Family and friends can connect wherever they are in the world, and reminisce, to celebrate the life of the person they've lost, and share their memories across the miles.

An enduring memorial

All of our pages are free of charge for families*, and are theirs for as long as they want. This means that a family's tribute page can become a long-term memorial to their loved one.

Our tribute owners tell us that they find comfort in being able to visit their page whenever they want. One person told us it was like having a 'memory in their pocket', whenever they needed to feel connected to the person they had lost.

Some milestones and occasions can be particularly hard for bereaved families - Valentine's Day, birthdays and anniversaries, and special family occasions.

Our pages allow families to mark these days, by lighting a candle or adding a virtual gift or card to their tribute page. We've been told by our page users that this brings them comfort, and can help to make these days a little easier.

Fundraising in honour

Finally, and crucially, our pages allow families to do something tangible in honour of their loved one. Not only can they choose to accept donations to one or several charities, they can also add fundraising events to their pages. Together, families can use their page to take on challenges and raise funds in honour of their loved one, and keep their memory alive. Being able to actually do something can often be cathartic for families, and help them in their grief.

To date, MuchLoved has raised over £70 million for charities up and down the UK. In 2020, over 36,000 tribute pages were created, and 100,000 virtual candles were lit in remembrance on pages. Our goal is to provide a dedicated online memorial space for anyone that needs it, and more and more families value this special way to remember their loved ones.

*We provide 100mb of storage space for free automatically with each tribute page, and it costs just 99p for each further 50mb if a family does want to add lots of video or multimedia files. 

2020 has been a year like no other. With Christmas just around the corner we look back to see what we have achieved together during this tumultuous year.

As this year draws to close, here at MuchLoved we've been looking back, to see how we've all coped with the unprecedented situation we've all faced, and to see what we've achieved this year. Even though this year has been incredibly hard, by working together we have still been able to achieve great things.

This year has proved that whatever life throws at them, the great British public still care for others. Whilst we've seen a small drop in the average value of a donation to a tribute page, we have also seen the number of donations increase hugely. In 2019 on average we saw over 9,000 donations each month on our platform, this year we have seen on average 23,600 donations each month, and this shows no signs of slowing. This has meant that this year we have raised over £11 million this year for good causes.

Here are a few of our key numbers for this year:

Alongside the huge increase in donations, we've also seen families use our service as a way to remember and pay tribute to their loved ones. Throughout the year over 100,000 virtual candles have been lit, over 50% more than in 2019.

Virtual gifts were only introduced in February, so we can't compare to last year, but we have seen their numbers increase to over 1,000 each month. Our most popular gift during the festive season is our 'Christmas Teddy', that families are adding to pages with special messages and wishes.

Although this year has been very tough, especially for those bereaved, working together we have still achieved so much. You have helped our charity offer bereaved families a special way to remember loved ones, and you've helped us raise millions of pounds for good causes, to help those that need it most. Thank you.

If you're interested in learning about how you can work with MuchLoved, contact our support team on 01494 722818 or email support@muchloved.com

We were recently asked to comment on an article by Legacy Foresight, the UK’s foremost analysts of the legacy and in-memory sectors, about how charities have responded to the impact coronavirus has had on funerals. Covid-19 has had a devastating impact on bereaved families this year, with memorial deprivation affecting thousands of families unable to give their loved ones the send-off they would have wanted.

In turn this has also had a knock-on effect for UK charities; in-memory giving is worth £2.2bn a year to the third sector*, with funeral collections accounting for a third of all gifts made in-memory.

Legacy Foresight reviewed the information on 40 of the UK's leading charities and hospices; to assess how Covid-19 had changed the information they provided to their supporters. The found the following results:

Our Chief Executive, Jonathan Davies commented: “Commemorative postings on MuchLoved tribute pages have more than doubled since COVID-19 started as bereaved families suffering severe funeral restrictions look for ways to grieve and share memories. With cash or cheque collections often not possible, online donations on the pages have also doubled, showing the continuing desire to support charities in response to a death. With the ongoing impact of COVID-19, we believe there is a particular need and opportunity for charities at this time to reach out to their supporters to provide information and assistance with bereavement, both at the time of the funeral and in supporting them afterwards”.

Kate Jenkinson, of Legacy Foresight, added: “Charities have an unprecedented opportunity to support families who are planning memorials for their loved ones, but they urgently need to make their information about funerals more agile and responsive to the times. 
“Offering dynamic and reliable information around funeral giving – including relevant donation options – is one of the best ways charities can help those who come forward in memory of a loved one. It should be a core part of their overall strategy of support in these times.”

And finally...

Don't forget that our Dedication Pages, free as part of our Partnership Plus, can offer a tailored remembrance page for those lost to Covid-19, or as a standalone appeal page if you're creating an emergency appeal. Speak to your account manager to find out more.

*Source: Legacy Foresight

St Elizabeth Hospice in Suffolk started working with MuchLoved in 2017, and have more than quadrupled their Tribute Funds in that time, raising over £1 million. We spoke to Rachel Slattery-Klein, their Individual Giving Fundraiser, for her top tips on making the most of Tribute Funds.

"Since we moved over to MuchLoved in 2017, we have grown our Tribute Funds significantly, from 150 in 2017 to over 650 today. This just shows the kind of impact using the MuchLoved platform can have for your charity; our total fundraising is now over £1 million!! The support is amazing and no question is deemed silly or too small. 

There is always someone at the end of an email or phone call and the support is fantastic – I even had an answer to a question answered by the Chief Executive Jonathan on Christmas Eve one year! I am lucky to have built up a great relationship with Catherine our Account Manager, earlier this year she came and supported a funeral thank you event we held at the hospice and is always on hand to answer my bizarre questions. Training is available all the time for you and your team – you just have to ask.

Try it for yourself

The first step I would say is to love your charity site – by that I mean take some time to understand all the functionality it offers and also its full capabilities. Set up a Tribute Fund yourself as from the perspective of a family member, add photos, music and write a tribute. It gives you so much more understanding when you come to explain it.

Understand the Admin Area

Get to know the admin section through your Partner Area – look at reports and see who is really active and who is not so; explore your tributes and get to know them. The admin area will give you some great insights into your supporters and how you can help them.

Set up the 'Alerts' in your Partner Area. These can send you regular and specific updates on the activity taking place on your tribute funds, so you don't miss anything important. A good one is the weekly alert, so you can see how many new tributes were added and the total funds raised each week. Be on top of it!

We also use alerts to email us if one of our Funds have special milestone dates coming up - like anniversaries, birthdays or the date of their passing. We then light a candle on that page to let the family know we're thinking of them."

Tell everyone about Tribute Funds

"Talk about them all the time – when collecting funeral donations or if a supporter has a memory tree, offer a Tribute Fund that these can be added to. If a supporter is doing a fundraising event even if it's small explain they could set up a Tribute Fund that their friends and family could directly donate to.

Make sure the rest of your team are aware of them – shout about them!  This way the events team can be offering them for your Midnight Walk, or your community nurse can mention them if a family member is saying they would like to fundraise for the care their loved one has received."

Understand all the functionality of your Tribute Funds

"Knowing all the functionality of the MuchLoved site really helps when you are approaching a supporter. For example if you have a lady in her 70s who has brought in her late husband’s funeral donations, you can ask questions about her family, and ask if they knew that we have Tribute Funds that the whole family can be involved in, i.e. put grandchildren’s drawing on the page or her daughter’s wedding photo with her dad.

If you have a work colleague of someone deceased who is enquiring about a skydive for the office in their memory – you can offer the Tribute Fund that the whole office can all have access to and gives them a focal point for their fundraising.

We often use the 'light a candle function'. At Christmas we send a ‘thinking of you and your family at Christmas time' candle. Knowing this function was available was key to our stewardship. We're looking forward to using the new virtual gifts to engage with our supporters too.

Knowing what MuchLoved can offer your supporters is really helpful and gives you more ways to connect with them, especially on a long term basis."

And finally

My main advice would be to take care of your supporters and keep connected with them. Don’t just set them up with a Tribute Fund and leave them, as there’s no point to that. Have leaflets available in reception and on your website and have as many people aware of them as possible. Lastly, be talking about them, they are a huge asset, not only to bereavement support but future fundraising."

To find out more about St Elizabeth Hospice visit their website: www.stelizabethhospice.org.uk

Engage with supporters and raise funds this Father's Day - and it doesn't cost you anything

Father's Day can be a difficult time for so many people, if they're bereaved or missing a loved one. This year with families likely to be separated in some way it will be especially hard.

Dedication Pages are an easy and quick way to offer support to not only your bereaved supporters, but also your wider supporter base, and help raise vital funds at the same time.

Our Dedication Pages have been hugely successful in helping charities generate funds, particularly in these difficult times, through emergency appeals, virtual events and seasonal celebrations like Mother's Day. They are a vital digital fundraising tool, allowing you to fundraise quickly and easily online, at no additional cost.

A page allows your supporters to upload a photo and a message onto a shared page, and you can ask for a donation to your work at the same time - or not - the choice is yours. Photos then appear on the shared gallery, encouraging them to share the page even wider amongst their networks.

The best bit

Even better, they're FREE for our charity partners. Simply supply us with images and text and we'll create the page for you, in a matter of days.

Share the page far and wide, encourage supporter participation and raise funds for Father's Day while social distancing. What more could you want?

Learn more about Dedication Pages and the different ways they can support your fundraising.

To find out more about our Dedication Pages, or about becoming one of our partners, contact our support team on 01494 722818 or email us at support@muchloved.com

How one Hospice raised £22,000 in ten weeks

St Christopher's Hospice have been fundraising in memory for some time, but in early April 2020 decided to take the next step and sign up to MuchLoved, becoming an Optimum Partner. This was in response to the Covid-19 crisis, and the consequent impact on funerals and acts of memorialisation. In the ten weeks since they started using MuchLoved, St Christopher's have raised over £22,000 through their Tribute Fund.

Some feedback from Tribute Fund users at St Christophers:

“JustGiving forces you to set a target, which doesn’t feel right for this. I’d prefer to have a Snowdrop Fund because it feels more personal – and it lasts forever.”

“It was as easy as you said!"

Rachel Hedley, Legacy and in Memory Fundraiser at St Christopher's told us how using the MuchLoved platform has helped them raise more funds, and provide better care for their bereaved supporters.

Setting up and using MuchLoved was easy and simple to do for St Christopher's, and for their supporters. Utilising the tools in the admin area means they can respond to supporter enquiries and provide personalised supporter care quickly and easily.

If you are already a partner and need a refresher on how using the platform can help you raise in memory funds, please don't hesitate to contact our friendly support team on 01494 722818 or email support@muchloved.com

Whether you're communicating with existing in-memory supporters, or dealing with families that have been recently bereaved, there's little doubt that the current climate makes everything that much more difficult. We all want to help as best we can, and continue to build strong relationships with supporters for the future, but how? We share some valuable insight from Catherine Betley, founder of GriefChat, the online bereavement support organisation.

Bereavement in isolation

The situation we now find ourselves in will enhance what your bereaved supporters are feeling at the moment. Their support networks aren't available, making everything that much harder - there's no popping round for a cup of tea and a friendly ear from family.

The overall feeling of grief and loss in society, loss of freedom, of work, whatever it might be, will cause bereaved supporters to feel echo grief, relieving their loss over and over. Recently bereaved supporters will likely have had to adapt their bereavement rituals, even if temporarily, it's likely they won't have been able to grieve in the way they normally would.

Some may welcome this change, while many may plan belated celebrations of life when restrictions end. Some may even be in shock because these rituals haven't been able to happen.

We hope that our tribute pages are a helpful way for anyone planning a belated celebration of life to co-ordinate with their families, and may lessen the impact of any missed events.

Communicating in a crisis

• Create the same personal connections that you normally have with supporters through good information, phone calls, Facebook groups, webinars - use any technology you can to reach out and connect with supporters at the moment.
• Supporter care now is more important than ever, not necessarily to ask for donations, but to build lifelong supporter relationships. Use personal communication to do this rather than mass comms
• What can you offer? Anything you can offer that is of help to your beneficiaries will not only help get the conversation started but will be of comfort in these difficult times.
• Supporters still want to be involved, by sharing messages or photos, or talking about their loved ones. If you can offer them opportunities to remember and celebrate the life of their loved ones this can cement their long term support and encourage future fundraising and donations. MuchLoved is the natural platform for this, and has the added bonus of allowing donations at the same time
• If you know a particular day or date will be difficult for a bereaved supporter do contact them, now is the time to send messages of support
• Give opportunities to remember. Anything you can do which honours the lives and celebrates the lives of those lost, gives bereaved people opportunity to remember will be very gratefully received
• Empathise don't sympathise. It's hard to do, be with the person telling their story, but don't be part of their story. You can show care and understanding while still separating yourself
• Offer practical support. Many bereavement support services have closed, churches aren't meeting, mental health services aren't open - lots of normal support avenues aren't there right now. Anything you can offer to support bereaved people will be of help, including signposting onwards to anything still available. If you have GriefChat installed on your website (free for Optimum partners) then don't forget to mention this as a great support tool
• Refresh your bereavement care information; so many services have changed, this needs to be up-to-date to be of help to those bereaved.

And finally

We couldn't write this post without mentioning our services. The person who has died and their family are at the heart of everything that MuchLoved does, that's the reason we were created and why we do what we do. At the moment memorialising loved ones, and offering ways to remember them is more important than ever. Creating a MuchLoved tribute page is something practical and bespoke that you can offer your families, and lets them celebrate the life of their loved ones.

If your supporters aren't quite ready for a tribute page of their own, why not create a dedication page they can leave a message on? These are a shared page that you create, where people can simply add memories and a photo, with or without donations.

Free for our Optimum Partners they are a great way to help your supporters if they don't want to set up a tribute page. Have a look at our own dedication page, set-up for those bereaved by coronavirus to see how they can be used.

Finally, of course, there is GriefChat, the online bereavement support experts. Again free for Optimum MuchLoved partners GriefChat is a chat pop-up box that can be easily added to your website, and something else tangible to offer your supporters.

To find out more about either dedication pages or setting up GriefChat contact our support team on 01494 722818 or email support@muchloved.com

The current crisis has affected all charities in the UK, and for some has meant a huge loss of income as face-to-face fundraising events across the board have had to be cancelled. But virtual fundraising may be able to help, offering a way to keep your supporters engaged, and raise vital funds at the same.

The best bit? It’s free to set up for our partners, and we do all the hard work for you. 

Virtual Pyjama Party – a story of success

Pancreatic Cancer Action have used our Dedication Pages to great effect, and set up their Pyjamas for PanCan campaign after other fundraising events had to be cancelled. They provided us with the concept and image, and we did the rest. With their supporters on board and funds starting to come in their Fundraising and Development Manager Lucy de’lemos said;

“We’re delighted with our new Dedication Page with MuchLoved. Our Pyjamas for PanCan page was easy to set up and it’s proving popular with our supporters. With the current restrictions on normal fundraising activities, giving the fundraiser a virtual element was even more important to us, and we’re pleased to see that the funds are starting to come in. We will definitely be using Dedication Pages in the future for other campaigns.”

Their Pyjama Party page is linked from their own website, and has been shared across social media so their supporters can easily find it and get involved. Party participants can share their pyjama selfies and donate quickly, easily and securely, and the charity are notified with every new post and donation. User-generated content is great to share on social media to encourage involvement, so (with permission of course) PanCan will be able to share the pictures for future campaigns as well.

Dedication Pages: how it works

MuchLoved’s Dedication Pages are flexible campaign pages that are set up in a matter of days, with your charity branding, wording and images, and can link from your own website. They allow your supporters to upload photos and messages from their at-home activity and make a donation at the same time. There’s no setup fee for our partners, and once you send us the images and wording we create the pages for you.

Visit our example page to see exactly how they work 

Start your virtual fundraising in three simple steps:

1. Tell us what you would like your page to be. Do you want your supporters to ‘Share their Showstoppers’ with a baking-themed activity, or maybe you want them to do a ‘Home Run’ and run some miles at home and make a donation. Whatever you decide just share your concept with our design team.
2. Send across any images and branding. We do have a huge bank of images so don’t worry if you don’t have access to any relevant images easily, we can help.
3. We will build the page. We’ll include the concept and images, and send back to you for approval. Once you’re happy we’ll send you the link to your page, and you can share with your supporters.

To find out more about setting up a Dedication Page contact our support team on 01494 722818, or email us at support@muchloved.com We’re all working remotely and are here to help any way we can.

Mother's Day can be a particularly difficult day of the year when you are grieving, so MuchLoved has added a selection of Mother's Day virtual gifts to its platform.

This year your supporters can leave virtual flowers and cards on their tribute pages, offering them an extra special way to remember their loved ones.

Bespoke supporter stewardship

Not only can you communicate with your supporters about the new range of virtual gifts, but you can send a virtual gift or card directly to your Fund Holders' pages, through your Partner Area.

You can let your supporters know that you are thinking about them on occasions like Mother's Day, helping build strong, long term donor relationships. Our virtual gifts are free, quick and easy to add to a tribute page, and allow you to give your supporters personal stewardship at the touch of a button.

How it works : for supporters

Your supporters can choose from a range of virtual flower bouquets, cards or posies, and leave their own personal message when adding their gift to a tribute. Virtual gifts are individually managed by Fund Holders, so they can choose whether to have them switched on or off, on a tribute by tribute basis.  All gifts will display in the Gallery area of the tribute, alongside candles and thoughts.

All your supporters need to do is click on 'Visit the Galleries' and then select 'Gifts', and they'll see the option to 'Send a Gift'.

They will then have the option to leave a message along with their virtual gift.

How it works : for charities

In your Partner Area select the tribute page that you'd like to add a gift or card to and click 'settings'. You'll then be taken to the Tribute Settings area where you click on 'Manage gifts'.

Select the option to 'Add a gift' on the top right and you'll be taken to all the gift categories to choose from.

You can add a card or gift as well as a personal message for your Fund Holders.

If you have any questions about virtual gifts or any part of our platform please just get in touch. We will be adding more categories of virtual gifts over the coming weeks and months, but in the meantime if there is something that you would like to be included please do let us know, at support@muchloved.com or call us on 01494 722818

MuchLoved's latest innovation launched in early March

In the same way you can light a Candle in memory, friends and family can now choose from a selection of beautiful images to leave as gifts for their loved ones on a tribute page. They can add a bouquet of flowers, write a special card, or even send a teddy bear.

We are also offering optional charity branded virtual gifts, such as your pin badge or ribbon, or charity cuddly toy in virtual format.

There are a wide range of gifts to choose from, including seasonal gifts to mark special events such as a birthday or Mother's Day, and even virtual cards that can be added to a page.

Gifts are available to manage from within your Charity Partner Area, and can be turned on and off on an individual tribute basis, depending on what your supporters prefer.

Virtual gifts are a great way to engage with your supporters over the longer term and offer them a way to remember their loved ones on milestone moments. If you know a supporter has an anniversary or special date coming up you can speak to them about virtual gifts as a way to reconnect and offer further support.

Tribute guardians will be able to share their chosen gifts via social media, and allow family and friends to send gifts too.

To find out more about using virtual gifts contact our support team on 01494 722818 or email support@muchloved.com

You could too!

Beautiful bespoke fundraising pages, Dedication Pages are standalone web pages that collect one-off donations allowing donors to leave a message and photo. They are completely separate to Tribute Funds, especially designed for those supporters just wanting to make a one-off donation as opposed to ongoing support.

Not only are they a great way for cementing supporter relationships, they offer your charity another option for generating extra income.

LINK A DEDICATION PAGE TO YOUR CAMPAIGN

Dedication Pages can be set up in minutes and are completely customisable with your own branding:

● Fully responsive across all devices types
● Provide charities with the option to upload their own GDPR marketing consents
● All activities can be tracked through Google Tag Manager
● Donations can be optional or prevented, giving full flexibility in their use
● Dedication Pages can be time limited and after the campaign has expired, set to ‘read only’
● Dedication Pages can link directly through a charity's website
● Easily promoted via social media channels

Have a look at the page we've created for RNLI's Launch A Memory Campaign: https://rnli.dedicationpage.org/launchamemory

Dedication Pages aren’t just for in-memoriam donations – they can be linked to a variety of campaigns and celebrations, for example, do you know a supporter who'd like to use their wedding/birthday as a way of supporting your charity?  Have a look at this inspirational wedding fund:  https://gailandanthonywedding.celebrationpage.org

HOW DO I GET MY DEDICATION PAGE SET UP?

Dedication Pages are free as part of Advantage or Optimum Partnership Service. For further information please email support@muchloved.com; or call the MuchLoved office on 01494 722818.

Your MuchLoved Service gives you two fantastic products:

• Tribute Funds
• Dedication Pages

The perfect tools to help you engage with your in-memoriam donors.

TRIBUTE FUNDS

Raising awareness, and understanding how Tribute Funds can be a positive tool for your in-memoriam donors, gives you a perfect campaign opportunity to develop your relationship with them. Tribute Funds provide the perfect platform for in-memoriam donors and will increase vital in-memoriam profile and income for your charity.

Tribute funds provide your supporters with a special place that is dedicated to the memory of their loved one.  Share this tool with your fundraising colleagues, so that everyone within your organisation who comes into contact with an in-memoriam supporter has the confidence to offer this product.  Through customised references within MuchLoved's service, Tribute income can easily be allocated back to another Department's budget, for example Events, Marketing.

One of the lovely features of Tribute Funds is that they can be used either in the short term or long term, collating all aspects of fundraising in one place, regular gifts, matharons, cake sales  – a great way for in-mem supporters to keep total control of all aspects of their Fund, including how long they want to keep it.

MuchLoved Tribute Funds enable your supporters to have a place to remember in so many ways -  lighting a candle, sharing & upload pictures and dedicating any fundraising achievements in memory of their loved one – but, importantly, a way of encouraging additional donations for your charity.

DEDICATION PAGES

Beautiful bespoke fundraising pages, Dedication Pages offer supporters the option to make a one-off donation allowing them to leave a message and photo.  They are completely separate to Tribute Funds, especially designed for those supporters just wanting to make a one-off  donation as opposed to ongoing support.

LINK A DEDICATION PAGE TO YOUR CAMPAIGN

With Mother's Day and Easter on the horizon, why not get a Dedication Page set up to link to any seasonal campaigns you're planning?  Or maybe a supporter would like a personal Dedication Page to support their Spring/Summer wedding?   Just contact us and we'll get your page set up for you!

Dedication Pages can be set up in minutes and are completely customisable with your own branding:

● Fully responsive across all devices types
● Provide charities with the option to upload their own GDPR marketing consents
● All activities can be tracked through Google Tag Manager
● Donations can be optional or prevented, giving full flexibility in their use
● Dedication Pages can be time limited and after the campaign has expired, set to ‘read only’
● Dedication Pages can link directly through a charity's website
● Easily promoted via social media channels

To find out more information about Dedication Pages and GriefChat, plus tips about how to get the most out of your  Tribute Fund scheme, please get in touch by emailing support@muchloved.com or calling the office on 01494 722818.

.... a perfect campaign opportunity for you - here's how 

The 2019 ‘Christmas Candle’ is now available giving you the perfect campaign opportunity to contact your tribute fund holders to encourage them to visit and re-engage with their tribute fund at this poignant time of year. At the same time, implementing a Christmas Candle campaign enables you to benefit too with a vital boost to your Charity’s donation income.

Tribute Funds provide your supporters with a special place they can visit that is dedicated to the memory of their loved one. They may not be aware that a bespoke Christmas Candle is something they can add to their Fund over the festive period so let them know that this is now available for them. Whilst they do have the option to leave a message without making a donation, our Charity Partners who communicate about the Christmas Candle advise us that most supporters do actually make a contribution as well.

Let your fund holders know that you are thinking of them over the festive period and keep your relationship with them active. Simply send out an email that reminds them to visit their tribute fund, and that by clicking on “Contribute” and then “Light a Candle” they’ll be able to choose the Christmas Candle and leave their message. The candle will show instantly on their Fund. Don’t forget, another tip to suggest to Fund holders, is to share their tribute fund link with family and friends as the option to light the Christmas Candle can be a real comfort for them too.

Alternatively, why not add the candle on your Tributes with a message from your charity that you are thinking of your supporter and their family at this time of year? This is a great way for cementing supporter relationships by offering them such a lovely, bespoke way to remember and reflect.

The benefit of letting your Fund holders know about the Christmas Candle gives you a perfect campaign opportunity for you to implement and helps maintain your stewardship plans for Tribute Funds.

To find out more information about MuchLoved’s bespoke Tribute Fund Platform, and tips about how to get the most out of your scheme, please get in touch by emailing support@muchloved.com or calling the office on 01494 722818.

WHAT ARE DEDICATION PAGES?

Beautiful bespoke fundraising pages, Dedication Pages are standalone web pages that collect one-off donations allowing donors to leave a message and photo.  They are completely separate to Tribute Funds, especially designed for those supporters just wanting to make a one-off  donation as opposed to ongoing support.

LINK A DEDICATION PAGE TO YOUR CAMPAIGN

Dedication Pages can be set up in minutes and are completely customisable with your own branding:

● Fully responsive across all devices types
● Provide charities with the option to upload their own GDPR marketing consents
● All activities can be tracked through Google Tag Manager
● Donations can be optional or prevented, giving full flexibility in their use
● Dedication Pages can be time limited and after the campaign has expired, set to ‘read only’
● Dedication Pages can link directly through a charity's website
● Easily promoted via social media channels

Have a look at the page we've created for RNLI's Launch A Memory Campaign:  https://rnli.dedicationpage.org/launchamemory 

Dedication Pages aren’t just for in-memoriam donations –  they can be linked to a variety of campaigns.

HOW DO I GET MY DEDICATION PAGE SET UP?

Dedication Pages are free as part of Advantage or Optimum Partnership Service.  For further information please  email support@muchloved.com; or call the MuchLoved office on 01494 722818.

With the use of MuchLoved’s brand new product ‘Dedication Pages’, Meningitis Now and RNLI have been able to create bespoke fundraising pages specifically meeting the needs of their supporters.

Dedication Pages are standalone campaign pages that are easy to design and tailor in minutes without any specialist help, offering full flexibility to meet both charity and supporters needs and objectives. There's no limit to the number of pages you can set up and have in use so are ideal for multiple campaigns.

Meningitis Now Virtual Garden

Meningitis Now set up a Dedication Page to host their Virtual Garden, a page created to mark their Remembrance Garden 10 year anniversary. They wanted to provide a safe online place where all families and individuals affected by Meningitis could come together, reflect on their experience, honour their loved ones and help in the fight against Meningitis by donating towards the cause.

Christine Spice, Individual Giving and Marketing Officer at Meningitis Now said, “Our Virtual Garden was an important way to honour all those whose lives have been touched by meningitis, the page saw a combination of dedications from both those bereaved by Meningitis and those who thankfully survived the illness.  Plus, it helped us raise over £1000".

Meningitis Now’s Virtual Garden is now deactivated but the dedications can still be can be viewed from
https://meningitisnow.dedicationpage.org/virtualgarden

RNLI Launch a Memory Campaign
The RNLI's Launch a Memory Campaign allows supporters to share the name of a loved one they'll never forget by having their name within the decal - the numbers and letters on the side of a lifeboat. The charity really wanted to give those supporters a chance to share an image and stories about their loved ones and so chose the MuchLoved Dedication Page platform to enable this.

“MuchLoved's Dedication Page provided the perfect solution. A stand-alone page that is bespoke to the Launch a Memory Campaign, through which our supporters could share a dedication to their loved one and if they wish a photo as well. To date over 300 RNLI supporters have left a dedication.”    Clare McCulloch, Senior Marketing Manager

RNLI’s Launch a Memory Dedication Page can be viewed from   https://rnli.dedicationpage.org/launchamemory

Dedication Pages are:
● Fully responsive across all devices types
● Provide charities with the option to upload their own GDPR marketing consents
● All activities can be tracked through Google Tag Manager
● Donations can be optional or prevented, giving full flexibility in their use
● Dedication Pages can be time limited and after the campaign has expired, set to ‘read only’
● Dedication Pages can link directly through a charity's website
● Easily promoted via social media channels

Dedication Pages are FREE for Optimum and Advantage Partners.  To find out more information about MuchLoved's Dedication Pages and bespoke Tribute Fund Platform, please get in touch by emailing  support@muchloved.com; or call the MuchLoved office on 01494 722818.

Keep in touch with your Tribute Fund Holders

We all know the importance of valuing supporters, ensuring that the relationship they have with you continues to grow.  For those supporters who have set up a Tribute Fund via your service, they already have a connection with your charity and by lighting an anniversary candle, you also have the perfect communication opportunity.

You can now keep in touch, without adding to your daily workload, by scheduling to light a candle from your charity for all your Tribute's birthdays and anniversary of death on a monthly basis.

Simply follow the steps below to enable you to run your Tribute Anniversary report: 

• Visit your Partner Area
• Go to 'Reports'
• Select 'Tribute Report'
• In the 'Export Options' select the details you wish to export including the 'Date of Death' (DOD)
•  Download the Tribute Report data ensuring the correct date period is set in the filter of the report
  (Note - not all DOD fields will have data in them as this is not always completed by the family/funeral   director)
• Open the CSV file in Excel
• Add a column to the report and paste the following formula =IF(D2<>"", TEXT(D2, "mmmm"), "") into the new   column; this will convert all the dates in the DOD column to their month only name
• (Note: The letter used (D2) must relate to the column in which the DOD appears as it is this column which the formula is looking to convert to the month only name)
• You can then select the tributes for any particular month
• (Note - this facility is only available for tributes create via your own service, so you'll need to filter them via the source code to see which it is applicable for)

How to light candles from your Charity:

Choose a candle that is most fitting and appropriate for the Tribute Fund.  Leave a message of condolence on behalf of your charity as well as a thank you if any donations have been made.

• In your Partner Area, under 'Your Tributes" select "Settings" for the tribute in question
• Scroll down to Candles and then click "Manage Candles" box
• Click "Add a Candle"
• Choose your candle, add your Charity name in the "who is this candle sent from" box
• Add a short message, prayer, or thought.
• You will also have the option to select date for when you'd like the candle to appear on the tribute fund
• Finally, click the "Add Candle" box
• You don't need to make a donation to light the candle

Add  a personal message from your charity, this really does help make your supporters feel valued, for example:

Please accept our sincere condolences on the loss of (name of deceased). Your very kind donations in memory of her/him really will help ensure that (support/research  - Charity strapline)  can happen and are very much appreciated. We hope that you find her/his Tribute Fund a comforting way to celebrate their life.

If you would like more information on any of the above, please get in touch by emailing us support@muchloved.com or calling the office on 01494 722818.

Tribute Funds - a wonderful way to help supporters as well as benefit your charity

Creating a tribute fund is a special way for your supporter to remember a loved ones and share lasting memories -  the perfect place for their  family and friends to come together in honouring a loved one and celebrating their life.

Tribute funds also benefit your charity as they are  a place to collate all in-memory donations  - and encourage repeat donations -  as well as enabling you to build stronger relationships with your supporter.

Our Charity Partners benefit from...

• The opportunity to integrate a fully-featured Tribute Fund platform seamlessly into their website
• The availability of extra Fundraising tools such as Funeral Notices and Regular Giving that are designed to optimise and encourage repeat donations
• Dedication Pages - an extra fundraising tool, not linked to Tribute Funds but offer the opportunity to collect one-off donations linked to your charity campaigns - included free within the Partnership Package
• Access to an extensive range of online Tribute Fund functionality including candles, uploading photos and videos - helping families to keep engaged and connected with your charity.
• Launch training and consultancy support
  Ongoing investments to improve our Platform and deliver new fundraising products - all at no extra cost

To find out more information about MuchLoved’s bespoke Tribute Fund Platform, and tips about how to get the most out of your scheme, please get in touch by emailing us support@muchloved.com or calling the office on 01494 722818.

WHAT ARE DEDICATION PAGES?

Beautiful bespoke fundraising pages, Dedication Pages are standalone web pages that collect one-off donations allowing donors to leave a message and photo.  They are completely separate to Tribute Funds, especially designed for those supporters just wanting to make a one-off  donation as opposed to ongoing support.

LINK A DEDICATION PAGE TO YOUR CAMPAIGN

Dedication Pages can be set up in minutes and are completely customisable with your own branding:

· Fully responsive across all devices
· Beautiful personalisable templates or create your own
· Free as part of your Partnership Package
· GDPR Compliant
· Secure donation processing and real time reporting
· Each page can be time limited
· Gift Aid collection
· Link to your website

Have a look at the page we've created for RNLI's Launch A Memory Campaign:  https://rnli.dedicationpage.org/launchamemory 

Dedication Pages aren’t just for in-memoriam donations –  they can be linked to a variety of campaigns.

HOW DO I GET MY DEDICATION PAGE SET UP?

We will do this for you!  Simply follow the link below which will provide you with all the information we require to set up your bespoke Page and we'll take it from there:  http://support.fundraisinginmemory.org/home/setting-up-your-tribute-fund-service/dedication-page-artwork-design/

Dedication Pages are free as part of Advantage or Optimum Partnership Packages so if you’d like us to switch this functionality on for you please contact your MuchLoved Account Manager; email support@muchloved.com; or call the MuchLoved office on 01494 722818.

Networking, idea sharing and announcements of MuchLoved's new developments!

Our recent Partner Day included a packed agenda and gave us the forum to share information on new product developments. In addition, it provided opportunities for everyone to meet and share ideas for running successful Tribute Fund schemes.

Dedication Pages - the new Fundraising Product from MuchLoved

Dedication Pages are MuchLoved's latest fundraising product, free as part of the Optimum Partnership Package and can be used in addition to a Tribute Fund scheme.  Designed to collect one off donations giving the supporter a little bit more as they allow them to leave a message and the option of a photo.  The pages are totally customisable and can be linked from your website.

If you would like more information on any of the above, please get in touch by emailing us support@muchloved.com or calling the office on 01494 722818.

Networking, idea sharing and announcements of MuchLoved's new developments!

Our recent Partner Day included a packed agenda and gave us the forum to share information on new product developments. In addition, it provided opportunities for everyone to meet and share ideas for running successful Tribute Fund schemes.

Dedication Pages - the new Fundraising Product from MuchLoved

Dedication Pages are MuchLoved's latest fundraising product, free as part of your Partnership Package and can be used in addition to your Tribute Fund scheme.  Designed to collect one-off donations whilst enabling your supporter to better recognise the motivation behind their donation by linking it to an optional picture and message.  The pages are totally customisable and can be easily linked from your website.

MuchLoved Partner Award 2019

Each year we present a MuchLoved award in recognition of an individual who has implemented or run a successful Tribute Fund scheme, by embracing MuchLoved's platform and using it to its full potential.

The person we chose for this year's award, is someone who stood out as passionate about fundraising and the charity area they work in.  She has always been an avid promoter of MuchLoved and our tribute fund platform since initially using us in her previous position at Pilgrims hospice.

In 2015 she moved to the hospice where she works now and in the spring of 2017 migrated the charity’s existing Tribute Funds across to the MuchLoved platform.   From here she has worked hard to develop and promote their Tribute offering internally, with her colleagues, as well as to the families of the hospice.  Not stopping there, she has actively spread the word about MuchLoved among other hospices and also to funeral directors, including East of England Coop who we are  delighted to say have just signed up and started to use MuchLoved’s service.

She has given us much valuable feedback, has great input and ideas and always keeps thinking forwards.

For these and many other reasons, we were delighted to award this year's MuchLoved partner award to Pauline Donkin of St. Elizabeth Hospice.

Grief Chat

Grief Chat is an online bereavement service that MuchLoved have partnered with.  Grief Chat sits within your website giving your supporters easy and immediate access to qualified & experienced bereavement counsellors.  This is also free* as part of your partnership.

*up to 500 inclusive chats per year

We were also lucky enough to have contributions from other charity partners in the form of case studies from Cardiomyopathy UK, St Elizabeth's Hospice and Levertons Funeral Directors.   The presentations have all been listed here:  http://support.fundraisinginmemory.org/home/support-for-your-tribute-fund-service/partner-day-presentations/partner-day-2019/

If you would like more information on any of the above, please get in touch by emailing us support@muchloved.com or calling the office on 01494 722818.

Why choose MuchLoved as your Tribute Fund provider?

MuchLoved was established as a registered charity over 10 years ago by our founder Jonathan Davies following the sudden death of his brother, Philip, aged 21.  MuchLoved is the UK's leading Tribute Fund provider and supports over 3 million people a year, raising over £40 million for UK charities in memory of their loved ones.

Our Charity Partners benefit from...

• The opportunity to integrate a fully-featured Tribute Fund platform seamlessly into their website
• The availability of extra Fundraising tools such as Funeral Notices, Regular Giving and Dedication Pages that are designed to optimise and encourage repeat donations
• Access to an extensive range of online Tribute Fund functionality including candles, uploading photos and videos - helping families to keep engaged and connected with your charity.
• Launch training and consultancy support
• Ongoing investments to improve our Platform and deliver new fundraising products -  all at no extra cost

To find out more information about MuchLoved’s bespoke Tribute Fund Platform, and tips about how to get the most out of your scheme, please get in touch by emailing us support@muchloved.com or calling the office on 01494 722818.

Of all the new media platforms that have evolved over recent years, social marketing is the one that has turned traditional marketing on its head to the greatest extent. With older outbound marketing strategies (e.g. direct mail), communications are sent one way to existing and potential supporters.  However, with social media you can interact directly and instantly with your supporters and the communication process becomes a two way dialogue - which improves mutual understanding and relationship building.  So here are five top tips to help you effectively promote your Tribute Funds on social networks:

1.  Create a Calendar

Scrambling to create posts at the last minute can lead to low-quality content. A lack of organisation can lead to repeated posts or missing out on promoting at key times such as Mother and Father's Day, Easter etc.  Working with fundraising and event colleagues will also ensure you can target a Tribute Fund message to previous event participants who have raised money in memory of loved ones.

To make a content calendar, use a regular calendar for each social media channel and plan out your posts in advance, complete with hashtags, links, images and other content.

2.  Encourage Engagement

Social media should, of course, be social. That doesn’t only apply to those who use the sites for fun. Charities need to be interactive, too.  Encourage interaction by posting content that people want to read, ask questions and like, repost and comment on other users’ posts.  Supporters testimonials as to why they set up their Tribute Fund will also give credibility to why a Tribute Fund can offer comfort and be a positive experience at a sad time.

Visual content works well on social media. Video content, especially, is ideal for grabbing people’s attention as well as conveying your personality and passion to your customers.   Visual content stands out as people scroll through their social feeds, so they’re more likely to view it and engage with it. It also allows you to say more than you could in a typical post without taking up much room.  Why not ask a fund holder to feature in a video? Most supporters love to tell their story of why they are connected to your charity.

3.  Provide Value

Perhaps the most important thing you can do on social media is provide value to your supporters.  Tell them something about your Tribute Fund scheme which will make your in-memoriam supporters want to set up their own Fund; something which they will find useful and meaningful to them. For existing Fund holders, remind them of the difference their donations in memory of their loved one has made to your charity.

Providing supporters with a rationale as to why they should set up a Fund and continue to raise money for your charity, will encourage them to follow you on social sites and helps content to spread. Master this, and you’ll be a big step closer to a successful social media campaign!

4. Build a Community

Instead of trying to get as many followers as possible, focus on finding and keeping connected to your Tribute Fund Holders who are already interested, loyal and engaged with your Charity.  These people are more likely to repost your content, like your posts and remain loyal supporters and repeat donors.

Building a community around your Tribute Fund holders, will help the people within that community engage with each other as well as helping to promote your content.

5.  Be Interactive

Monitor and respond to messages supporters leave on your Tribute Fund related posts.  This reiterates to your supporters that you do value them as well as being seen as a responsive and caring Charity.

We know it's really difficult for colleagues to read, digest and act upon all the "asks" of your charity.  More importantly, you don't want to add to their workload.   Tribute Funds are a tool which, if your colleagues embrace and understand, will reap benefits in terms of donations and keeping connected with supporters,  but also give a message of comfort to your  supporters at a sad time and difficult time.

Here are some great internal communication tips to help promote and get Tribute Fund buy-in from colleagues:

Find out how aware of Tribute Funds your colleagues currently are:

Take feedback from your colleagues from different levels and departments about their knowledge of Tribute Funds to understand how aware they are of  your scheme.  In addition, ask them questions such as:

• Do they know who to contact if a supporter wanted to set up a Fund? 
• Can they explain to a supporter where to go to on your website for more information and to set up a Fund?  
• How would they succinctly explain Tribute Funds and their benefits to a supporter? 

 By ensuring colleagues know where to find Tribute Fund information, they will be able to talk to supporters confidently about this.                                                           

Make sure that Tribute Funds are included as part of your charity's goals

With the growth of in-memoriam donations high on most charity's agendas, embedding Tribute Funds as part of the in-memoriam strategy will help ensure colleagues understand that increasing the number of Tribute Funds is also a way of increasing in-memoriam donations and therefore helping to reach targets.

Select Champions  - Could they host a "Morning Show" for you?

With less and less time for people to read the intranet and respond to emails, see if you can select influential people (including Senior Leaders and colleagues from  your Fundraising and Supporter Care Teams) to promote the benefits to the organisation of  having a successful Tribute Fund Scheme.

Why not create a 45 minute morning show run by Senior Management discussing organisational performance and new initiatives, maybe giving shout-outs to individuals and ask a Tribute Fund Champion to give a message about Tribute Funds at the same time?  By encouraging questions and discussions, good promotional ideas can also be explored by all the attendees, encouraging further buy-in.

Let colleagues know they play an important part in the success of your Tribute Fund Scheme

Make sure everyone on your team knows their purpose of why they need to be aware of your Tribute Fund scheme. Ensuring they have the knowledge will also eliminate that fear of asking for help or discussing Tribute Funds with supporters.

To find out more information about MuchLoved’s bespoke Tribute Fund Platform, and tips about how to get the most out of your scheme, please get in touch by emailing us support@muchloved.com or calling the office on 01494 722818.

An incredibly important way to encourage team spirit and colleague engagement is to make sure that everyone in your workplace feels included with all your new charity initiatives - especially when it also benefits your supporters.

Involve Colleagues in your Tribute Fund discussions

Launching your bespoke Tribute Fund Scheme not only provides an opportunity to work with colleagues across your organisation, they are also a fundraising tool to be used by everyone to continue existing relationships and build new ones with your supporters.

Giving colleagues an opportunity to share their creative ideas helps encourage collaboration between all the teams involved in promoting Tribute Funds to supporters.  Everyone will have something to input which represents the area they work, ensuring all teams understand the benefits for the charity as well as supporters.  This might include scheme design, launching specific In-Memory Events or creating tokens of recognition for major in-memory fundraisers.

Challenging colleagues to evaluate a new opportunity is also great way to encourage cross-functional working relationships and get collective buy-in.  You may also be able to implement some of the great ideas your colleagues come up with.

To find out more information about MuchLoved’s bespoke Tribute Fund Platform, and tips about how to get the most out of your scheme, please get in touch by emailing us support@muchloved.com or calling the office on 01494 722818.

Integrate your Tribute Fund Scheme:

As a registered charity, and with over a decade of experience in helping charities support their bereaved families , MuchLoved provides the complete Tribute Fund service for you to offer your supporters.

Here's why:

1.  Fully branded and integrated Tribute Fund Platform
2. All part of your website through customised API widgets
3. Quick and simple to use with beautiful functionality for your supporters, including candles and multi-media
4. Comprehensive Event and Just Giving integration
5. Secure Reporting Area and personalised alerts along with simple to use scheme management tools

To find out more information about MuchLoved’s bespoke Tribute Fund Platform, and how to make your Tribute Fund Scheme a success, please get in touch by emailing support@muchloved.com or calling the office on 01494 722818.

Your Tribute Fund scheme provides your supporters with a special place that is dedicated to the memory of their loved one.  But, when making an in-memoriam donation online, do they realise that they could set up a tribute fund?  Often the Tribute Fund message is the last piece of information on the In-Memory page so many of your supporters will have already clicked through to the donation page before even reading about Tribute Funds, meaning a possible lost opportunity for your charity.

Tip 1 : Give supporters clear options when on your donate in-memory page:

Split your in-memoriam options on your website with clear direction for your supporter.  For example, Make a one-off Donation;  Set up a Tribute Fund,  Funeral Collections. The benefits to your supporter is that they will be able to choose the best option for them when dedicating their donation in memory of a loved one.

Tip 2:  Use MuchLoved's API widgets

The widgets make it easy for your supporters to create a tribute and search for one, plus it's totally integrated into your website with your branding.

Tip 3:  Include a testimonial from a fund holder - they are your best advocates

Live stories and messages from other supporters really help to bring to life the benefit of a having a tribute fund.

The Allen Family from Durham set up their Tribute Fund in memory of their Dad “Alby”.  The Fund has provided a positive focus as they raise funds to help ensure vital research can happen:
“We as a family have pledged to raise funds in Dad’s memory and have already begun this process by participating in a whole host of fundraising activities from holding coffee mornings to cycling and tough mudder events. To dedicate these funds in Dad’s memory really makes us feel we are helping those people affected by stroke."

To find out more information about MuchLoved’s bespoke Tribute Fund Platform, and tips about how to get the most out of your scheme, please get in touch by emailing us support@muchloved.com or calling the office on 01494 722818.

Our ‘Christmas Candle’ is now available giving you the perfect campaign opportunity to contact your tribute fund holders to encourage them to visit and re-engage with their tribute fund at this poignant time of year. At the same time, implementing a Christmas Candle campaign enables you to benefit too with a vital boost to your Charity’s donation income.

Tribute funds provide your supporters with a special place they can visit that is dedicated to the memory of their loved one. They may not be aware that a bespoke Christmas Candle is something they can add to their Fund over the festive period so let them know that this is now available for them. Whilst they do have the option to leave a message without making a donation, our Charity Partners who communicate about the Christmas Candle advise us that most supporters do actually make a contribution as well.

Let your fund holders  know that you are thinking of them over the festive period and keep your relationship with them active.  Simply send out an email that reminds them to visit their tribute fund, and that by clicking on "Contribute" and then "Light a Candle"  they'll be able to choose the Christmas Candle and leave their message.  The candle will show instantly on their Fund.  Don't forget, another tip to suggest to Fund holders, is to share their tribute fund link with family and friends as the option to light the Christmas Candle can be a real comfort for them too.

The benefit of letting your Fund holders know about the Christmas Candle gives you a perfect campaign opportunity for you to implement and helps maintain your stewardship plans for tribute funds.

To find out more information about MuchLoved's bespoke Tribute Fund Platform, please get in touch by emailing us support@muchloved.com or calling the office on 01494 722818.

Over 50% of MuchLoved's users now access their tributes on smartphones and small hand held devices.  The content our users upload is precious and needs to be clearly visible - whatever device it's been viewed through.  So we've made some changes to the tributes and updated their layout to ensure all users have a simple and beautiful experience however they are accessed; phone, tablet or PC.

The overall look of the tributes is now a simpler and cleaner view, whilst keeping the layout and the functionality our users are familiar with. Tribute Guardians and guests will get a better experience as they navigate around their Tribute and will be able to see a full summary of all content on their site straight away from their home page, including any video tributes.

Clicking on photos will pop them into a scrolling slideshow (fully swipeable on smartphones) and users are now able to share individual photos, candles, thoughts and videos they've added directly through the social media buttons in the footer of the tribute if this has been enabled by the Tribute Guardian.  Thoughts and Candles now have their own, separate galleries making it easier to view them and see all lit and past candles together in one space.

For those that do view their Tribute pages through hand-held devices it's really straightforward to make donations and add messages or candles by quickly scrolling down their screens.

We’ve also made developments behind the scenes to make sure that all your content displays perfectly on all screen-sizes, ranging from wide desktop screens through to small hand-held devices.

You can find out more here: Updated-page-layout-autumn-2018

MuchLoved’s Tribute Fund platform, developed and enhanced over more than decade in partnership with bereaved families, charities and funeral organisations,  offers the complete Tribute Fund platform.
Being able to access our full suite of Payment reports is one of the benefits available to all charities that we process donations for. The reports are created on a monthly basis, usually around the 15th of month and list all donations collected and processed in the previous calendar month. We offer three different Payment reports:

- Donor View
- Tribute View
- Financial View

All Payment reports can be downloaded with a click on the CSV button. In addition to this, all charities can set themselves up to receive an alert each time a set of payment reports are created.

If you are receiving payments from MuchLoved but don’t have access to your free Basic reporting area, please get in touch support@muchloved.com

If you’re ready to go one step further and want to set up your own bespoke tribute fund service please get in touch, we’d be delighted to chat, please email support@muchloved.com or call the office on 01494 722818.

MuchLoved are extremely experienced at transferring tribute funds from alternative providers onto their bespoke Tribute Fund Platform. So much so that MuchLoved have a process in place that makes it a completely seamless transition.

Upgrading to MuchLoved always helps to reinvigorate a scheme, as fund holders are provided with more functionality and flexibility, particularly in terms of fundraising. They can link up to any existing JustGiving pages, record regular gifts and include offline donations. Plus, there is no limit to the amount of fundraising pages the fund holder or their friends and family can have.

The back-end reporting through your secure Partner Area is second to none, with a selection of real time reports, bespoke GDPR marketing asks, Payment Reports and customisable alerts.

Don't just take our word for it, see what Pauline Donkin, Individual Support Manager at St Elizabeth's Hospice thinks:

'We transferred over to MuchLoved's Tribute Fund platform about a year ago. The management of the transfer was faultless and without any disruption.  Our fund holders were delighted with the upgrade and have really embraced the new functionality. We've seen an increase in pages set up and donations received as a result.  The hospice is also benefiting from fantastic reporting and tribute management functionality. We can't recommend it highly enough.'

If your Tribute Fund scheme needs a facelift please get in touch, we’d be delighted to hear from you.

01494 722818 or email support@muchloved.com

GDPR has been a hot topic for most people within charitable organisations this year.

Here are the ICO’s top five data protection tips for small and medium sized charities:

1. Tell people what you are doing with their data
   People should know what you are doing with their information and who it will be shared with. This is a legal requirement (as well as established best practice) so it is important you are open and honest with people about how their data will be used.
2. Make sure your staff are adequately trained
   New employees must receive data protection training to explain how they should store and handle personal information. Refresher training should be provided at regular intervals for existing staff.
3. Use strong passwords
   There is no point protecting the personal information you hold with a password if that password is easy to guess. All passwords should contain upper and lower case letters, a number and ideally a symbol. This will help to keep your information secure from would-be thieves.
4. Encrypt all portable devices
   Make sure all portable devices – such as memory sticks and laptops – used to store personal information are encrypted.
5. Only keep people’s information for as long as necessary
   Make sure your organisation has established retention periods in place and set up a process for deleting personal information once it is no longer required.

Source: https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/charity/

With MuchLoved's Tribute Fund platform you can clearly tell users of the service what you're doing with their data, how you are storing it, present the opportunity to sign up to marketing in the way they want and provide details of how they can amend their preferences.  Ticking one of the ICO's top five data protection tips.

For more information on MuchLoved's integrated Tribute Fund Platform please get in touch support@muchloved.com

MuchLoved have recently hosted their 4th annual Partner Event. A unique event specifically for In Memoriam Fundraisers. It's an opportunity for MuchLoved's Charity Partners to network, learn about MuchLoved's latest developments, hear how others are using the platform and share best practice.
This year MuchLoved were honoured to have Megan Goodhead from Meningitis Now, Corrine Mason from Winston's Wish and Clare McCulloch from RNLI share their experiences and wisdom.

    
Following the success of last year's new Partner Award, after much deliberation the MuchLoved 2018 Partner Award was given to Jackie Parnell of the Stroke Association. With nearly a 1000 Remembrance Funds and many funeral collection pages to manage, their scheme has grown from strength to strength. Due to Jackie's dedication and hard work their Remembrance Funds, Celebration Funds and most recently their Strike Back Funds are now firmly embedded within their organisation.

"I'm very touched to be receiving this award. The MuchLoved platform has enabled supporters to have a place where all their fundraising achievements - whether in memory of their loved one, or as a stroke survivor - be shared with family and friends. Supporters have told us how important it is for them to make a positive difference and their Fund helps them to achieve this. Remembrance Fund holders often tell us they find their Fund a comfort and a way to celebrate the life of their loved one, whilst stroke survivors who have set up a Strike Back Fund have a platform to enable them to fight back.  It's great to know that this platform really does help supporters through a very sad time in their life by enabling them to have a positive focus"
Jackie Parnell, Stroke Association

For Optimum partners, an invitation for the event is part of the package and we encourage partner contacts to bring along a colleague from another team so they too can learn about the benefits of tribute funds and help promote the scheme internally.  Plus, if you're so inclined, there will also be an opportunity to showcase your Tribute Fund scheme during our Case Study session.

Information about next years event will be distributed towards the end of this year.

A thank you message from someone in your care team, research staff or fundraising, simply recorded on a phone and uploaded onto a tribute would be an incredibly powerful thank you, one that could be kept and seen by many for years to come.

There are many fine examples of this, one of which is from American charity, Water.  When they turned five they decided to spend their birthday giving personalised thank you's to their supporters.  This involved writing letters, making phone calls but also filming several short, very personalised thank you videos.

It's great to see so many staff getting involved and giving the credit to their supporters.  These individual thank you videos are available to watch via their YouTube channel, some of which have been watched thousands and thousands of times.

Another fine example of this happened very recently for St Micheal's Hospice, Hereford. Thanks to their amazing work, they received a very special personalised thank you message.

Harry Potter star, Daniel Radcliff whose friend's grandmother had been cared for at St Michael's sent a personal video thank you to the staff.

A simple, short, video recorded on a mobile phone, something that took seconds to make has made an enormous impact on the staff at the hospice.

Why not give it a try yourselves and make a huge impact on your tribute funds holders.  Loading videos onto a MuchLoved tribute is straight forward but if you need any help, please do get in touch.

Call:  01494 722818

Email: support@muchloved.com

Keeping communication channels open with fund holders is key.  Jackie Parnell, from Stroke Association is kindly sharing a fantastic example of this.

Jackie has sent her Remembrance Fund holders personal and sensitive communication in the lead up to Christmas including a mixture of soft asks and non ask messages.  This type of stewardship will continue in the year, sending fund holder a variety of messages and gentle reminders regarding engaging with their Tribute Funds.

Please vote for MuchLoved in the Aviva community awards, so we can offer online bereavement counselling. Click here to vote

GriefChat is a way of connecting bereaved people directly to trained bereavement counsellors through a live chat programme, which can be hosted on ANY website.

This service has been developed by MuchLoved's very own Catherine Betley who has a particular interest in end of life and bereavement care and has been involved in managing counselling and therapy services throughout her career. GriefChat, using today's technology, will enable MuchLoved to expand and improve our support for bereaved people to give them more and better information about grief and loss and really change the way in which they are able to access bereavement support and counselling services.

We know that in the UK it’s very hard to gain fast access to mental healthcare and counselling services and in the same way that we revolutionised the way in which people remember their loved ones, we now want to change the way in which they can get help.Vote for MuchLoved here

With Aviva funding, we will establish an online chat function on MuchLoved.com which will enable bereaved people to talk directly to grief counsellors about their loss, how they are coping, what help they need and how they can get this, in order that they are able to better cope with their grief and begin to come to terms with their loss.

Our GriefChat service will be provided by qualified, experienced bereavement counsellors who will be able to quickly help and support people to get the information and care that they need, when

they want it. We know that there’s nothing like this in the UK at the moment and with our experience of both technology and bereavement, feel well-placed to offer it.

MuchLoved's GriefChat will benefit a lot of bereaved people. MuchLoved homepage alone gets more than 144,000 hits per year, so if only 20% of the people who visit us engage with GriefChat we would expect that almost 30,000 bereaved people will benefit from better advice, support, information and access to counselling.

Bereaved people tell us that it’s hard to cope after someone important to them dies, and also that it’s difficult to access community support for bereavement. With this grant, we can change this and really make a positive difference to the lives of people across the UK.

Please support us by voting for us.

For more information on GriefChat click here

Rossendale Hospice in Lancashire were looking to develop their In-Memory Giving proposition to provide a special way for their supporters to remember a loved one and support the hospice. Rossendale chose MuchLoved’s bespoke Tribute Fund platform as it was perfect fit for their needs and would offer all of the functionality they wanted in order to support bereaved families. Having a close relationship with Fred Hamer Funeral Services, a large local funeral director, it seemed natural to ask whether Fred Hamer would offer to support the hospice to cover the cost of the service.

Alison Whittaker-Stewart from Rossendale Hospice said: “Fred Hamer have been enormously generous in providing sponsorship of our Tribute Fund scheme. It’s been a great success, our supporters have been really responsive and it’s help us to build an even closer relationship with Dawn Winfield and the team from Fred Hamer, we’d highly recommend such a partnership”.

Dawn Winfield from Fred Hamer said “We were only too happy to support Rossendale hospice in this way.  We’ve been using MuchLoved’s funeral notice & donation processing service for some time now. The results have been fantastic, we’ve seen an increase in donations, we’re getting more traffic than ever to our website and our families are really benefiting from the additional bereavement the service offers. Having Rossendale using the same service, makes the transition of information on donations collected really smooth as everything is transfer over automatically to them via their online Partner Area.”

If you're interested in such a relationship please get in touch at sally.swann@muchloved.com and we can let you know which of your funeral directors we're already working with.

As donating in lieu of flowers becomes standard practice and over £100 million plus gift aid is being collected per annum through UK funeral directors, charities need to start focusing on their options for Funeral Collections.

Much of that income is still being collected via cash and cheques, but the change to online is coming rapidly.  Interestingly, the funeral directors aren’t always the conduit for these collections and it’s not unusual for a family to set up their own online page before the funeral arrangements are made.

Charities offering supporters with more choice around funeral collections will lead to new supporter relationships.   MuchLoved Trustee, Jonathan Davies, has recently presented on how charities can make substantial improvements by taking just a few simple steps.

Here are 3 of Jonathan's Top Tips:

Create a specific standalone Funeral Donations page on your website – don’t incorporate with other content such as in-memory donations

Check out how you rank in searches:

- Google ‘Your Charity Name + Funeral Donations'

 - Search for ‘Funeral Donations’ in your own website homepage search box

Personalise the copy on your Funeral Donations page

Make it unique to your organisation but make sure you are including all the key phrases which will increase your search results.

Add Design, Colour and Artwork

Make it stand out from the rest, the right imagery will help to express a sense of care and ease and make your organisation more appealing to supporters.

If you’d like to see all of his Top 10 tips, please sally.swann@muchloved.com

MuchLoved’s variety of platform widgets will enable you to entirely embed your Tribute Fund scheme within your website. With the 'Create' Widget your supporters are able to set up their tribute directly from your website. From the 'Search' widget they're able to find a loved one, friend or relatives' tribute fund page. With the 'Tribute Details' widget, any tribute fund content you want is displayed entirely on your web-domain, including collecting donations. The additional 'Funeral Collection' widget then gives you a more modern alternative to funeral collection envelopes.

Our collection of widgets create a better user experience, give you total branding control, ensure that content is kept up to date and make Tribute Funds a completely integrated part of your offering.

British Lung Foundation have recently embedded the Create, Search and Tribute Details widget and would highly recommend them.

"Thanks to MuchLoved's new Tribute Details API Widget, our supporters can access our tribute funds and make donations in the easiest way possible, at just the click of a button. It's had a positive impact on the take up of tributes. Especially as we have such a high number of people using them it's great to have the process simplified. We'd highly recommend it!." Katie Collis, Legacy & In Memoriam Executive

The widgets are simple and easy to add to your webpages, and we provide a widget that uses all the styles and fonts of your website.  Please contact the MuchLoved office on 01494 722818 if you would like more information about the widgets or email support@muchloved.com.

The National Funeral Exhibition is one of the top three funeral trade shows in the world, the biennial NFE provides an opportunity for the industry to meet, innovate, buy, sell and see which direction the industry is heading, in a vibrant and future-focused environment.

The NFE is a respected global platform for the funeral profession and the largest trade show for the sector in the United Kingdom; showcasing the latest, innovative products, inspiring though leadership and business networking opportunities to 3,000 funeral sector professionals.

We arrived Thursday lunchtime and begin to assemble our stand.  By the early evening we were ready for the show with our limited addition MuchLoved Ale chilling behind the scenes ready to give to partners and prospects in exchange for a quick chat.

The stand starts to take shape

Everything is in place and were ready for the show

Facial reconstruction lessons

Reusable coffins

Ronnie Krays hearse

Japanesse Ornate hearse

Only Fools and Horses Reliant Hearse

Personalised coffin with chalk board lid

Jon and Richard enjoying a well earned drink

The energy in the exhibition halls was palpable, with plenty of business going on and industry discussions.   Sunday’s family day provided the children with a host of entertainment from dedicated to arty activities to a climbing wall!

Wholly owned and organised by the National Association of Funeral Directors (NAFD) the show is a fantastic industry event that MuchLoved were delighted to be part of.

"The MuchLoved service has improved our links with local charities and simplified our reporting of donations to them.  As well as  combining all the practical elements of the funeral donations in one place, they act as such personal and special Tributes.  We love setting them up for clients."  Margaret Bone, Paul J King Funeral Directors

MuchLoved's platform enables Paul J King to collect funeral donations for absolutely any UK registered charity or charities.  We process the donations for them at a considerably cheaper rate than other services, which is better for their clients as well as the charities.

We also provide clear real-time reporting to Paul J King and the charities, enabling them to easily see whom the donations have been made in memory of.  This cuts down on administration as the charities don't have to check up about each funeral, since they always have the information automatically at their fingertips.

MuchLoved's Partner Event is an annual get together for our charity partners.  It's an opportunity for them to network and learn about our latest developments, discover our plans for the future, hear how others are using the platform and receive advice on how to get the best out of the service.

Now in our third year of running the event we've introduced a Partner Award.  We wanted to recognise and highlight a partner or individual who has really engaged with the service and utilised it to its best ability. After much deliberation we were delighted to present the award to Tess Moore, MND Association Tribute & Fightback Funds Executive.  The MND Association were one of the first charities to introduce Tribute Funds to their supporters and have been using the MuchLoved platform since 2008. Now they have over 900 online tributes and last year alone brought in over £1million through their Tribute Fund scheme. We wanted to acknowledge Tess's hard work and contribution to this amazing achievement.

If you haven't had the opportunity to attend one of our partners events, please do come along to next years.  For Optimum partners, an invitation for the event is part of the package and we encourage partner contacts to bring along a colleague from another team so they too can learn about the benefits of tribute funds and help promote the scheme internally. Plus, if you're so inclined, there will also be an opportunity to showcase your Tribute Fund scheme during our Case Study session.  This year we were honoured to have Mark Spruce from Cransley Hospice, Michael Clarke from Cystic Fibrosis Trust and Tess Moore from the MND Association share their stories and wisdom.   Information about next years event will be distributed towards the end of this year.

Michael Clarke, Cystic Fibrosis Trust

Mark Spruce, Cransley Hospice

Tess Moore, MND Association

PCA Instagram post

Whilst Facebook might be the obvious and initial choice, Instagram is fast becoming the peoples choice.  With over 150 million users, Instagram is one of the best and most-used photo sharing platforms, enabling you to share photos, as well as short videos, with your followers and supporters. There are over 55 million photos shared on Instagram every day (source: Mind Jumpers), a great reason why it's the perfect place to promote your services, fundraising mechanisms and in particular your Tribute Funds.

Pancreatic Cancer Action are using their Instagram account to promote their 'Pansies In Memory' pages and received over 108 likes from one post.

"As a charity we feel it is vital to be able to reach out to all our supporters and engage with them through a variety of channels.  Instagram is fast becoming a more popular media channel for sharing snapshots of one's life and allows users time to think about photos from an interaction standpoints.  As a charity we like to be able to promote our work in the same way.   People love to connect with people and we love to be able to connect with our supporters!" Lucy De'Lemos, Fundraising Manager, Pancreatic Cancer Action

Pancreatic Cancer Action Instagram

Pansies In Memory Instagram post

See how MuchLoved's funeral directors are promoting online memorial pages in their windows this Valentines.

Several of the Funeral Partners branches are celebrating Valentines Day with a fantastic window display, featuring their online memorial service.

Valentines Desk Place Card

Valentines Window Display

Valentines Window Display

Along with an array of hearts, posters of their memorial service are show cased in the windows and laminated place cards displayed on the desks.

“We are delighted with the help and support we’ve received from MuchLoved with putting these fabulous window displays together.” Kelly Hailou Head of Marketing

"Being able to set up a replica of a direct debit for a supporter's tribute fund is a really useful recent development on the MuchLoved platform.  It allows us to show the full record of all donations made in memory of a loved one.  For the regular giver into a fund, they can see their donations accumulating - which can be very motivating".

Clare McCullock, Marketing Manager, Legacy & In Mem Giving

Once set up, regular gifts are automatically included on the tribute at the set frequency and for the specified duration, requested messages will also display, as shown on the example below.

How the Regular Gifts display on a Tribute Fund

Regular Gifts display under Recent Donations

Alzheimer’s Research UK within a very short time have developed a fantastic tribute fund scheme raising £12,000 this month alone.

The success is down to a good mix of Tributes Funds and Funeral Collections, great working relationships across teams alongside internal promotion of tributes funds. Plus, Georgina and her team are giving the personal touch to supporters, offering to create tributes on their behalf and providing additional assistance where necessary.

 "MuchLoved focuses on the needs of the user and ensures their journey is smooth and hassle free which is why we at Alzheimer’s Research UK have registered with MuchLoved. It is so important to us that those grieving have somewhere to share their memories, photographs and anecdotes about their loved one that is no longer with them. The speediness of the support and the ability to customise our reports help to make the charity’s internal process smoother. We are really excited about the potential the tribute funds on MuchLoved have and I look forward to seeing the upgrades and development work next year."  Georgina Hyman Legacy & In Memory Manager

MuchLoved’s bespoke and fully integrated platform enables them to provide their In Memoriam supporters with the perfect place to remember and fundraise.

Acorns Children’s Hospices provide care and support to life limited and life threatened children, and their families, throughout the West Midlands, Warwickshire, Herefordshire, Gloucestershire and parts of Staffordshire and Shropshire. Through each of their three hospices they offer two different Tribute Funds; Daisy Chain Tribute Funds dedicated to celebrate the life of a child or young person who has been cared for at the hospice and Golden Oaks Tribute Funds to remember someone loved in life. Both funds are brought together and displayed side by side in the virtual garden.

“The ease at which people can open their own MuchLoved page and then receive words of comfort or memories, wherever they are, is brilliant.  We love the way the Tribute Fund Garden brings both streams of Acorns Tribute Fund holders together into one ‘family.’ Being able to offer MuchLoved to families is fantastic and I know that it has brought great comfort to many.”
Janine Miller – In Memoriam Officer, Acorns Children’s Hospice

Click here to see Acorns Children's Hospices Tribute pages.

Two new API widgets from MuchLoved allow your supporters to Search for a tribute or Create a New Tribute from within your own charity website.  The widgets, which are simple to add, mean charities can have all the benefits of our proven, comprehensive, market leading  functionality sitting inside their own websites.  And more API widgets are coming soon - including Donate functions and View Tribute Details.

“We’ve been working with MuchLoved for over three years and it has been great to offer our supporters their online tributes. We’ve just upgraded to their API widget, which means the creation and search processes are integrated into our own website. It’s made it much easier for our supporters to use and has even led to an increase in the number of tributes created. MuchLoved are great to work with and really put the interests of bereaved families and friends at the heart of everything they do.” Laura Sparrow, Legacy & In Memory Giving Executive, Prostate Cancer UK

Get in touch if you would like to receive one or more API widgets for your website.  We will send you the code for you or your digital team to add into your existing In Memory, Tribute Fund or Funeral Donations page.  You can use the widgets in multiple places on your website - so perhaps add a Create widget alongside your information about funeral donation envelopes.

On Thursday 8th September 2016 the UK’s ‘Funeral Oscars” took place. The Good Funeral Awards were created by The Good Funeral Guide.  The Guide is a not-for-profit social enterprise company, who are wholly independent of the funeral industry. They are dedicated to supporting, empowering and representing the interests of dying and bereaved people living in the UK.

Since 2012 The Good Funeral Guide have been recognising the great work of the country’s best funeral related workers; gravediggers, embalmers and funeral directors, through an Awards Ceremony.

MuchLoved were absolutely thrilled to be awarded the prestigious title of “Best Internet Bereavement Resource 2016” presented to our founder Jonathan Davies by journalist and broadcaster, Penny Smith.

Our Anubis statue award, which came in a small coffin-shaped box, will take pride of place in our office.

Leonard Cheshire Disability have recently launched their Shared Memories Tribute Fund scheme using the MuchLoved service and are delighted with it.

The fund uses beautiful imagery across the Leonard Cheshire website, their fund homepage and their tribute garden - creating a strong and distinctive brand for the Shared Memories scheme.  Visitors to the fund homepage can read a supporter's story as to why they created a fund for their Grandfather and are then taken to the fund itself, making it quick and simple to demonstrate what a tribute looks like.

"Leonard Cheshire Disability is delighted to announce the launch of our Shared Memories service.  We decided to use MuchLoved's service as it provides the perfect place for our supporters to commemorate and celebrate their loved ones' lives."
Clare Norman, Gifts and Wills Officer

Imagine families and friends visiting a Tribute and immediately the spirit of their loved one is evoked.  Our Tribute themes capture the personality and passions of the person - whether is it their love of the outdoors, music, a particular sport, their faith...

We have well over 100 themes to choose from, grouped into similar areas of interests, with choices suitable for babies, children and adults.  Recently we added summer and sailing designs to the range capturing the outdoor spirit and evoking happier times on the beach.

Adding one of our themes to a Tribute is simple to do, either as part of the set-up of a Tribute or subsequently if the family want to change their tribute look and feel.

How to Personalise a Theme during the 'Create' process:

1. Log in to your Partner Area, click 'Create a Tribute' and enter the information as normal
2. On the last section 'Tribute Appearance', select a theme in the 'Theme' drop down list.  A thumbnail of your choice will pop up under the drop-down box.
3. Click the 'Create Tribute' button.

How to Change the Theme of an Existing Tribute:

1. Log In to your Tribute and click on the Settings link on the grey bar
2. Click on Tribute Appearance and then Style and Font Options
3. Select your design from the different types of themes shown and click OK at the bottom of the page

Our beautiful themes are developed and introduced in response to feedback so please keep on telling us any requests.  We have quite a few additional designs coming along soon based around hobbies and interests - we'll keep you posted when they're ready.

“MuchLoved’s bespoke service provide us with the perfect platform for our Breath of Life Funds. It gives our supporters the right level of personalisation and control, inspiring fund holders and their families to support us long term.”  Ryan O’Connor, Individual Giving Manager

We provided a complete and successful migration from Our Lasting Tribute for approximately 800 existing funds and have impressed them particularly with the improved back­end Control Panel and reporting which enables British Lung Foundation to administer a large number of Tribute Funds effectively whilst retaining a personal touch.

The customisable reference fields are fundamental to the British Lung Foundation managing their scheme effectively, saving time and facilitating efficient internal integration. With the help of customised alerts there is a clear communication path between relevant teams and as a result many eventors have been converted to Breath of Life Fund holders.

British Lung Foundation regularly benefit from pages created through MuchLoved’s funeral director partners, nearly 10% of which have been converted into Breath of Life Funds.

Out of 1,800 Breath of Life funds 1100 are hosted on the MuchLoved platform where each of the active funds raise an average of £1733. Each month over 19 new funds are being created. To date British Lungs Foundation’s Breath of Life Funds have raised nearly £1.7 Million.

“The amount of customisation available is more than we could possibly use, plus the control panel and reporting is comprehensive and easy to use. It’s absolutely the perfect system for managing our many hundreds of funds.” Breath of Life Officer, Graham Price

The Christie Charity have recently upgraded from another service to MuchLoved and are delighted with all the improvements.

"Our tribute scheme is starting to grow very nicely indeed. One fund is approaching £30k and a couple of others are over £10k. It’s really helping us to build a rapport with our in-memory donors and I’m looking forward seeing the tributes grow and develop in 2016."
Wasim Hussain, Trusts and Legacies Fundraiser, Kirkwood Hospice

To find out more about MuchLoved's Tribute Fund service call any of the numbers below, email sally.swann@muchloved.com or take a look at www.fundraisinginmemory.org

MuchLoved Headoffice: (Jon, Clare, Helen & Maggie): 01494 722818
Sally: 01273 931250 or 07957 335677
Catherine: 07766 074009

Staff at Helen & Douglas House light candles and leave messages of support on anniversaries and have received thank you's for doing so.

“Our care team are really engaged with our tribute fund scheme.  Lighting a candle and leaving a message on an anniversary lets the families know that they, and their loved one, are still remembered at the hospice.”
Trish MacIntyre, In Memoriam Fundraiser and Legacy Officer

To find out more about MuchLoved's Tribute Fund service call any of the numbers below, email sally.swann@muchloved.com or take a look at www.fundraisinginmemory.org

MuchLoved Headoffice: (Jon, Clare, Helen & Maggie): 01494 722818
Sally: 01273 931250 or 07957 335677
Catherine: 07766 074009

"As a Hospice, gifts in memory are all important and providing ways for our donors to remember and celebrate loved ones are a fantastic way to build supporter centred relationships. The Tribute Fund service that MuchLoved offers does exactly that and very quickly after setting up our Sunflower Tributes we are finding family and friends are wanting to engage in this way."
Maxine Peel-Yates, Gifts in Memory Manager

"We wanted to give our supporters a way to remember a loved one and fundraise at the same time, MuchLoved provide the perfect platform to do this."
Anne Norman, Legacies Fundraiser

To find out more about MuchLoved's Tribute Fund service call any of the numbers below, email sally.swann@muchloved.com
or take a look at www.fundraisinginmemory.org

MuchLoved have introduced a new set of email alerts for Tribute Fund partners, providing a huge range of notifications. These bespoke notifications allow you to tailor the information that you want to receive and means, for example, scheme administrators and finance personnel can get different information emailed to them, and at differing frequencies.

"It’s great to have this level of control and really pleased to get the anniversary updates."
Corinne Mason, Winston's Wish

To update the notifications you receive, simply log on to your partner area and go to the Settings tab where you can choose 'Alert Preferences'.

Parkinson's UK are successfully promoting Tribute Funds through their Facebook page.  Their most recent post got them 268 likes, 13 shares, 12 comments and 4 new tribute funds.

To find out more about MuchLoved's Tribute Fund service call any of the numbers below, email sally.swann@muchloved.com or take a look at www.fundraisinginmemory.org

MuchLoved Headoffice (Jon, Clare, Helen & Maggie): 01494 722818
Sally: 01273 931250 or 07957 335677
Catherine: 07766 074009