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