How to Send Funeral Notices

When a loved one dies, you want to notify family and friends to let them know of the recent loss and when the funeral services will be held. There are several ways to go about sending funeral notices. Thankfully, with today’s electronic messaging, you have additional options that makes it that much faster to send notices without too much effort.

A funeral notice is a form of communication that you send or email your family and friends to let them know when the memorial or funeral service will be held for the deceased. If you write an obituary for the local newspaper, usually a notice of when the funeral service will be held and its location are noted at the end of the obituary.

This type of notification reaches to a far wider audience than just an inner circle of family and friends. If the deceased was active in the community or if you live in a small town, a newspaper obituary is a good way of letting everyone know of your loved one’s death.

Funeral notices written in the newspaper usually follows a specific type of format that includes:

1. Indicate the name of your loved one, birthplace, birthdate and date of death in the first sentence.

2. In order note a short biography of your loved one’s life, for example indicate  where they grew up, went to school, worked and include any degrees or special hobbies or interests they had.

3. Indicate the surviving family which includes parents, spouse and children. 

4. Announce when and where the funeral, burial, wake and/or memorial service will take place.

5. End with a where to send contributions statement. You can state “In lieu of flowers…” or “Memorial donations may be made to…”

There are costs involved in publishing an obituary in the local newspaper as well as text limitations. And you need to keep in mind that people will need to read this section of the paper in order for them to know about their death, which may not always be the case.

If however, you choose not to do a newspaper obituary, there are still other ways to globally notify the family, friends, and acquaintances of the deceased. You could simply send emails for those whom you have email addresses. By sending a global email, you can eliminate the additional time it takes to make phone calls. If you are not sure how to send emails globally, perhaps a friend can assist you in this process. Don’t be afraid to reach out to your family and friends and delegate some of these tasks.

Another form of notification via email are ePostcards. You can send them for free and most have a format and design specifically for sending funeral notices. This is a great way to dress up your emails a bit and notify your contact list of the upcoming funeral. Electronic notification is a also a great way to reach those who are out of state.

For the people that you don’t have email addresses for, you might want to create a separate list for personal phone messages. Enlist the help of a friend or family member to do this task. You can also choose to notify via regular U.S. mail by sending a Funeral Notice card or letter. Preparing one on the computer whether from scratch of via a template can help facilitate this the completion of this task quickly.

Whichever way you choose to send funeral notices, remember to include the date, time and location of the funeral service. Provide maps or directions if applicable.