Table of Contents:
What Are Memorial Trees?
Through Gather's partnership with Arbor Day Foundation, a non-profit with a 50-year legacy of helping to rebuild our forests, Gather customers can offer memorial trees on Remember Pages as an eco-friendly memorialization option for the families you serve.
If this feature is enabled for your account in Gather, your location(s) will receive a 15% commission on monthly memorial tree sales. This provides your business with an additional revenue stream while empowering you to better serve your families.
Memorial trees can be contributed and planted in 10+ different reforestation projects, allowing families a new way to preserve their loved one's legacy. For your location(s), memorial trees require no additional setup or management if Remember Pages are enabled for your account. Families order directly through their loved one's Remember Page, and fulfillment is handled seamlessly, allowing you to offer a meaningful memorialization option without adding extra work for your staff.
Helpful Tip: Contact Gather's support team if you have questions about enabling this feature for your account.
How Families Can Plant Memorial Trees
Below is a quick guide on how families and friends can honor their loved ones and order memorial trees to be planted in a reforestation project of their choice, directly from their loved ones' Remember Pages.
1) Navigate to the Loved One's Remember Page
When visiting a loved one's Remember Page, visitors can scroll down and locate a button called 'Plant a Tree', which can be found in their loved one's obituary section, directly below the memorial video section, or directly from the flower store.
2) Click the 'Plant a Tree' Button
Once visitors have located the 'Plant a Tree' button, they can click it to preview the various reforestation projects offered by Arbor Day Foundation, in which they can plant a memorial tree in honor of their loved one.
3) Select a Forest Project
Next, families and friends can read through the various forest project options available through our partnership with Arbor Day Foundation and select which forest project they'd like to proceed with by clicking 'Plant Memorial Tree Here':
Idaho Panhandle National Forest
Bootleg Fire Restoration
Fire Recovery For the Tribes and Communities in the Pacific Northwest
Mushroom National Forest
Six Rivers National Forest
Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest
Chippewa National Forest
Michigan State Forests Project
Gulf Coast Restoration
Support a Forest in Need (nationwide)
4) Select How Many Memorial Trees to Contribute
After selecting a forest project, families and friends will be prompted to select the number of memorial trees they'd like to plant in their loved one's honor:
Single Tree: $39
Grove of 3: $89 ($30/tree)
Grove of 5: $149 ($30/tree)
Grove of 10: $249 ($25/tree)
Grove of 25: $399 ($16/tree)
Grove of 50: $499 ($10/tree)
5) Add Optional Memorial Message and Complete Order
Once a visitor's selection has been finalized, they can customize and add a memorial message, and choose whether or not they'd like that message to be shared on their loved one's Remember Page as well. Once a message has been added, visitors can click 'Enter Card Details' to see the total price for their memorial tree contribution, enter their payment details, and finalize their order.
How Memorial Tree Orders Are Fulfilled
After visitors finalize their memorial tree order on their loved one's Remember Page, they'll receive an order confirmation email from planttrees@arborday.org and a PDF copy of their Certificate of Tree Planting as a keepsake. The certificate includes:
Who the trees are planted in memory of
How many trees were planted
The contributor's name
Additionally, a new memory card will be preserved on their loved one's Remember Page to highlight the memorial tree contribution.
Helpful Tip: If your team has questions about a particular memorial tree order, please contact Gather Support by calling (208) 908-0488 or emailing help@gather.app.
How To Track Memorial Tree Orders in Gather
Your funeral home or crematory location(s) can track your memorial tree orders by creating a custom Remember Page report using Gather Analytics. Here's how:
From your dashboard in Gather, click 'Analytics' and click 'Build New Report'.
Select the 'Remember Page' data source.
Enter 'Memorial Tree Orders' for the name, add a description, and click 'Save'.
Click 'Filters' and set 'Memory Type' to equal 'Tree Purchase'.
Customize the columns of the report to your liking, and voila!
Helpful Tip: To learn more about how you'll receive your commission payouts for Memorial Tree orders, visit our Remember Store help article.
Memorial Tree Marketing Resources For Your Business
Rest assured, we've created two resources for you to share with your families if they have questions about memorial trees that they'd like to buy through their loved one's Remember Page. We recommend bookmarking and sharing both links to help answer any questions that are brought forward:
Family Guide: How to Plant a Memorial Tree For Your Loved One
Family FAQs: Everything You Need to Know About Memorial Trees
Helpful Tip: The 'Family FAQs' help article is included in the order confirmation email that is sent to families and friends who order a memorial tree contribution.
If you need additional help promoting memorial trees in your community, we've created two free downloadable resources: a brandable social media graphic and two marketing email templates.
Frequently Asked Questions: Memorial Trees
Below is a quick list of answers to frequently asked questions about Memorial Trees. Still have questions? Please contact Gather Support, and we'll be happy to assist.
Who exactly plants the memorial trees?
Gather partners with Arbor Day Foundation, a nonprofit organization, to offer this memorialization option for Gather customers and the families you serve. They're scaling their efforts to plant 500 million more trees by 2027 in areas where they're needed most. Once the Arbor Day Foundation team receives a new memorial tree order from a family member, they work on planting memorial trees in the forest project area that was specified.
Will contributors know the exact location of the memorial tree(s) they requested to be planted?
Answer: Memorial tree saplings will be planted in the forest project that the contributor selected. However, they will not receive the exact location of those memorial trees planted in the forest. However, Arbor Day Foundation does provide a registry where families and friends can check on the status of their loved one's memorial tree(s) and see if the planting has been completed yet:
View Arbor Day Foundation's Registry Here
For memorial trees, does the Arbor Day Foundation plant tree seeds or seedlings?
Arbor Day Foundation plants tree seedlings, not tree seeds. Seedlings are young trees (already grown plants) with a diameter of 1 to 5 inches at a point that is 4.5 feet from the ground.
How do families and friends know that the tree survives over time?
After your memorial tree saplings are planted, Arbor Day Foundation returns to the forest and checks on your trees for 3 years to ensure that the memorial trees are on pace to survive.
What species of trees are planted?
Our planting partner, Arbor Day Foundation, plants trees native to the selected forest restoration project. Tree species will differ for various projects but will always be native, non-invasive species. Most forest lands need native evergreens that were lost due to wildfires or other natural disasters.
When will contributors know that their memorial tree is planted?
Contributors will not be notified exactly when their purchased memorial tree is planted. However, Arbor Day Foundation will plant their memorial tree (or trees) within 30 days, unless it's around wintertime. The Arbor Day Foundation provides a registry where contributors can check the status of the memorial trees they ordered to be planted in honor of their loved one.
View Arbor Day Foundation's Registry Here
Will families and friends receive a picture of the memorial trees they order to be planted to honor their loved one?
Since Arbor Day plants and distributes approximately 10 million trees annually, its team is unable to provide photos of every tree. However, contributors who place a memorial tree order will receive a Certificate of Tree Planting that they can keep.
Will there be a plaque or sign by the memorial tree(s) that someone orders to be planted?
There will not be a physical sign or plaque next to the tree. However, memorial trees are formally documented on the Arbor Day Foundation's online tree registry at arborday.org/registry (updated monthly).
Can families visit their loved one's memorial tree(s)?
Trees are planted in areas where reforestation efforts are actively taking place and may be difficult to traverse without risk of injury. Additionally, no signs identify particular memorial trees, so it would be hard to locate a specific tree. Therefore, attempting to visit the exact location of their loved one's tree is not advisable.
Can families and friends plant/purchase more than 50 memorial trees?
Yes, they can plant as many memorial trees as they'd like. However, they can only purchase 50 memorial trees at a time, so they'll be required to follow the same process on their loved one's Remember Page to buy any additional trees.
Can families and friends purchase flowers and memorial trees?
Yes, families and friends can purchase both flowers and memorial trees through their loved one's Remember Page.
Will more forest project locations be added in the future?
Yes! Through Gather's partnership with Arbor Day Foundation, we're in consistent communication about adding additional forest project options for the families that we serve. If there is a forest restoration project you're interested in, please submit a feature request to our support team.
Are donations made to the Arbor Day Foundation tax-deductible?
Since the Arbor Day Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, there’s a good chance a contributor's monetary donations are tax-deductible, but we recommend that you advise families and friends who ask this question to consult their tax professional to be sure.