Our model, Values and Impact
Tender Funerals Australia is a not-for-profit that was established to support communities interested in starting a Tender in their local community.
The Tender Funerals model has the following core characteristics:
- No one should be unable to access a meaningful funeral
- No one should go into debt as a result of paying for a funeral
- We are not-for-profit
- We do not distribute funds to other programs/initiatives
- We take a whole-of-community approach
- We operate under a common set of essential values
- We provide person-centred services and supports
- We believe in transparency and choice
The original Tender Funerals was established in 2016 in Port Kembla to provide funeral services to those in need. After three years of successfully operating and growing national interest, Tender Funerals Australia was established.
Tender Funerals Australia is a not-for-profit that was established to support communities interested in starting a Tender in their local community. Through a social franchising agreement, Tender Funerals Australia provides local communities with key intellectual property, capacity building and specialised training. There is an upfront fee associated with entering the social franchising arrangement, as well as a small per funeral fee. The sole purpose of these fees is to cover the support provided by Tender Funerals Australia and have been kept as low as possible to ensure accessibility.
If you’re interested in starting a Tender Funerals in your community and/or receiving more information, please fill out an expression of interest.
Credo
A Community Undertaking
At Tender Funeral’s kindness is our compass in everything we do.
Everyday our community make informed choices aligned with their own values.
We will always be a not-for-profit and we will always be community owned.
Kindness is our Compass:
• At Tender Funerals, we believe after death and funeral care should be meaningful, authentic and where possible healing
• Operating from a place of neutrality – we understand that every person and situation is unique
• At all times our service should reflect ethical decision making and accountable, transparent action
The Power of Informed Choice:
• We don’t know what we don’t know
• Choice starts with a conversation to identify what is needed and what is possible
• We encourage all voices to be heard to inform meaningful decisions
• We affirm the choice to participate in the way that is right for each person
• Informed choice can include pre-planning of after death care and options
• Needs may change as you move through the process, and so your decisions can too. We allow the process to take all of the time that is needed
Strength of Community:
• An informed and empowered community knows what to do when one of their own dies
• At Tender Funerals we support people to connect with their community to look after their own
• We believe people are capable
• Capacity is developed as we learn together, sharing experience in relationship, with knowledge retained in the hands of the community
• No one should be unable to access a meaningful funeral, and no one should experience financial hardship as a result of paying for a funeral. We are a community venture, and operate in ways that do not leave community members in large amounts of debt
Tender Funeral’s Strategic Narrative:
Because
Many Australian pay high prices for funerals and don’t have the experience they want to have and end up going into debt
as a result
we believe
no one should be unable to access meaningful, affordable funerals and feel empowered to make the decisions that are right for them
so we provide
a network of support for communities interested in setting up a local Tender Funerals, a not for profit funeral service that provides customised affordable funeral services
that leads to
individuals and communities across the country having meaningful and empowering experiences that don’t leave them in large amounts of debt
and results in
an Australia where families and communities are able to farewell loved ones in a meaningful way, without experiencing financial hardship or distress
“My family chose Ashleigh and the team at tender funerals to be the directors at my fathers funeral, from the first meeting, we were put at ease with the kind and patient approach they had with organizing a funeral at such a devastating and highly emotional time for our family. Post meeting, Ashleigh had my father into her care that afternoon, and offered us a large range of extra services that they could supply, most of which I didn’t know of and other companies did not supply. Those extra services like washing and dressing my father and having the time with his body to say a private goodbye, nothing was ever any trouble for Ashleigh to organize and we were very greatful to have been given the time and compassion to have all our wishes met, it allowed us to grieve in a safe and supportive place and it made the whole professional process they provide stress and worry free. I would definitely recommend choosing tender funerals for your loved ones to give them the last goodbye they deserve.”