Financial Help for Headstones and Monuments for Children

In response to a question in the comments, I went looking for places that offer financial help in purchasing a headstone for an infant.  While most states legally spell out the level of government which is responsible for burying those too poor to afford their own burial, tombstones and memorials are outside the barest necessities, and not covered.  But private organizations in some localities attempt to fill this void.

In Georgia, Children's Burial Assistance will help some expenses for children's funerals in the state, and sometimes outside of it IF--and that's a big if--there are the funds.  In central Florida, the Bradley Summersill Foundation offers financial help for children's headstones.  Their contact information is:

2460 Peterson Road, Apopka, FL 32703,phone: (407) 733-1062.  The Josh Rojas Foundation works to give children in the Rochester, New York area headstones.  The Conner Kirby Infant Memorial Foundation provides help for infants in the states of Pennsylvania and Maryland.

The Northern New York Community Foundation has a fund for gravestones for children in their service area, via the "Forget Me Not" program.     

For more on the program, contact the NNYCF.

On the national level, there is one organization I found that does not seem to have a geographic limit, and that's the Dempsey Burdick Memorial Foundation.  A few families per year are chosen to receive a memorial stone for their loved one.  Again, this is dependent on availability of funds.

Businesses Can Use Linked Deposits to Borrow Money Cheaper

What’s a linked deposit, and how can it help your business get a lower cost loan? It’s simple. State and local governments gather up money all the time, and need somewhere to invest and grow it. Some of them figure that they can kill two birds with one stone—invest the money in the form of CD’s in lending institutions in their state, linked to the amount that the institution loans to certain types of businesses in that state, at a lower rate (maybe a couple of percentage points) lower than the going rate. That interest rate savings is passed along to the borrower, and makes borrowing money a couple of percentage points cheaper as a result.


Like most government programs, it is pointed towards a particular end—mostly business development, and particularly, the type of businesses that the state has an eye towards growing. So, in Washington State, certified military service members and veterans have a linked deposit program to provide cheaper loan money for veterans in business. In Maryland, there is a program for certified minority business people. Oklahoma has several programs—for agriculture, small business, and developers of affordable housing. Ohio has a bunch—more than I realized. Besides the one for small business, there is one for agriculture. There’s another one for the rehabilitation of underground petroleum tanks and another one for logging and silviculture. In fact, Ohio has the only linked deposit system of saving that I know of for individuals—SaveNow, which allows a higher rate of savings return for individual Ohioans.

There is no one centralized list of linked programs, even in one state. Many are run out of the state’s treasurer’s office, but not all. Here’s a list of state treasurer’s offices, just to start. To find more possible programs in your state and see if you are the type of business your state wants to grow, Google the name of your state and “linked deposit” program.  Remember that you will still have to come up with a good business plan, and be credit worthy.  These programs are no guarantee that you will be loaned the money!  But they are a good option to consider.

Takin' It To The Bank

In your quest to find out about all the money you can get, there is free, skilled, legit help along the way. People turn up their nose at public assistance and food stamps, but the fact remains that, along with earned income tax credits, these are some of the biggest financial programs available. There are also sources of financial help you may not know about--help with fuel bills or insulation, for instance. And, for people in Arkansas, Florida, Kansas, Maryland, Mississippi, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and the District of Columbia, there are people who can tell you what major financial help programs you are eligible for.

The Benefit Bank has a network of agencies that host them throughout each of these states. When you go to their website, you can enter your address, city and state, and pick which services you would like information about: taxes, benefits, or voter registration, and click "search." It will pull up a list of Benefit Bank places that provide counseling. You can call the one most convenient to you and set up an appointment to meet with them. You will need to bring supporting documents, like pay stubs, so ask what sort of documents you need. Check out this site and find someone who can really help you get money.