Funeral Service Foundation Receives $217,500 from Service Corporation International (SCI) in 2025

Contributions from SCI will advance programs that strengthen funeral service and support grieving communities

Brookfield, Wis. – The Funeral Service Foundation is proud to announce that longtime supporter Service Corporation International (SCI) has generously contributed $217,500 to the Foundation in 2025, bringing their cumulative giving to more than $2.6 million and solidifying SCI’s position as the Foundation’s top corporate donor. This support enables the Foundation to continue its mission of lifting up grieving communities by investing in people and programs that strengthen funeral service.

At the Opening Session of the NFDA Convention, attended by more than 1,400 funeral service professionals, SCI’s contributions were recognized by Will Bischoff, Foundation Fund Development Chair, who introduced John Faulk, SCI’s Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer and Foundation Trustee and Treasurer, to the stage.

Faulk shared SCI’s commitment, “As a Trustee, I can attest to the positive impact that the Funeral Service Foundation has on our profession. Whether you serve one community or hundreds, we all have a shared purpose — to help families when they need us the most. As a company, we value partnerships and organizations that collaborate across our profession to strengthen it, and that’s why we support the Funeral Service Foundation.”

On behalf of the Foundation, Chair Jeff Smith said, “We are deeply grateful to John Faulk and the leadership team at SCI for their steadfast commitment. Their support enables the Foundation to continue building strong partnerships across the profession, investing in programs and people that make a real difference for grieving families. As our top corporate donor, SCI’s generosity allows us to maximize our impact across funeral service.”

SCI’s 2025 contributions, including support for the 2025 Golf Classic, directly fuel programs and initiatives that enhance education, research, and professional development in funeral service, ensuring every investment creates meaningful impact.

About Service Corporation International (SCI) – https://www.sci-corp.com/ 

Service Corporation International (NYSE: SCI), headquartered in Houston, Texas, is North America’s leading provider of funeral, cemetery and cremation services, as well as final-arrangement planning in advance, serving more than 600,000 families each year.  Our diversified portfolio of brands provides families and individuals a full range of choices to meet their needs, from simple cremations to full life celebrations and personalized remembrances.  Our Dignity Memorial® brand is the name families turn to for professionalism, compassion, and attention to detail that is second to none.  At September 30, 2025, we owned and operated 1,487 funeral service locations and 499 cemeteries (of which 312 are combination locations) in 44 states, eight Canadian provinces, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.  For more information about Service Corporation International, please visit our website at www.sci-corp.com.  For more information about Dignity Memorial®, please visit www.dignitymemorial.com.

About the Funeral Service Foundation – FuneralServiceFoundation.org
Since 1945, the Funeral Service Foundation has served as the philanthropic voice of the funeral profession and has identified as the charitable arm of the National Funeral Directors Association since 1997. Donors and volunteer leaders profession-wide support the Foundation in its mission to lift up grieving communities by investing in people and programs that strengthen funeral service. 

Maybe there is something to the ongoing prediction that a whole lot of funeral homes will be changing hands in the next 3 to 5 years.  Barely after we were able to get a press release from Park Lawn Corporation out about a funeral home/cemetery expansion in New Mexico we received this press release announcing the sale of the Wages and Sons Funeral Homes in Georgia to Park Lawn Corporation.

According to the press release which we received on Monday, October 6, 2025:

“Park Lawn Corporation (“Park Lawn“), is pleased to announce that, effective today, it acquired substantially all of the assets of Atlanta Crematory located in Stone Mountain, Georgia; Cremation Society of Georgia located in Atlanta, Georgia; Wages & Sons Funeral Home located in Stone Mountain, Georgia; Wages & Sons Funeral Home Gwinnett Chapel located in Lawrenceville, Georgia; and Wages & Sons Gwinnett Chapel Crematory located in Lawrenceville, Georgia (collectively “Wages“). This transaction strengthens Park Lawn’s presence in the greater Atlanta, Georgia market through the addition of two (2) stand-alone funeral homes as well as a cremation focused provider.”

Jennifer W. Hay, Chief Executive Officer of Park Lawn Corporation made this prepared comment about the transaction in the press release, “We are excited to expand our presence in the State of Georgia through the strategic acquisition of the Wages businesses. For years, these businesses have been trusted pillars in their communities, recognized for their compassionate service and care. We are honored to partner with Jeffrey to carry this legacy forward. We warmly welcome each of the Wages businesses and their esteemed staff into the Park Lawn family, and we look forward to continuing their tradition of excellence in serving the families of the greater Atlanta area.”

Here is the website for the Wages and Sons Funeral Homes & Crematories

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily take:  Just like the title of the hit song, “I’m a Believer” when it comes to the prediction that there will be many funeral homes changing hands in the forseeable future.  Not only are there many current family funeral home owners reaching the age of retirement but many of those firms have no next-of-kin interested in continuing as the next generation in the funeral business.  That lends itself to the eventuality of many funeral homes coming to market and many opportunities for current operators to expand their businesses with a “right-time”, right-facility”, “right-location” acquisition.

I’m guessing we will continue to hear about acquisitions as we move farther into the 4th Quarter of the year.  First of all, it is convention time and many firms like to have the momentum of acqusition announcements rolling into the convention where they get a chance to visit face-to-face with many targets.  Secondly, the process of offer/acceptance, due diligence, and closing takes some time so the firms we hear being acquired at this time of the year were probably companies on the market at the beginning of the year, a time many firms take their firms to the consolidators.

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An article was authored by Seeking Alpha contributor Daniel Jones last week about the largest funeral home and cemetery operator in North America — Service Corporation International (SCI).  As our headline mentions, the title of the article, that you can access here, is “SCI:  A stock to take to the grave”.

Jones uses some information and images from SCI’s 1st Quarter presentation, which you can see here, in giving his analysis and opinion.

As with almost all of the articles from another source that give stock information and suggestions, we will quote some of the thoughts from the article but leave the personal opinions of Funeral Director Daily out of the equation.

Here are some of the quotes Jones uses in making his decisions on SCI:

• “Service Corporation International remains a ‘buy’ due to its industry leadership, stable growth, and strong long-term demographic tailwinds.”
• “The company’s asset clustering strategy and fragmented market offer significant acquisition and cost-saving opportunities for continued expansion.”
• Transition to insurance-funded pre-need contracts should improve margins and sales growth, with management guiding for stronger performance in 2026.”
• Since I (Seeking Alpha author Jones) last wrote about the company in January of this year, in an article in which I reaffirmed the business as a ‘buy’ candidate, the stock is up only 3.8% compared to the 4.3% rise that the S&P 500 has enjoyed. But since I originally rated it a ‘buy’ over nine years ago in April 2016, the stock is up an astounding 248.4%. That comfortably outpaces the 188% rise enjoyed by the S&P 500 over the same window of time. 

A couple of different graphics are shared in the report from the SCI 1st Quarter presentation.  Those graphics make these statements:

• “SCI has 1,985 total locations in North America as of March 31, 2025

• “SCI has a 17% market share in North America with other consolidators listed as 9% in total, and independents have a 74% market share.”

Disclaimer — The author of this article for Funeral Director Daily is a stockholder of Service Corporation International

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We found a recent investment article by Seeking Alpha author Daniel Jones that was published on Sunday, January 12.  When you are in this business as I have been for over 40 years, it is always interesting to see what others have to say about the investment opportunities available in the business’ public markets.

Without an opinion by me, I present this article from Seeking Alpha titled “Service Corporation International remains attractive, in spite of recent underperformance” for your enjoyment and knowledge.

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Back in early June of this year (2024) many of us were surprised by this announcement that public funeral home and cemetery operator Park Lawn Corporation (PLC) had agreed to be acquired and taken private by a group known as Veridian Holdings.  Probably most consequential in that announcement was that one of the partners in the buy-out agreement was preneed funeral home insurance company Homesteaders Life.

The announcement revealed that Canadian private equity firm Birch Hill Equity Partners Management would join Homesteaders Life as partners in the limited partnership.

The published price for the buy-out and take private move was CAN$ 26.50 per share making the transaction total about CAN $1.2 billion, which when equated to the US dollar at the time would equal a trasaction valued at about US $871 million.

On August 9, 2024, a press release from Park Lawn Corporation announced that the transaction had been concluded and Park Lawn Corporation would now be operating as a private company owned by a group that included Homesteaders Life and Birdh Hill Equity Partners Management.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily take:  This marks the 2nd straight year that our “Business Story of the Year” involved a take private movement involving a private equity company.  Here’s a re-cap of our story for 2023 when Batesville was sold to private equity group Long Range Capital for a reported $761 million.

There seems to be a lot of money in private equity at this time as other Death Care companies had preceeded the Park Lawn Corporation sale.  In prior years we have seen the following public funeral home and cemetery operating companies be purchased by private equity groups:  StoneMor (now re-named Everstory), Dignity plc, and InvoCare.

Related Article:  Private Equity 2024 Mid-Year Report.  September 2024.  Cherry Bekaert

What makes the Park Lawn Corporation sale interesting is that one of the major parties to the acquisition is a preneed insurance provider — Homesteaders Life.  My guess is that management of that company sees a lot of synergies in owning funeral homes and has moving forward plans of not only bringing in more premium dollars but seeing an interesting path to deploy those premium dollars in investments that can then bring in more premium dollars. . . . . I can see the opportunities. . .

On the other hand, the partnership is not without risk for Homesteaders Life. . . . .some family funeral home owners now may see the company as a competitor (in the funeral business) and not as an ally (as a preneed partner).

In any regard. . . . there are enough sides to this story to be named our “Funeral Director Daily Business Story of the Year”.

Here’s some Funeral Director Daily articles that were published on this transaction:

June 4, 2024:  Park Lawn drops a bombshell:  Company announces it is going private

June 11, 2024:  Is Park Lawn now “In play”?

June 14, 2024:  A Seeking Alpha opinion on the proposed Park Lawn sale

June 18, 2024:  Will SCI take a run at Park Lawn Corporation?

July 10, 2024:  Will Carriage Services be next?

July 29, 2024:  It’s July 29.  Will Park Lawn be going private?  What does that mean for Homesteaders Life?

July 31, 2024:  Park Lawn shareholders approve sale, take-private move.

August 19, 2024:  Where was SCI?

Final Thought:  One thing that occured to me as I looked back over these articles is that for those of you who read Funeral Director Daily to keep tabs on the bigger companies in Death Care, we certainly covered this transaction from all possible angles that we could think of. . . . . certainly more than any other publication.  I think that is part of the reason that Funeral Director Daily continues to move to the forefront of Death Care business readership. . . . . In essence, we don’t just publish the press releases as they come in, we analyze, look into, theorize, and hypothesize almost all that could happen. . . Wondering what could happen and why  . . . . . that’s what makes us different.

Just writing that last paragraph reminds me of one of my favorite quotes. . . .and it is even Death Care related coming from the Ted Kennedy eulogy of his brother Robert (RFK) at his funeral. . . . I’ve thought of it often in my own life. . . . Here is that part of the eulogy:

Those of us who loved him and who take him to his rest today, pray that what he was to us and what he wished for others will some day come to pass for all the world.

As he said many times, in many parts of this nation, to those he touched and who sought to touch him:

“Some men see things as they are and say why.
I dream things that never were and say why not.”

Join me as we move into 2025 by dreaming big for our nation and world and asking “Why not”?

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In this press release from Tuesday, September 10, Park Lawn Corporation (PLC) CEO J. Bradley Green announced both that the PLC leadership team had some changes to it and also that the company had acquired operating locations in North Carolina and Texas.

Jay Dodds
Park Lawn Corporation

In probably the most noticeable move of the executives, it was announced that Jay Dodds “has elected to step away from his role as President and Chief Operations Officer but will remain an important member of the Executive Leadership Team as the Chief Strategy Officer”.  According to CEO Green, “. . .Jay will be instrumental in advancing our strategic objectives well into the future”.   

Other moves by Park Lawn in the executive suite include the appointment of Jennifer Hay as President and General Counsel.  According to the press release “Ms. Hay joined Park Lawn in 2018 and has served in various leadership capacities, most recently as Chief Strategy Officer and General Counsel.”  CEO Green said this about that appointment, “. . . With her diverse set of skills and experience, in her new role, she will work to more deeply support each of the functional areas of the business including the operations and sales functions as we continue to execute on our long-term strategy.” 

Finally, it was announced that Mathew Forastiere has been appointed to sere as the Chief Operations Officer.  According to the press release, “Mr. Forastiere is a licensed funeral director and embalmer who has worked in the profession for over twenty-five years.  He joined Park Lawn in 2018 and has served in a variety of senior operational leadership positions since that time.” 

Acquisitions Continue —  Park Lawn Corporation has been a privately held company for about one month now, but they show no signs of a stop in growth.  The same press release announced that they had purchased one funeral home and two cemeteries in North Carolina and also purchased the Wilkirson-Hatch-Bailey Funerals & Cremation of Waco, Texas.  That acquisition adds one funeral home to their Waco area operations.

Funeral Director Daily take:  Over the years I’ve got to know both Jay Dodds and Brad Green and, in my book, they are  good people.  Years ago when I was looking to exit the funeral business, the two of them operated a start-up funeral home consolidation company known as Signature Group.  And, they were interested in my funeral home.

I have great memories of hosting them for an evening in my community in Minnesota on a snowy, cold, January evening.  With both of them being from Houston I can remember their surprise at crispness of the cold and the beauty of the white as can be snow.

Brad Green
Park Lawn CEO

I chose to affiliate with a group other than Signature Group, but Jay and Brad have stayed in touch over the years.  And, as successful as they have become they have never refused to take a call from this small operator with a question about operations or some other thought.  As they change their C-suite around, work for a private company as compared to a public company, and continue their work in the Death Care realm I continue to wish them much success and expect Jay Dodds will be an asset in whatever position he works in.

And, I’m guessing Mr. Dodds is pretty excited about his native Nebraska Cornhuskers cracking the NCAA Football Top 25 this week.  Unfortunately, with the expansion of the Big Ten Conference and some of the scheduling changes because of that, my Minnesota Gophers do not get the Cornhuskers on our schedule in 2024 and a chance for the Gophers 6th straight victory over the team from Nebraska!!!

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