Everstory Partners, who may be the nation’s 2nd largest Death Care provider by serving over 65,000 families per year, recently announced completed renovations at their Cedar Hill Funeral Home just outside Washington, DC.  This press release from Everstory will give you more information on the recent transformation at the funeral home that serves about 1,400 families per year.

According to the press release, “Everstory Partners is transforming its funeral homes to emphasize hospitality and comfort for families.”

Again, according to the press release, “Everstory Partners’ mission is to create supportive spaces where individuals and families can find solace, meaning, and hope in the midst of loss. Since 1999, the company has grown to include 463 cemetery, funeral, and crematory locations serving more than 65,000 families a year across the United States (including Puerto Rico) on both a pre-need and at-need basis.”

Here is the website for Cedar Hills Funeral Home and Cemetery.

Here is the website for Everstory Partners.

LIlly Donohue
Everstory CEO

A Little History — You may recall that Everstory Partners grew out of the public company funeral home and cemetery operator StoneMor Partners that was taken private by Axar Capital Management in November 2022.  About a year later, the company re-branded as Everstory Partners.  Andrew Axelrod was the principal behind Axar Capital Management and today serves as the Chairman of the Board of Everstory Partners.  The day-to-day operations have been led by President and Chief Executive Officer Lilly Donohue since the take private movement in 2022.

The “Quiet Company” — If you Google “the quiet company” you will come up with at least one result that mentions Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance company who branded that way at one time.  Google’s definition of “the quiet company” said this, “formerly Northwestern Mutual, a financial giant noted for its understated, trust-focused approach.”

Northwestern Mutual has re-branded with a bolder approach than being the “quiet company” but I remember that moniker because I used Northwestern Mutual as the cornerstone of my financial holdings when I started in business over 40 years ago.  There is no doubt that they were understated, but financially strong with great ideas and avenues for their clients.

I bring this up because when I checked up on Everstory Partners I was very impressed with what I have seen in the past three years as to the development of the company . . . .and I had not heard much about what they were doing.  Here’s a brief video of Everstory Partners being featured on Viewpoint with Dennis Quaid that will give you some insight on how they have been rebuilding the company since the take private moment.

Like Northwestern Mutual, I could not help but think that Everstory Partners is restoring an “understated and trust-focused” approach to what they are doing. . . . and, that should bode well for them moving into the future.

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“A servant’s attitude guided by Christ leads to a significant life”

Everstory Partners Earns 2025 Great Place To Work Certification™

(May 22, 2025) – Altamonte Springs, FL – Everstory Partners is proud to be Certified™ by Great Place To Work® for 2025. The prestigious award is based entirely on what current employees say about their experience working at Everstory and its family of brands.

Great Place To Work® is the global authority on workplace culture, employee experience, and the leadership behaviors proven to deliver market-leading revenue, employee retention and increased innovation.

“Over the past 24 months, we have been investing in our team — listening, learning, and evolving together,” said Everstory Chief Executive Officer Lilly Donohue. “I am incredibly proud to lead this company and to work alongside such dedicated and passionate individuals.”

A few of the initiatives Everstory has implemented during this time:

• Increased the company-wide minimum wage.
• Launched Everstory University to enhance professional development.
• Implemented user-friendly technology platforms streamlining workflows.
• Launched advisory councils where our general managers, sales managers and funeral home managers provide insights and advice, ensuring the company makes informed decisions for its business and its people.
• Held town halls and implemented direct access to its executives for transparent communication.

“Every step has been focused on creating a better workplace,” Donohue added. “These efforts exemplify our dedication to an open, collaborative culture because we believe by fostering a supportive and engaging environment, we can truly be the best in family service.”

To be certified, the company earned the real-time feedback of employees regarding their company culture with approximately 80 percent of Everstory’s 2,600 employees returning surveys sharing their thoughts on working at the company.

“Great Place To Work Certification is a highly coveted achievement that requires consistent and intentional dedication to the overall employee experience,” says Sarah Lewis-Kulin, vice president of global recognition at Great Place To Work. “By successfully earning this recognition, it is evident that Everstory Partners stands out as one of the top companies to work for, providing a great workplace environment for its employees.”

Everstory Chief People Officer Karen Sheean added: “Employee engagement is a key component of a multi-year commitment to listening to and understanding the voices of our employees through this program. We are thrilled to become Great Place To Work-Certified™ in our first year, however, we recognize that the real work is just beginning.”

“We owe our continued success to our team of dedicated employees at all of our Everstory locations and Support Center. We celebrate and thank them for all they do in earning this incredible recognition,” Sheean said.

Explore a Career at Everstory Partners

Looking to grow your career at a company that puts its people first? Visit our careers page at: www.everstorypartners.com/careers

About Everstory Partners

Everstory Partners’ mission is to create supportive spaces where individuals and families can find solace, meaning, and hope in the midst of loss. Since 1999, the company has grown to include 463 cemetery, funeral, and crematory locations serving more than 65,000 families a year across the United States (including Puerto Rico) on both a pre-need and at-need basis. Everstory is the brand promise, created in April 2023, to destigmatize death care with a unique blend of long-standing traditions of caring for the deceased with a fresh perspective that death is a natural and beautiful part of the human experience that should be planned and celebrated.

About Great Place to Work Certification™

Great Place To Work® Certification™ is the most definitive “employer-of-choice” recognition that companies aspire to achieve. It is the only recognition based entirely on what employees report about their workplace experience – specifically, how consistently they experience a high-trust workplace. Great Place to Work Certification is recognized worldwide by employees and employers alike and is the global benchmark for identifying and recognizing outstanding employee experience. Every year, more than 10,000 companies across 60 countries apply to get Great Place To Work-Certified.

About Great Place To Work®

As the global authority on workplace culture, Great Place To Work® brings 30 years of groundbreaking research and data to help every place become a great place to work for all. Their proprietary platform and For All™ Model helps companies evaluate the experience of every employee, with exemplary workplaces becoming Great Place To Work Certified™ or receiving recognition on a coveted Best Workplaces™ List.

Everstory Partners serves over 65,000 families annually and in addition to its funeral home business, operates close to 400 cemeteries around the United States, including Puerto Rico.

Recently they authored this press release which lets us know that they have completed a process in which all cemeteries have been digitized.  Here’s what Everstory CEO Lilly Donohue said in the press release about the process,  “When I joined Everstory, our teams wrote paper contracts for in-ground burials and mausoleum interments based on paper maps that could be 50 or 100 years old. Our systems and processes had not evolved, and our families and employees deserve better than that. So, during 2024, we digitized services and contracts at all our cemetery locations. Now, every contract is digital and in most cases, accompanied by aerial drone mapping. This digitization will help protect families’ end-of-life choices for generations to come.”

To accomplish this task Everstory Partners teamed-up with Plotbox which is described in the press release as such, “. . . an international cloud-based deathcare management software and mapping company based in Northern Ireland, with a team in the United States.”

One advantage for Everstory in this digital mode is that they can use the technology interface to view inventory and write contracts from anywhere — including homes, funeral homes, retirement centers, and even hospitals.

And, according to CEO Donohue’s statement’s in the press release, Everstory Partners is not finished with their technology transformation.  Donohue states, “In 2025, we are bringing this same focus and attention to digitizing services at our nearly 100 funeral homes. And we will not stop there. We will continue pushing and advancing death care services to meet the changing needs of our families.”

Here is the website for Plotbox.

Here is the website for Everstory Partners

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“A servant’s attitude guided by Christ leads to a significant life”

Everstory Partners Announces Industry-Changing, Tech-Focused Advancements in Planning End-of-Life Services

March 20, 2025 — ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla., March 20, 2025  — In the span of less than a year, Everstory Partners transformed its business from one that relied on historic paper maps and contracts to one built on world-class software. Now, its nearly 400 cemetery locations offer digitized contracts and services – the majority accompanied by aerial drone mapping – to all their families and customers.

This transformation is the fulfillment of an acute need that Lilly Donohue, CEO of Everstory, recognized upon joining the company in late 2022. “When I joined Everstory, our teams wrote paper contracts for in-ground burials and mausoleum interments based on paper maps that could be 50 or 100 years old. Our systems and processes had not evolved, and our families and employees deserve better than that. So, during 2024, we digitized services and contracts at all our cemetery locations. Now, every contract is digital and in most cases, accompanied by aerial drone mapping. This digitization will help protect families’ end-of-life choices for generations to come,” Donohue said.

To accomplish this extraordinary feat, Everstory partnered with PlotBox, an international cloud-based deathcare management software and mapping company based in Northern Ireland, with a team in the United States. “We are delighted to have reached this milestone in our ongoing partnership with Everstory. This partnership aligns perfectly with our mission, and through the integration of our innovative technology, we are poised to elevate industry standards across the board,” Sean McAllister, CEO of PlotBox said.

The benefits of this partnership do not end at having cloud-protected contracts, digitized inventory, and aerial mapping. In fact, the technology interface means that Everstory can view inventory and write contracts from anywhere.

“What we’ve done here is reinforce our commitment to being the most customer-centric death care company. Our teams can reach families wherever they are: whether in their homes for pre-planning services, or in hospitals at or near the time of need,” stated Michele Stone, Vice President of People Operations and Quality.

Stone continued: “Central to our culture at Everstory is caring about our families and equipping our team members with the tools they need to serve them. And, when we have made missteps in providing top-tier customer service – such as a double-sold plot or unordered memorial – it often has been because of internal systems inconsistencies or lack of transparency around customer information. With this new technology, all major internal customer systems – work orders, record management, account management – are housed in one place, meaning that team members work from the same data. The year we spent implementing this technology really was an investment in, and commitment to, our customers and our people.”

Everstory’s team members agree. Family Service Counselor Kenneth Hayden was able to meet with a family at a hospital to plan end-of-life services, allowing the family to stay with their loved one. This personal touch made the planning process easier on the family: “I was so grateful to be able to lighten the load for this grieving family and gift them more time with their loved one,” Hayden said.

Superintendent Jordan Arnold calls PlotBox a “game changer” for his park. “I can search one lot and pull up all the critical information that I need on a day-to-day basis.”

Importantly, Everstory is not done leveraging technology for the benefit of its families. According to Donohue, “in 2025, we are bringing this same focus and attention to digitizing services at our nearly 100 funeral homes. And we will not stop there. We will continue pushing and advancing death care services to meet the changing needs of our families.”

About Everstory Partners:  Everstory Partners’ mission is to create supportive spaces where individuals and families can find solace, meaning, and hope in the midst of loss. Since 1999, the company has grown to include 463 cemetery, funeral, and crematory locations serving more than 65,000 families a year across the United States (including Puerto Rico) on both a pre-need and at-need basis. Everstory is the brand promise, created in April 2023, to destigmatize death care with a unique blend of long-standing traditions of caring for the deceased with a fresh perspective that death is a natural and beautiful part of the human experience that should be planned and celebrated. Visit everstorypartners.com to learn more and memorialplanning.com for a list of properties and contact information.

About PlotBox: PlotBox is a cloud-based deathcare management platform that helps cemeteries. The company has over 120 employees globally and is headquartered in Northern Ireland, with on-the-ground teams in the United States and Australia. For more information, visit: www.plotbox.com or email info@plotbox.com.