Cremation Association of North America Grows Staff to Support Strategic Plan

Promotion and New Hire Reflect Expansion of CANA’s Content and Membership Initiatives

WHEELING, IL— It’s a time of growth and innovation for the Cremation Association of North America (CANA). Widening its focus to help member businesses recruit and retain a vibrant, diverse, and well-trained workforce and educate and best serve their families, CANA continues to promote best practices in cremation through education, innovation, and collaboration.

A growing membership and an emphasis on aligning content strategy with CANA’s mission and values has resulted in new and reorganized staff responsibilities. CANA Board President Lindsey Ballard praises these appointments and invites you to offer “Congratulations to Brie Bingham and Sara Corkery in their new roles and welcome Kenjuana Hall to CANA! Brie and Sara have brought decades of experience to CANA, increasing our reputation and shaping CANA’s voice. Kenjuana will bring fresh eyes to membership initiatives in the newly created role of Membership and Operations Manager. “

BRIE BINGHAM PROMOTED TO SENIOR CONTENT MANAGER

After more than a decade of service at the Cremation Association of North America (CANA), Brie Bingham (pictured above, right) has been promoted to the newly established role of Senior Content Manager. This strategic position reflects CANA’s commitment to delivering high-quality, engaging, and educational and research content to its members and the broader death care community.

Brie has held progressive roles in membership and marketing with CANA for over a decade, bringing a dynamic blend of creativity, strategic thinking, and deep industry knowledge to her work. In her new role, Brie will lead the development and implementation of CANA’s communications, research, and educational content strategies. She will oversee the production of the association’s publications and guide the association’s online presence. Brie will also support CANA’s research projects education programs and strategic goals through content development, project management, and digital platform oversight.

Barbara Kemmis, Executive Director of CANA, shares her enthusiasm for the promotion: “Brie’s promotion to Senior Content Manager is well deserved. Her ability to craft compelling content and build meaningful connections with our members has already transformed how we engage with our community. Brie has grown both revenue and CANA’s reputation through marketing efforts, so this promotion is recognition of those skills and the importance of content to CANA’s strategic growth. CANA is a thought leader in the profession and Brie’s new role will increase the focus on content creation through research, publications and education. I am thrilled to see her take on these expanded responsibilities and continue shaping the future of our association.”

Brie will continue to collaborate closely with Sara Corkery (pictured above, left), who remains a vital part of CANA’s communications team. With more than thirteen years of experience leading CANA’s magazine and collateral, Sara continues in her role as Managing Editor of The Cremationist and as Editor and Graphic Designer for CANA’s print and digital materials.

KENJUANA HALL, HIRED AS MEMBERSHIP AND OPERATIONS MANAGER

The Cremation Association of North America (CANA) is pleased to announce the appointment of Kenjuana Hall (pictured above, middle) as its new Membership and Operations Manager, a key leadership role focused on enhancing member engagement, operational excellence, and strategic support across the organization.

Kenjuana brings over a decade of experience in membership management, data governance, and nonprofit operations. Most recently, she served as Database & Membership Manager at the Society of Gynecologic Oncology, where her work guided leadership decisions, streamlined workflows, and ensured data integrity and member satisfaction for more than 3,000 members.

In her new role at CANA, Kenjuana will lead membership retention and recruitment strategies, manage member benefit programs, support volunteer and governance structures, and oversee the association management system which supports CANA’s newest member benefit, CANA Connect, a discussion forum for CANA members to share information and access member benefits. She will also play a pivotal role in operational coordination and cross-functional initiatives aligned with CANA’s strategic plan.

Barbara Kemmis is eager to work with CANA’s newest employee: “Kenjuana Hall brings a rare combination of technical expertise, strategic insight, and a deep commitment to member service. Her experience in data-driven decision-making and operational leadership will be invaluable as CANA continues to grow and evolve. We are thrilled to welcome her to our team and look forward to the impact she will make.”

CANA celebrates our existing and new staff members dedicated to advancing the association’s mission and enhancing the experience of its members.

About CANA

Founded in 1913, the Cremation Association of North America (CANA) is an international organization of over 3,700 members, composed of funeral homes, cemeteries, crematories, industry suppliers, and consultants. CANA members believe that cremation is preparation for memorialization.

Here’s what Carriage Services Vice-Chairman and CEO Carlos Quezada said in prepared statements accompanying Carriages Services 3rd Quarter 2024 financial reports, “I am pleased to announce that our growth continues with another strong quarter of performance. Our cemetery sales team achieved a notable increase of 27.1% year-over-year in preneed sales, affirming the continued effectiveness of our cemetery sales growth strategy. Together with an increase of 3.1% in our funeral average revenue per contract, these factors significantly propelled our total revenue, which grew by 11.3% over the same period last year.”

When you look at the numbers delivered by Carriage Services in this report that you can access here you will find 3Q 2024 Revenues at $100.6 million as compared to $90.5 million in 3Q23.  You will also find Operating Income at $22.8 million which is a 22% increase over last year’s $15.6 3Q number.  Finally, you will see Net Income virtually double when compared to 3Q2023 — those numbers are a Net Income of $9.8 million for 3Q24 as compared to $4.6 million for 3Q23.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily take:  If you follow these Death Care companies like I do you will know that the relatively new management team at Carriage Services, led by CEO Carlos Quezada, has been laser-focused on improving the operational facets of the company.  The 3rd Quarter of 2024 shows that they are on their way to doing so.

As we’ve mentioned, as recently as last Friday’s article, improving margins in a highly inflationary time is difficult.  And, Carriage Services had some of that in this quarter with Field Costs and Expenses moving up about 3.3% in comparison to the 3rd Quarter of 2023.  However, a top-line revenue increase of over $10 million (11.3%) more than made up for those costs and raised the company’s Operating Income margin to 22.7% in comparison to last year’s 3rd Quarter number of 17.3%.

Carriage Services, with this report, has shown what can happen in an business environment with high-fixed costs and less variable costs.  That is, raising ancillary revenue on a fixed-cost operation can yield growing and growing profits.  In my opinion, that is exactly what Carriage Service has done this past quarter.  Doing so has been the exception among Death Care businesses over the past couple of years.

Most of the traditional funeral homes have had the problem that they haven’t been able to raise revenues and the inflationary cost structure of those fixed-costs has lessened their profit margins.  When you look at Carriage Services’ “Overhead as a Percentage of Revenue”, which is a number they calculate in their financials, it has actually dropped from 14.2% in 3Q23 to 14.1% in 3Q24.

That number didn’t go down because the overhead got less expensive, the ratio went down because they added incremental sales revenue.  Quite frankly, most of that incremental sales were done on the cemetery side of the operations.  For the 9-months through September 30, 2024, Carriage Services has seen about a $21 million increase (28.3%) in Cemetery Operations revenue as compared to the Cemetery Operations revenue of the same period in 2023.

Disclaimer — The author of this article for Funeral Director Daily holds a stock position in Carriage Services.

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