The father of a girl who used to work in our department died suddenly and tragically last week. We are in the process of taking up a collection for her family, but are a little stumped on what would be an approprate offering of our condolences. The two ideas we have come up with so far are to make a donation to a charity in his name, or purchase a mass card from the church where his funeral took place. The only problem with the last one is that we don’t know if they are particularly religious. There is also the option of just sending the collection to the family, buy I find that to be pretty tacky and in poor taste (as if they had won a 50/50 drawing or something).
Can someone offer suggestions? We would like to send a gift with our condolences by the end of this week.
Thanks.
The donation to charity thing is a pretty safe bet, I think. Of particular thoughtfulness would be a donation to a cause related to his cause of death such as The American Cancer Society, The American Heart Association, The American Diabetes Association (I think that’s what it’s called) or even an organization fighting drunk driving or crime.
A donation to the charity related to his death would be appropriate.
A tree planted in memory of him in a park is appropriate.
If the man had kids it is also appropriate to give the family the money to help raise the kids without the income for future needs including college.
A football coach died here last week in a car accident and the football team is having a fundraiser for the surviving child who is 2 years old. The money will go to the child for future expenses.