Preservation with Purpose: 100% of Net Profits Go to Charity

When we were building Memorial Legacy, we kept coming back to a question: if we're asking people to pay to preserve something as important as their family's stories, what does that money do in the world?

The standard answer for a startup is: it funds growth, covers costs, returns to investors. Those are real things and we're not pretending otherwise. But we wanted the answer to be more than that.

So we built a give-back model into the foundation of Memorial Legacy. 100% of net profits go to charity — not a percentage, not a marketing pledge, not a round-up at checkout. The profit that's left after we pay our costs goes to causes our users choose.

Here's how it works and why it matters.

How the Give-Back Model Works

When you subscribe to Memorial Legacy, you choose a charity. Any nonprofit you care about — it doesn't have to come from a curated list. Grief organizations, children's hospitals, environmental causes, local food banks, veterans' support programs, research foundations. The cause is yours to choose.

Your subscription is associated with your chosen charity. As Memorial Legacy generates net profit — revenue minus the costs of running the platform — that profit is allocated to the charities our users have selected, weighted by subscription volume.

You can update your charity selection at any time from your account settings. If you're not sure which organization to choose, our Give Back page shows the current distribution across our user base and features organizations that our community is already supporting.

Why We Built It This Way

Memorial Legacy sits at an unusual intersection: we're a for-profit company building infrastructure for something people care deeply about. Memory. Family. The stories that define who we are and where we came from.

That intersection creates a responsibility. Families using our platform are trusting us with something irreplaceable — not just data, but the stories of people they love. We thought long and hard about what it means to build a business on top of that trust.

The give-back model is our answer. It says: the profit your subscription generates isn't going to make investors rich. It's going to do something good in the world — something you chose. Your family's stories generate value in two directions: they preserve the past for your family, and they fund a cause you believe in for the future.

That felt right. It still does.

Why Not Just Make It Free?

We get this question sometimes, and it's a fair one. If the mission is preservation, why charge at all?

The honest answer: platforms that don't generate revenue don't survive. Free memorial services built on venture capital or advertising have a consistent history of shutting down, selling user data, or degrading as growth slows. When a free platform closes, the memorials it was hosting disappear too. Those stories — the ones families trusted a free platform to preserve — are gone.

We'd rather charge a small amount and build something permanent. $3.99/month is less than most streaming services. It's enough to keep the lights on and do something good with the surplus.

For families who can't afford even that: our free plan exists. Two stories, no credit card. And the Unclaimed Souls section of Memorial Legacy — the public memorial wall for people who died without a ceremony — is completely free and always will be. The give-back model funds the mission. The free features extend it to everyone.

What Your Subscription Actually Supports

Let's be transparent about the math. $3.99/month per user. Subtract hosting costs, engineering, support, and other operational expenses. What's left is net profit — and 100% of that goes to charity.

In the early days, that number is small. We're not pretending we're funding a major foundation. But the model scales. As more families use Memorial Legacy, the profit grows, and the charitable impact grows with it. The business and the mission compound together.

We track the charitable giving, and we're committed to publishing the numbers as the platform grows. Accountability matters. If we're asking users to trust us with their stories and their charitable giving, they deserve to see what's happening with both.

The Bigger Picture

There's a parallel between what Memorial Legacy does for families and what the give-back model does for the world. Both are about extending value beyond the immediate transaction.

A family that captures their grandparent's stories isn't just preserving memories for themselves. They're creating something their children and grandchildren will value — a record that extends the impact of one life across generations. That's the whole premise of legacy preservation: the value of a story doesn't stop when the person who lived it is gone.

The give-back model applies the same logic to money. Revenue that would otherwise accumulate in a corporate account instead flows to organizations doing work in the world that matters. The stories compound forward in time. The profits compound outward into impact.

We think that's a better model for a company like this. And we think our users agree — which is why so many of them list the charitable component as a reason they chose Memorial Legacy over alternatives.

Choose Your Cause Today

If you're already a Memorial Legacy user and haven't set your charity preference, you can do that now in your account settings. It takes 30 seconds.

If you're not yet a user, create a free account and start with two stories at no cost. When you're ready to upgrade, you'll choose a charity as part of the process. Your $3.99/month preserves your family's stories and supports a cause you believe in.

Both things. Same subscription.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does "100% of net profits" actually mean?

Net profit is what's left after paying for all operating costs: hosting, engineering, customer support, and other expenses needed to run the platform. We don't count salaries or overhead as profit — we're talking about the genuine surplus after the business is paid for. 100% of that surplus goes to charity.

How do I choose or change my charity?

Choose your charity when you upgrade to the paid plan, or update it anytime in account settings. You can enter any registered nonprofit — it doesn't need to be on a pre-approved list.

Can I see how much has been donated so far?

We're committed to publishing giving totals as the platform grows. Visit our Give Back page for the current state of charitable giving across the platform.

What if I don't have a specific charity in mind?

Our Give Back page shows the organizations our community is already supporting — you can see where others have directed their subscriptions and choose one that resonates with you.

Is this model sustainable long-term?

Yes. The give-back model works because we're not giving away revenue — we're giving away surplus. As the business grows and costs become a smaller percentage of revenue, more goes to charity. The model is structured to scale in the right direction: more users means more impact, not a smaller percentage donated.