Hospital ask · contribution-margin matrix
$99 to the family. $5 to your charity.
A living memory package. The family pays $99 once. From that payment, Living Obituary gives $5 to the charity this hospital names. These are the numbers. Accurate. No fluff.
The ask
Leave the pamphlet at the desk, with chaplaincy, social work, or palliative care. A family who wants the package sits down on a phone, answers what fits, and pays $99. When that card clears, $5 goes to the charity you name — your foundation, or another 501(c)(3) you choose.
- Name the charity. Legal name, EIN, and how to send $5 each time (ACH or check).
- Say we may print it. $5 from each paid package goes to that named charity.
- Keep the pamphlet. We are not asking for a contract, a room, or a share of hospital billing.
- You can stop. One letter, and new packages no longer carry your name.
Say this out loud
“We sell a $99 living memory package. From each paid package we give $5 to the charity you name. The family gets a traditional newspaper obituary they can edit in Word, photo pages, and a ten-minute film. You leave a pamphlet. We do not write death notices, and we are not a hospital.”
One paid package
US online card. Stripe’s published rate of 2.9% plus $0.30 on the charge. Town of Breckenridge combined sales tax 8.875% added at checkout, then remitted. Then a $5.00 gift and a $0.02 Grok draft cap. Only numbers with a source.
| Line | Dollars | Share of charge |
|---|---|---|
| Package the family pays for the memory | $99.00 | 91.8% |
| Colorado sales tax added (8.875% at Town of Breckenridge) Collected and remitted. Not ours. Not a cost of the package if we add it at checkout. | $8.79 | 8.2% |
| What the card is charged | $107.79 | 100.0% |
| Card fee (Stripe 2.9% + $0.30 on the charge) Includes $0.26 of fee on the tax we do not keep. | -$3.43 | 3.2% |
| Sales tax remitted Pass-through. Same dollars that were added. | -$8.79 | 8.2% |
| Gift to the hospital's charity Fixed $5.00 on every paid package. The hospital names the charity. Not COGS. A gift after the card clears. | -$5.00 | 4.6% |
| Grok 4.5 draft (published-rate cap) $2 / 1M input, $6 / 1M output. One call, max 1,400 output tokens. Rounded up to $0.02. | -$0.02 | 0.0% |
| Cash left after those lines | $90.55 | 84.0% |
Left after tax, fee, gift, and draft cap: $90.55 of each $107.79 charged (84.0%). The $5 gift is 5.1% of the $99 package. Without the gift, $95.55 would remain.
If volume holds
Same $99 package, tax added at Breckenridge, same card fee, same $5 gift.
| Paid | Gross | Card fees | Gift | Left |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 | $1,293.48 | $41.16 | $60.00 | $1,086.60 |
| 52 | $5,605.08 | $178.36 | $260.00 | $4,708.60 |
| 100 | $10,779.00 | $343.00 | $500.00 | $9,055.00 |
| 250 | $26,947.50 | $857.50 | $1,250.00 | $22,637.50 |
| 500 | $53,895.00 | $1,715.00 | $2,500.00 | $45,275.00 |
| 1000 | $107,790.00 | $3,430.00 | $5,000.00 | $90,550.00 |
Sources, and what is not here
Price is $99.00. Breckenridge combined rate 8.875% is added at checkout and remitted (Town publishes 8.875%). Card fee uses Stripe’s published US online rate of 2.9% plus $0.30 on the charged amount. Gift is $5.00 exactly. Grok 4.5 draft is a published-rate cap of $0.02. Hosting, file storage, ads, owner time, refunds, and chargebacks are not in this matrix. They are real. They are not a published per-sale number, so they stay out. International cards can cost more than 2.9%. If a package is refunded, Stripe may keep the fee; the $5 gift should not go out until the payment has cleared and is past refund.
The $99 is the price of a memory package. It is not a charitable gift from the family. Do not tell them the $99 is tax-deductible. The $5 is Living Obituary’s gift, after the card clears. We are not a tax advisor. We are not a hospital, not a funeral home, not an executor, and not a lawyer. Not a will. Not a death certificate. Not a notice to creditors.
Living Obituary · August 2026 · They are still here. This is not a death notice.