Green-Wood Cemetery

What Green-Wood Cemetery does

Green-Wood Cemetery is a 478-acre non-profit National Historic Landmark cemetery founded in 1838 in Brooklyn, NY, operated by The Green-Wood Historic Fund, Inc., a 501(c)(3) charitable organization (TIN 11-3450678). Its core cemetery services include traditional burial plots, cremation, and the newly launched terramation (human composting) service offered through a partnership with German company Meine Erde, which transforms human remains into nutrient-rich soil in approximately 40 days. The grounds hold over 570,000 interments and welcome 330,000-450,000+ annual visitors across four entrances with free public admission. Beyond memorialization, Green-Wood functions as a multi-revenue cultural institution: a Level III accredited arboretum with ~8,000 specimens across 695 species, a habitat stopover for 185+ migratory bird species, and a community asset managing stormwater systems that mitigate 51 million gallons of sewer overflow annually.

The business model blends transaction-based, recurring, and donation-based revenue streams. One-time revenue comes from burial property sales, cremation, terramation, and venue rentals at The Green-House (a new multi-purpose facility housing the Center for Research). Recurring revenue includes tiered annual memberships with tour/event discounts, Birding in Peace tours at $20/person, and signature events such as Nightfall ($1,000-$20,000 sponsorship tiers) and Day of the Dead Family Day ($1,000-$25,000 tiers). Donation-based revenue includes general giving, Tree Adoption ($250-$5,000+), Bench Adoption ($3,500), planned giving through the Pierrepont Legacy Circle (with FreeWill estate planning integration), and corporate sponsorships. Education and research revenue includes paid school programs serving 10,000+ K-12 students annually, Bridge to Craft Careers workforce training, and Environmental Research Fellowships.

Technology infrastructure is modest: a free Bloomberg Connects mobile guide offering audio tours and interactive maps in 50+ languages, an online store for ticketing and merchandise, and standard digital archives for genealogy and burial search. Distribution relies on physical visits, the Bloomberg Connects app (global reach), Eventbrite ticketing, school partnership channels, and 38,000+ Instagram followers. Strategic partnerships span Cornell Urban Horticulture Institute, U.S. Forest Service, USDA, NY State DEC, Genspace, NYBG, and The Nature Conservancy, alongside federal grants from NOAA and Senator Schumer's office.

Name

Green-Wood Cemetery

Legal name

The Green-Wood Historic Fund, Inc.

Website

https://green-wood.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1838

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

Green-Wood Cemetery is a 478-acre National Historic Landmark non-profit cemetery in Brooklyn providing burial, cremation, and terramation services alongside cultural programming, education, environmental research, and stewardship of urban green space for 330,000+ annual visitors.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Historic Cemetery Services

NAICS

Historical Sites (712120)

akta.pro primary industry

Places of Worship & Religious Facilities Operations (Cemeteries, Retreat Centers, Pilgrimage Sites) (BPAGAJAL)

Keywords

• Historic cemetery services
• Burial services
• Cremation services
• Memorial services
• Cemetery grounds

Headquarters

HQ city

Brooklyn

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Membership Subscriptions: Annual membership programs with multiple tiers offering expanded privileges including discounts on tours, events, and merchandise. Members receive skip-the-line access to certain events and exclusive invitations.
2. Tour and Event Tickets: Revenue from guided tours (e.g., Birding in Peace walking tours at $20 per person, $16 for members), private tours, and special events including Nightfall and Day of the Dead Family Day.
3. Burial and Cemetery Services: Traditional burial services, cremation services, and cemetery property (lots) sales. Full price list available upon inquiry.
4. Tribute Gifts: Tree adoption programs ($250-$5,000+) and bench adoption ($3,500) with personalized plaques honoring loved ones. These are tax-deductible contributions.
5. Planned Giving: Bequests and legacy gifts through the Pierrepont Legacy Circle. The Green-Wood Historic Fund is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit. Free estate planning tools offered through FreeWill partnership.
6. Corporate Sponsorships: Event sponsorships for signature programs including Nightfall ($1,000-$20,000 levels) and Day of the Dead ($1,000-$25,000 levels). Custom partnership opportunities available for brands.
7. Donations: General tax-deductible donations supporting preservation, programs, and maintenance of the 478-acre grounds.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Green-Wood Cemetery is a 478-acre historic cemetery in Brooklyn, New York, founded in 1838. It provides interment, cremation, and terramation (human composting) services to families, and operates its grounds as an arboretum, public garden, and open-air museum hosting tours, educational programs, and events. The organization also runs a membership program, tribute gifts, planned giving, and venue rentals.

Product overview

Green-Wood Cemetery offers a comprehensive portfolio of memorial and cemetery services centered around its 478-acre National Historic Landmark site in Brooklyn, NY. Core offerings include traditional burial services, cremation services, and the innovative terramation (human composting) service offered in partnership with German company Meine Erde. The cemetery operates as a multi-faceted cultural institution providing educational programs (school programs, death education, Bridge to Craft Careers workforce development), research services (genealogy, environmental research fellowships), and diverse public programming (Birding in Peace tours, private tours, signature events including Nightfall, Day of the Dead, and Sunday in the Cemetery). Tribute giving options include tree and bench adoptions, while planned giving through the Pierrepont Legacy Circle supports long-term preservation. The organization maintains a digital presence via the Bloomberg Connects mobile guide app. Services operate year-round with multiple entrance points and welcome over 330,000 annual visitors.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Bloomberg Connects: A free mobile guide app that offers self-paced audio tours, interactive maps, and curated highlights for visitors to explore Green-Wood Cemetery.

Products and services

• Burial Services Traditional in-ground burial services on the historic 478-acre grounds of Green-Wood Cemetery, serving families seeking interment for a deceased loved one at a National Historic Landmark site.
• Cremation Services Cremation services offered to families with options for inurnment on the Green-Wood grounds.
• Terramation (Human Composting) Sustainable disposition service using natural organic reduction (human composting) as an eco-friendly alternative to traditional burial and cremation.
• Public Tours and Events Guided and self-guided tours, public events, and programming for visitors exploring the cemetery's history, art, architecture, and notable graves.
• Membership Program (Friends of Green-Wood) Annual membership with The Friends of Green-Wood providing supporters with benefits such as event access, discounts, and the member magazine.
• Tribute Gifts Memorial tribute options such as tree and bench dedications that allow families to honor loved ones with lasting contributions to the grounds.
• Educational Programs for Schools Curriculum-aligned programs for school groups exploring history, art, urban ecology, and primary sources at Green-Wood.
• Venue Rentals Event space rental at the historic Green-Wood Cemetery grounds and buildings for private and corporate functions.
• Planned Giving Charitable gift planning options enabling supporters to include Green-Wood in estate and legacy giving.

Quantifiable outcome

• Sequesters 264,000 lbs of CO2 annually
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration1 record

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Eight partnerships are on record, tiered major, core and minor.

• New York Botanical Garden (NYBG)majorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 11 June 2025Green-Wood presenting partner for 'Before New York' traveling pop-up exhibition organized by NYBG. Exhibition runs June 11th–July 20th at The Green-House at Green-Wood, exploring the historical ecology of the area as 'Welikia.'
• Meine ErdecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerGerman company partnering with Green-Wood to offer 'terramation,' a rapid composting process that transforms human remains into nutrient-rich soil in approximately 40 days. The process uses sealed, specially engineered vessels with natural organic materials and results in soil used on cemetery grounds.
• Cornell UniversitycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership with Cornell Urban Horticulture Institute for trialing climate-adaptive hybrid oaks bred for urban conditions. Also collaborated with Cornell Cooperative Extension on environmental research.
• United States Forest ServicecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration since 2016 to identify and reduce populations of invasive insects that impact the urban forest. Led to discovery of a new beetle species (Agrilus). Partnership includes U.S. Department of Agriculture and NY State DEC.
• FreeWillminorGTM or Marketing PartnerFree online estate planning tool partnership to help supporters create wills or trusts. Offers option to leave bequests to Green-Wood.
• GenspaceminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCommunity biology lab in Brooklyn partnered for 2023 Environmental Research Fellowship to study rhizosphere microbiomes and tree ecosystems.
• U.S. Department of AgriculturecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner since 2016 with U.S. Forest Service in initiatives to identify and reduce invasive insect populations impacting the urban forest.
• New York State Department of Environmental ConservationcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner since 2016 in initiatives to identify and reduce invasive insect populations impacting the urban forest.

Scale indicators15 records

Recent moves8 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Forest Lawn Memorial-Parks & Mortuaries: Large multi-site operator of historic memorial parks across Southern California with burial, cremation, and visitor programming at scale. Closest publicly recognized operator comparable to Green-Wood's burial-plus-cultural-attraction hybrid model, though it operates as a for-profit.
• Mount Auburn Cemetery: Historic rural cemetery founded in 1831 in Cambridge, MA, serving as America's first garden cemetery. Operates as a 501(c)(3) with comparable burial, cremation, educational programming, arboretum, and visitor/tour revenue streams — directly analogous to Green-Wood's business model and historic-landmark positioning.
• Trinity Church Cemetery: Historic Manhattan cemetery operated by Trinity Church parish since 1697. Provides burial and cremation services in a heritage setting with comparable religious/nonprofit governance and serves the same NYC burial-customer market as Green-Wood, though with a much smaller footprint.
• Sleepy Hollow Cemetery: Historic Hudson Valley cemetery in Sleepy Hollow, NY, designated a National Historic Landmark. Provides burial services, tours, and cultural programming to a heritage-tourism audience, comparable to Green-Wood's mix of memorial services and visitor attractions.
• Laurel Hill Cemetery: Historic 1836 rural cemetery in Philadelphia operating as a 501(c)(3) with burial services, tours, public programming, and arboretum-like grounds. National Historic Landmark with comparable nonprofit governance, heritage-tourism positioning, and education mission to Green-Wood.
• Woodlawn Cemetery: Historic 400-acre cemetery in the Bronx, NY, also designated a National Historic Landmark. Offers burial services, memorialization, tours, and cultural programming to a similar NYC-area demographic and competes directly with Green-Wood for cemetery customers in the New York metro.
• Congressional Cemetery: Historic 1807 cemetery in Washington, D.C. operating as a 501(c)(3) with burial services, heritage tours, and public programming. Comparable nonprofit governance model and National Historic Landmark–adjacent positioning, though smaller in scale than Green-Wood.

Broad incumbents

• Brooklyn Botanic Garden: Adjacent 52-acre urban botanic garden and arboretum in Brooklyn, NY operating as a 501(c)(3) with comparable educational programming, membership model, and event programming. Overlaps Green-Wood in plant collection, school programs, and cultural-tourism audience, though its core mission is horticulture rather than memorialization.
• Prospect Park Alliance: Nonprofit that manages Brooklyn's 526-acre Prospect Park in partnership with NYC. Comparable as a major urban green-space operator with educational programming, events, and donor/sponsorship model, and directly adjacent to Green-Wood's Sunset Park neighborhood.

Regional players

• New York Botanical Garden: 250-acre botanical garden and National Historic Landmark in the Bronx operating as a 501(c)(3). Directly comparable as a NYC-area arboretum with educational programming, membership tiers, and exhibition partnerships (NYBG is an active Green-Wood collaborator). Operates in a different borough but serves the same metro cultural-tourism market.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/greenwoodhf
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/greenwood-cemetery

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles7 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Green-Wood Cemetery