Brookins Funeral Home Ltd.

What Brookins Funeral Home Ltd. does

Brookins Funeral Home Ltd. is a family-owned, African-American operated funeral home founded on November 8, 1970, by Howard B. Brookins, Sr., and headquartered in a single location at 9315 S. Ashland Avenue, Chicago, IL 60620. The firm provides burial services, cremation services, viewings, funeral and memorial ceremonies, graveside services, advance pre-planning, obituary management, and aftercare/grief support to families across the Chicago metropolitan area, with explicit cultural focus on Chicago's South Side and the 21st Ward. Service extensions include Green Burial options, Veterans Honoring Services (with VA benefit coordination), personalization merchandise (Life Tribute Videos, Personalized Stationery, Keepsake Candles), and consumer financing through Tribute Loans.

The underlying technology stack is not proprietary: the website and digital experience are operated on Frazer Consultants' platform with Tributearchive powering obituary listings, tribute walls, and memorial pages; the same vendor provides an online pre-planning form, an online payment center (Tribute Pay), and integrated lending (Tribute Loans). The company's digital footprint therefore reflects what its SaaS funeral-technology vendor enables rather than internally developed capability — there is no proprietary AI/ML, no API surface, no mobile app, and no disclosed data assets.

Commercially, Brookins runs a direct-to-consumer model targeting individual families at the physical location and through the website, with pricing determined in arrangement conferences rather than published online. Revenue is generated through one-time service fees plus merchandise attach (caskets, urns, stationery, tribute videos, candles) and pre-need contracts. Distribution is omnichannel in a limited sense — in-person at the single Chicago site plus online self-serve pre-planning, payment, obituary, and grief-support touchpoints — and growth is pursued through product-line extensions and community-driven referrals rather than geographic or vertical expansion.

Name

Brookins Funeral Home Ltd.

Legal name

Brookins Funeral Home

Website

https://brookinsfuneralhome.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1970

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Brookins Funeral Home Ltd. is a family-owned, African-American operated Chicago funeral home founded in 1970, providing burial, cremation, memorial, pre-planning, grief support, and personalization merchandise to families in the 21st Ward and surrounding South Side communities.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Funeral Services

NAICS

Funeral Homes and Funeral Services (812210), Funeral Homes and Funeral Services (81221), Death Care Services (8122)

akta.pro primary industry

Bereavement & Grief Support Services (Family Aftercare) (HSABAFAI)

akta.pro secondary industry

Bereavement & Grief Support Services (Hospice-Affiliated/Independent) (HLADAHAL)

Keywords

• Funeral services
• Cremation services
• Pre-planning services
• Grief support
• Veteran honors

Headquarters

HQ city

Chicago

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, Supply Chain

Revenue model

1. Funeral Services: One-time services including burial services, cremation services, viewings, funeral ceremonies, and graveside services. Revenue is generated through service fees, merchandise (caskets, urns), and ancillary services.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Brookins Funeral Home Ltd. provides traditional funeral and cremation services, including burial services, cremations, viewings, funeral and memorial ceremonies, graveside services, obituary publishing, advance pre-planning, grief support resources, and veteran honors, delivered to families from its single Chicago funeral home location and supporting website.

Product overview

Brookins Funeral Home Ltd. operates as a traditional funeral home offering a unified suite of services centered on funeral care and cremation. The core offering encompasses funeral and cremation services, obituary management, advance preplanning tools, and grief support resources. The product portfolio includes personalization add-ons such as Life Tribute Videos, Personalized Stationery, and Keepsake Candles; payment solutions via Tribute Pay and Tribute Loans; and specialized services like Green Burial options and Veterans Honoring Services. All services are delivered through the company's website and physical funeral home location in Chicago, Illinois.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Funeral & Cremation Services Core offering covering burial services, cremation services, viewings, funeral and memorial services, and graveside services for deceased loved ones, delivered to families in the Chicago metropolitan area.
• Obituary Services

Quantifiable outcome

• Serving families for over 40 years in the Chicago community

Named customers2 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Seven partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Frazer ConsultantscoreTechnology or IntegrationWebsite development and hosting platform provider. Frazer Consultants built and maintains the Brookins Funeral Home website with integrated obituary management, payment processing, and memorial services functionality.
• TributearchivecoreTechnology or IntegrationObituary archive and memorial platform providing the underlying technology for obituary listings, tribute walls, and memorial pages.
• Flowers First by ErskineminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorFlorist partner providing flower arrangements for funeral services. Andrea Brookins connected a customer to this florist during after-hours assistance.
• GriefShareminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerGrief support organization whose resources are linked on the Brookins website to support families through the healing process.
• Web HealingminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerGrief discussion board and resource platform linked as a support resource for bereaved families.
• The Compassionate FriendsminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerNonprofit grief support organization for families who have lost children, linked as a resource on the grief support page.
• AARPminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerResources and information about end-of-life care and grief linked as additional support for families.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves4 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Emerging players

• Tulip Cremation: Direct-to-consumer cremation provider with online arrangement and transparent pricing. Competes for a share of the same at-need and pre-need Chicago market with a digitally native model.
• Cake: Online end-of-life planning marketplace that overlaps with Brookins' online pre-planning offering. Targets the same consumer planning journey but without operating a physical funeral home.

Direct peers

• Donnellan Family Funeral Services: Family-owned Chicago-area funeral home offering comparable burial, cremation, and pre-planning services to similar local family customers.
• A.A. Rayner & Sons Funeral Home: Family-owned Chicago funeral home with a similar multigenerational, community-rooted model. Comparable in customer segment (African-American families), service mix, and single-location structure.
• Leak and Sons Funeral Home: Long-standing African-American owned funeral home serving Chicago's South Side. Directly comparable in size, community focus, and full-service funeral/cremation offerings to Brookins Funeral Home.
• Cage Memorial Chapel: Independent Chicago funeral home serving similar South Side communities. Directly comparable in scale, service offering (burial, cremation, pre-planning), and reliance on community referrals.

Broad incumbents

• Carriage Services: Publicly traded death care operator with consolidated funeral home and cemetery assets across the U.S. Operates at scale with broader geographic reach than Brookins.
• Foundation Partners Group: Multi-brand funeral and cemetery operator with national footprint. Provides an overlapping service offering to Brookins but at portfolio scale with centralized procurement and marketing.
• Service Corporation International: Largest U.S. funeral services conglomerate operating the Dignity Memorial brand. Competes for the same Chicago families but at vastly greater scale and with broader geographic coverage.

Others

• Funeral Consumers Alliance: Consumer advocacy organization promoting affordable funeral options and price transparency. Indirectly competitive as it educates consumers on lower-cost alternatives that can pressure traditional funeral home pricing.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/brookins-funeral-home

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 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 Brookins Funeral Home Ltd.