$4,700 is a lot to have to scrape together for many folks. It's a lot of money to my wife and I. They wouldn't have to ask for donations if the funeral industry wasn't charging vulnerable people so much to carry out their wishes.
This is why my parents told me (the executor in both estates) not to spend any more than the bare minimum on the cremation and a cardboard container. They didn't believe in wasting money on the funeral arrangements when it could go to us kids in the estate. Makes sense to me.
My mother said she wanted to have her body donated to science...we weren’t comfortable with that but wanted to abide by her wishes so we made a deal with school. We wanted her back after a year. A year later they sent back her cremated remains to us. It never costed us a penny, except for the memorial service we decided to have at the church.