# The elephant in the room

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2008/04/27/elephant-room/
- Published: 2008-04-27T21:21:54+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

So there it was – just at the right moment, an elephant in the room – literally.

We’d planned this for some time. Our legacy strategy was to be shared with a sceptical
and nervous inner core of volunteers at our annual chairman’s day. It was only the
second time a full legacy message had been given to this audience and given the 
sensitivity we were nervous ourselves at how it would be received. The first time
was at the AGM, where a motion was placed generally promoting legacies as ‘a good
thing’. The seeds had been sewn. In the time between we crafted our content and 
message by listening to what donors were telling us. We focused on the conversation
and not the ask. We tested the right words. We wrote and rewrote. We had begun to
find our approach. In time it all became clear what we were going to do and say 
but getting to say it meant pointing at the elephant in the room – legacies, wills,
death, stuff like that. If we are ever to have a straight conversation we need to
not only point but talk to it. So, in a moment of genius – our agency Whitewater
suggested a simple approach for the meeting – we would put a real elephant in the
room during the presentation. Obviously, health and safety, risk assessments and
an absence of live available elephants meant we had to rely on a nameless staff 
member dressed in a hired suit. Nevertheless, we shared our stuff, we pointed at
the elephant, everyone laughed and suddenly it all felt rather normal.

## Advertisement

 [⌊Posthub advert. You create the campaign. We'll handle the postal journey. Get started at post-hub.co.uk.⌉](https://fundraising.co.uk/ads/posthub-20261007-300x250/)