Purchase in Second Life and Receive in Real Life

Second Life Impact Location: Whitfield 110 68 27
Website: http://www.myspace.com/impactsl

Impact spreads awareness of important causes and charities in Real and Second Life with Impact wristbands, events, and stories.

Each wristband represents a cause and charitable organization.

Purchase your Second Life Impact Band and receive a matching Real Life Impact Band including a thank you note from the charity supported by your purchase.(shipping from Second Life may take a few days and don't be suprised if your delivery driver is an Avatar.)

Also, Impact is building a wall in Second Life with names of Avatars that are making an Impact. Help us by purchasing your wristbands and your name will be etched in the wall.
Let's make this wall as big as possible.

Collect as many bands as you can and spread awareness throughout both worlds, real and virtual.

Impact's Current Second Life Band Color Meanings: (Burgundy)Multiple Myeloma/Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (Green) Enviroment/Botanical Gardens, Parks, and Nature Centers (Pink): Breast Cancer/National Breast Cancer Foundation (Red): AIDS/Elton John AIDS Foundation (Yellow): Cancer/National Foundation for Cancer Research (Brown): Animal/The Elephant Sanctuary (Gray): Education/Tree House (Baby Blue): Children/Ronald McDonald House (Dark Blue): Faith/Christian Childrens Fund (Gold): Hero Band/Salvation Army (green/White) Darfur

"Jeani" represents an anonymous avatar, if this is good work would not real-life information be beneficial? Read this:

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/telemarketing/tel01.shtm

and take a look here:

http://www.give.org/

Everything might be on the up-and-up, but you must take a completely anonymous person's word for it that every penny is used a particular way (i.e., how much is spent on bands, how much is used for "salaries"?). Even if on the up-and-up, people should be encouraged to use good information to ensure they contribute wisely -- the same way you would do research before buying a camera or mp3 player.

20% of all proceeds is given to the represented charity. A thank you note/receipt from the charity represented and the product, will be shipped from our Second life Impact store. Impact spreads awareness with it's products, stories and events. Impact is not a non-profit organization but once again, does raise money for non-profit organizations via it's products, stories and events.
This information is on our Web Page: http://www.myspace.com/impactsl

Thanks again,

Jeani Giano
SL Impact Rep/Reporter

Thank you for being honest (I'm amazed you were truthful)! 20% for a charity, 80% for you, what a great business model! It utilizes people's generosity and sympathy for worthwhile causes to generate a fat profit.

I'm copying this part of the quote in case you try and change your post later.

At Impact we spread awareness of important causes. Most other businesses in Second Life and the Real world contribute little or nothing to charity. We sell real tangible popular products for a great price. Millions of people throughout the world wear silicone bands. Pro Athletes, Actors, Senators, business owners, singers, highschool students, college students, parents, etc. We are very proud of our product and ability to contribute to charity. Our profit comes from our very popular fashionable products, the ability to spread awareness and contribute to charity is a bonus. Our products not only represent charities but other non-charitable causes such as the customer's personal interest, sports teams, companies, special interest groups, and much more but 20% of the proceeds still go to charity. I think your efforts would be better served urging businesses in Second Life to contribute anything to charity, tracking down the many businesses in Second Life that are not honest about their practices and also ask yourself, honestly, how much have you contributed to charity? Thank you once again for your concern and Happy Holidays. If you have any other questions please contact [email]jeanigiano@sbcglobal.net[/email]

Only 20% to the Charity, hmm donate $300L Charity gets 20cents US, not worth the virtual effort I'm afraid. I'd rather donate 100% and get no RL armband.
If you are just a shop that donates 20% of their takings to charity please market yourself as such, your marketing make you appear to be a charity.
I guess the difference is if I were buying a Lamp off you because I wanted one and you donated 20% to charity, great I might grab a matching pair. But if you are asking me to buy a wristband, I don't really need for charity it needs to be a majority percentage donation to interest me.

Um, 20% does not seem like a lot to give.

I don't TAKE money people THINK is being given to charity and keep 80% of it. Here is a great link:

http://www.scambusters.org/charity.html

Would you argue that the information in the above link is wrong or bad? After reading it, would you not agree that the best thing any charity advocate can do is to encourage direct giving to charities, and avoid the possibility of scammers profiting from the generous intentions of others?

Let's recap: by sending "Thank you's" from charities for purchasing your product, you are giving the impression that these charities sanction, approve of, and endorse your product. You also obfuscate that this is a product (did you know you can't advertise products in this forum?) and leave the impression it is a donation to charity.

I phoned the National Foundation for Cancer Research at 1-800-321-CURE (2873) (anyone reading this post can phone and ask too) to ask them if you in fact were authorized to offer statements, collect money, or participate in offers of any kind on their behalf. They didn't seem to know you or "Impact", but actually did seem interested in details like your website URL, your Second Life information and so on. Perhaps this was a simple mistake on their part? Would you recommend I just ask a few of the other charities you represent?

Also what is the purpose of separately (and highly) priced "Gold", "Silver" etc bands -- you say this reflects a person's level of support? But do you mean support for your product, or for the charity? I had the clear impression that buying a gold band reflected a larger donation to charity. Obfuscation, misdirection.

But I will say this, and thank you for this: this thread, your posting, is clear evidence why everyone in SL and on the internet should ignore solicitations for money (or buying bogus charity "product" from people -- even those who claim the best of intentions.

If someone truly wants to help, promote the charity of your choice and help them give directly to that charity. Help make darn sure 100% of people's generosity goes where they think it is should. You can help by changing your Paypal link to point directly to the "Save Darfur" website, and not point to your personal bank account.

Dear customers and Friends of Whitfield.

We here are telling you all, that we take distance of this behavior and will
delate the shop on our grounds. We investigated, that this FAKE chairity
will NO LONGER take part on our land and Estates.

Thanks
Cristopher Whitfield

We have nothing more to say. You're accusations are rude and out of line. We sell our product, not genocide, and raise awareness for important causes. We haven't sold a Cancer research band yet and we will not be sending donations for another month. Our accounting is exact and our charities represented will be happy to take our money and use it to fight genocide, fund cancer research and much more. How do you say someone is selling genocide, when they give money to fight genocide, very disappointing and guess it's ok toss around false accusations. And if you haven't given to charity, you should be very ashamed. If someone doesn't buy a band because of you're accusations then you are robbing charity. At this point we are donating 20% to our represented charities and 80% goes to our company that provides the product, advertising, marketing, manpower, and time. A company that spreads awareness of important causes so that people in Second Life will begin to care. A company that helps others and writes stories to share with others. Our PayPal button is in a seperate box than Darfur. Also, did you read? All proceeds of Darfur go to charity. This is enough...please delete these posts. Also, we plan to raise our donation percentages as our Second Life presence builds. Merry Christmas and not everyone is bad. Please find someone else to pick on.

Actually if they don't buy a band, they can contribute 5x that amount to charity...

Most businesses don't give to charity. Do you feel this way when you purchase things in Second Life from businesses that could care less about giving to charity. Is it not important in this world to spread awareness about vital issues. Shouldn't we be paid more for spreading awareness with our products, than someone selling a fake virtual hair piece or article of clothing? You're not making sense. If we are not in business. Does less money go to charity? Yes. Is less awareness spread throughout Second Life? Yes.

Now you understand...they are buying (our product) to spread awareness and we give to charity. We would love for people to give to charity and we would also like to sell our product. It's pretty awesome to be able to represent what you believe in or support. That's what we're about in Real life and Second Life. We also offer customized bands, their all not charity related. I'll tell you what..the only reason we gave 20% is because that's the number we set for all of our bands. How about we give 60% for our charity related bands?

This thread has turned nasty, I'm going to refer it for linden review.