Charity

Hi, I was wondering about the charities in SL. Are they for real? What stops a person from collecting money for a charity & keeping the money? There are a lot of charities around this time of year. Some of these charities, I would give $L to if I find out more about how the system works. Thanks Silena

A lot of charities are going to be fake.

That said, I think the best way is to ask the person how you can verify their collecting activities with the RL charity. They should be able to give you real contact info or a web page that tells you who in SL is authorized to collect for a charity.

Or even better, thank the person for bringing the charity to your attention, then do the actual donating in RL. The nice part about that is that the collector doesn't have to pay a percentage of the donations to cash them out of SL.

Thanks for the help.

There are / have been some major charities active in SL, including Unicef´s Toys for Tots campaign, Children in Need and (SL)RFL. There´s also another one of which the name escapes me right now, which regularly has charity concerts for Irish kids.

Usually these charities have groups working for them, which will be able to provide information about their credentials.

I tend to find quite a few charity events going on during my music hopping adventures.
If they are run by a reputable organisation I´ll donate, if they are run by someone I know I´ll donate, etc.
Judgement call really, but checking out the group associated with the charity and contacting the owner might help get you more information.

I think the name of that charity might be 'Project Children'....it aims to bring children from the north and south of Ireland together in the hopes of fostering community spirit... 'A Touch of Ireland' is heavily involved with it.....a great charity..

Thank you! That´s the one I mean yes. Lovely venue that runs the gigs as well. When can I look forward to hearing you there?

Well, as soon as I figure out this 'streaming' nonsense.....I'll be there... I've actually talked to the owners about it.... I just can't seem to get my head around the process at all.... I think I might need a 'streaming' mentor...I wonder if such a person exists?

But when I get up and running, you'll be the first to know...

Pocket,
I´m sure you´ve probably seen this, but just in case.....

http://slmc.myfastforum.org/forum55.php

Or just ask the experts over there. There´s a bunch who will no doubt be glad to help you out

I've tried to advise charities to use SL as a promotional tool, handing out llLoadURL bookmarks to their donation webpages, rather than taking in-world donations. It reduces suspicion, and each donation is likely to be larger (somehow L$275 seems a lot more generous than US$1), is tax-deductible for the donor, and doesn't require a conversion fee to RL currency.

(As far as I know, though, none have taken my advice--an outcome with which I'm quite accustomed. )

I am all for supporting charity. Like anything else in life there are people that will take any advantage of generous people.

I would investigate anyone I give money to very carefully. Visit their RL website. Look at thier business plan and reports. Discover how much goes to the charity and how much goes to overhead.

One extremly popular US charity I experienced shows up at every disaster and then charges the volunteer workers and victums for drinks and meals. They also have taken to supporting very controversial and racial protest rallys. Needless to say I don't give them any money.

"G"

It doesn't stop them from keeping it. This is why I won't ever donate anything to these made up charities since there's no way to verify where the money goes. You've heard all the stories of the cheats in sl, why would this be any different?

They especially use the holidays to try and get to peoples emotions in getting them to fork over cash and many people do unaware of where the money really is going to.