Are in-world Fund raisers Scams?

I have been wondering about this for long time.
What type of proof do the non-profit Fund Raisers that exist in world actually are
legit?
Are they a scam? How do we know that John Q Pixel decides to create organization
in world that sounds like a recognizable charity and with good promoting, hype skills
make himself and his charity look legit when it isn't?
Just curious.

Not sure there's a general answer to this. My rule-of-thumb is that either it has to be big in RL and have a substantial, long-term in-world presence (American Cancer Society, as a recently discussed example), or it has to have been introduced to SL in a meeting with Philip Linden. (I think the intersection of these sets is pretty much equal to their union, though, so the information value of Philip isn't very high. )

Unfortunately you have no way of 100% knowing. It's very rare that I would donate to a charity based in SL for this very reason, and I instead make my donations direct.

How dare you! That poor prince from Nigeria needs all the help he can get!!!!!

Me personally, I would be wary of such solicitations. Truly big charities would not bother with tapping into the untold wealth of SL.

During Katrina, several forums I frequent wanted to raise money and send it in to various charities. All moderators myself included urged the members to contact the charity directly and give that way. You can always tell the Charity the donation is on behalf of "The Forum Cartel" or "Second Life Members" or what ever you like.

This is the only true way you know your money is going where you intend.

Just my 1$L worth. (no pennies here)

"CX"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=372Ah0Z_L1w

Fonejacker rawks.

Here's a good way to stay abreast of valid in-world charities:

Subscribe to the Mailing List for non-Profit info from LL:
https://lists.secondlife.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nonprofits

View the Non-profit Mailings Archive:
https://lists.secondlife.com/pipermail/nonprofits

The Second Life non-profit WIKI page:
http://www.simteach.com/wiki/index.php?title=Second_Life:_Non-Profits

Hope this helps!
~Maddy

Just to point out, this isn't always true. The American Cancer Soceity (which I would consider a big charity), indeed has a presence in Second Life via Relay For Life.

Details directly on the ACS webpage are here: http://www.cancer.org/docroot/GI/content/GI_1_8_Second_Life_Relay.asp

However, you're absolutely right that caution should be taken before donating to any charity, whether its SL or RL.

Yes, It dosnt matter if it is SL or RL find out who you are giving money to, not just what cause they say they are supporting.

BTW I am taking Donations for my favorite Charity, the Alice always needs more jewelry and fancy dresses network

The only one i know of is Relay for Life and it's not a scam.

http://www.relayforlife.org/relay/

The charities are real.

Is the person you're looking at a real charity worker or a scammer? *shrugs* How can you tell that in RL let alone in SL? Anywhere there is money, there will be scammers.

That guy ringing the bell with the red collection pot, might be legit, or he may have gotten the pot from a landfill, fixed it up with a little red paint, and is gaffing people left and right for a few dollars a day.

I don't mind dropping a bit of change in any charity collection. If I get ripped off of a few dollars here and there, so be it. I, personally, will take that chance to help out those that the charities are for. However, if I was to make a substantial donation, I would look to official channels to make them. Such as going direct to the charities website, or even calling a few numbers to ensure the money went to whom it was intended to.

~Jessy

Probably many are bona-fide fund raisers but since fundraising is unregulated and unverifiable, the system is open to abuse. Even if someone is collecting for a reputable charity with logos etc., it could all be 'unofficial'.

The tiny community of Raglan Shire sim runs ongoing collections and special events for ONE.org .

I've participated in several SL charity events that have their roots in RL charities. So far my favorites have been Medicins Sans Frontiers, CUSO, Relay for Life, and Heifer International. With regards to Heifer Intl, the person running it has raised nearly $750, enough to buy an entire "ark" of animals. I get approached often re: international fund raisers. I'm pretty picky about which ones I'll support, and I do my research on the avatar and the charity itself. Like anything, it's a matter of taking care.

I'm very picking in RL about what charities I donate to. Not only do I make sure they are legit, I also ensure that only a certain percentage of their dollars are spent towards advertising. I'm just as picky about what charities I donate to in SL.

The three I specifically donate to in SL are Relay for Life, the one regarding breast cancer (which I can't remember their specific name) and Support for Healing.

In real life there is ways to find out how much of any given donation goes to the cause you're donating. There is more transparency. Here I am not sure.

There are many legitimate charities including United Spinal Association, ONE, American Cancer Society, and others, but there's no real need to donate inworld if you are unsure - they all appreciate RL donations just as much.