Charity fund raisers in SL and the TOS.

Last night in the Welcome Area, a person whose name I will not mention was speaking about a charity he was trying to promote in SL. He kept attaching huge pictures of various kids to his head and telling sad stories. I have no idea if he was telling the truth; my better judgment is saying it’s a scam. He provided a website that showed more sad pictures but the site was obviously not professionally done.

One of his sad stories consisted of a little girl sold to a gypsy and then used as a prop in a street begging scam. I found it very far fetched but then again I am a fragile protected American from such an outlandish thing.

That is not my point though.

I feel that any such charity should be against the TOS. What is LL stance on this? It is my opinion that any legitimate charity should go through LL and get an endorsement to solicit from them.

Soliciting charitable contributions in the WA shouldn't be tolerated just as commerical solicitations are not tolerated.

However, I don't have a problem with charitable solicitation in general within SL. When Bhodi was active with VERTU, they were doing some great work. There was a ton of money raised for both hurrican relief after last summer's storms in Florida, and then Tsunami relief after the disaster last December.

Even I raise a few L$ at the Iraqi War Memorial, which goes to 3 non-profits.

All I would point out is that charities within SL are not regulated or audited in any way (at least not to my knowledge). If you give, you have to trust whoever is managing the funds to actually get the money to where it is intended. So use a little prudence before giving your L$ away.

If you have any doubts or are unsure, you would probably be better off converting your L$ into US$ directly, and contributing to a cause through normal first life channels, which are regulated and audited.

- Ace

I agree with Ace on this one. If you don't trust 'em and still wanna donate, translate the L into actually money and donate 'em to a trusted fund, or even your local shelter.

As for being against the terms of service? I dunno... That is a hard call. Frankly, I'd do it, but I'd put a link to a reputable site if nothing more.. Or encourage you to work at the local shelter. But... It's a grey area.

Yes you did Ace - and thank you for your efforts.

One note about VERTU - Bhodi, as the Founder of VERTU - went to great lengths to formalize relationships with the SL Community, Linden Lab and GOM. At all times there were several levels of accountability and internal checks and balances. It was done professionally and with the help of many skillful people.

IMO, VERTU wrote the book on how best to do real world fund raising in SL - and it takes time, effort, skill and hard work.

I was in no way making any claims against all charities. I agree that VERTU did great things. If I remember correctly, they did give updates on what was raised and where exactly the money was going. They also had kind of a LL endorsement, maybe not formal but I think I remember them being acknowledge at the least.

My point was really. If a charity is legitimate, and want to use SL as a stream for donations, I would hate for them not to be able to help a real cause because of people being paranoid of the people who are trying to run a scam.

Not sure LL would give endorsements but if I was a real charity I would at least try.

I understand Beau and appreciate your bring this up and agree that if you're gonna attempt to raise money in SL people need to publicly state the who, what, why, and how the L$ to US$ will work. And hanging at the WC is not the way to start out - for obvious TOS reasons.

And as Ace stated, there are several excellent! examples of how others have proceed to raise funds in the past.

_/_/

If you want to do charity, talk to the people around you. You will find that many a good SLer does not actually have any RL money. Hire them, or just plain give them money.
The large, organized charities are as evil as any capitalist megacorp. They are both all about lining their own pockets, with the charity / product as a mere excuse to extract money from you. Most of the money given to the red cross or somesuch Feted Inner Charity is going to management - not even to the poor people who actually do the work.

Rl charities are highly regulated in most countries. It is illegal in the UK to collect funds in the name of charity if you are not a registered charity - people get done for it all the time.

And yes this sounds like an obvious scam. Children being sold to gypsies is old anti-Roma prejudice.

Never give money to charities without the local equivilent of registration numbers. Report the scammers to the relevant authorities.

If someone really wants to advertise a charity in the WA, they should pay for one of the Top Picks billboards.

Or, perhaps there is a need for a free one, perhaps LL could raffle off a charity billboard.

that is totally inappropriate behavior in the WA, and would draw a warning at the least if a Linden sees it. Welcome area is for welcoming new players.

Remember Kiddos, Charity starts at home.