Is Second Life ready for serious charity?

Hi,

I am thinking about starting up Charityland: the first charity fund in Second Life. What do you think? Is it feasible? Are people willing to donate? Is Second Life ready for serious charity?

My motivation:
Second Life is becoming more and more mature. Second Life has already more than 2.5 million residents. Companies are having meetings. And people are being successful in business or in other matter. And: the first rich people have been spotted.

From First Life we have learned that rich people are willing to donate money to ‘good causes’. Charityland.net is the first Second Life Online Foundation which enables rich as well as ordinairy people to donate money to selected good causes.

For more details: please read the post on my blog
http://livingsecondlife.blogspot.com/2007/01/charityland-first-second-life-charity.html

Cheers.

Ikkemus...

Check this out: http://www.cancer.org/docroot/GI/content/GI_1_8_Second_Life_Relay.asp

That being said I'm sure you'll have no trouble if it's well planned out and organized

people don't have to be wealthy to be charitable

There are a number of multimillionaires already in Second Life, and have been since near its inception (I personally know a few; I'm not one myself). I can't think of anything more rude than to 'out' any of them.

What I have noticed, though, is that most people with money are generally characterised as smart enough to maintain their wealth, donate money to charities in an intelligent manner, and know how to do their taxes.

That said, the winning formula might be *very* well known, verifiable charities (not a fake tip jar with a stolen charity logo pasted on it, a well-known SL scam) - and smallish goals, because nobody is going to donate a lot in $L without a tax deductible receipt.

Before starting a charity, I'd suggest you make yourself a name in SL. You joined in December -- who are you ? Why should I trust you to give you my money ?

Also, you state in your blog that :


Considering you plan to have people host your donation boxes (which seems rather logical, if you want the most exposure), what would you need these 10% for ?

These are honest questions, I'm not trying to bash you or tell you not to do it. Last year's Relay for Life has raised lots of real money, so a charity is in the realm of possibilities.

I tend to agree with Desmond.

In addition to his point I have some experience of working with and/or reviewing Charities in the UK for cost effectiveness and I would add the following points (from a UK perspective)

1) Must be a verified UK Charity via THIS link

http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/

2) The land/property upon which the charity hopes to raise money should be owned by that Charity and must include a telephone number and named contact to allow people to verify that fact

3) I would cautiously suggest the named charity should be non controversial and be raising money for such things that would command widespread support, and ideally should have no political or religious agenda


Anything else would risk trouble. I am both aware of and know some real life businesses raise money for charity via foundations; one example I will give is Fidelity the investment house. That is entirely above board and proper, even in Second Life providing the options (1) (2) and (3) above are adhered too.

But I am also aware anybody can set himself or herself up and run a business, raising money for charity, collecting expenses for their efforts, which can be a substantial percentage of funds collected. That (to me) in a Second Life environment would be unacceptable and personally I would never support it.

Regards

John