The article in the url below explores the growing potential for philanthropy online—“Pixelanthropy” as the article terms it (Figure 3.4: The Free Flow of Information in a Globalizing World, p56; Issues: Philanthropy, p196):
“Second Life [the focus of this article] now has an office park called the Nonprofit Commons that is filled to capacity with 32 charities (there is a waiting list to get in), from the avant-garde Transgender Resource Center to the more traditional America’s Second Harvest and CARE USA.”
Charities are establishing virtual presences and utilizing them to raise real world dollars:
“… the American Cancer Society, one of the first traditional nonprofits to raise money for a cause in Second Life. … organize[d] a virtual Relay for Life, as the cancer society’s annual walkathons are known. A couple hundred avatars did that walk in 2005, raising $5,100. About 1,000 avatars showed up in 2006 and raised $40,000. This year’s walk in July raised $115,000 from 1,700 participating avatars.
Fund-raising activities are not merely extensions of real world events, however, but are taking advantage of characteristics of the online experience to involve donors in more immediate and imaginative ways:
“Save The Children … created a virtual, online 3-D animal pageant in Second Life last fall, called Yak Shack, after it sold out of the real yaks being auctioned on its 2006 holiday Wish List. Hundreds participated in the online event, buying yaks for 1,000 Lindens (the currency in Second Life), or about $3.50 in real money. Each player who bought a yak for a poor family was able to milk, ride, and customize a yak avatar online and take care of it in a virtual yak barn, culminating in a December contest for Best Yak.”
Another example:
“Plant-It 2020, a nonprofit founded by the late singer John Denver, has launched an island on Second Life on which residents can pay 300 Lindens (or $1.11) to plant a tree from among a list of endangered species. For every tree planted on Second Life, Plant-It 2020 will plant the same species of the tree in the real-world rainforest to which it is indigenous.”
While still in its infancy, and with the online community an evolving legal frontier (Are virtual donations tax deductible?), the article claims that the potential for growth is significant:
“In April, market research firm Gartner predicted that by the end of 2011, 80 percent of active Internet users will have some sort of presence in a virtual world, with Second Life currently one of the most populous.”
Take care
Dave
Bill Werther & David Chandler
Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility
© Sage Publications, 2006
http://www.sagepub.com/Werther
‘Pixelanthropy’ takes hold on Second Life
Nonprofits move into virtual world and champion causes in new ways
By Janet Rae-Dupree
MSNBC.com
January 10, 2008
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22574057
