Second Life Fundraising: Philanthropy Dips its Toe Into Virtual Worlds
By: Tom Watson, 07/26/06

Soaring mountains, shimmering seas, futuristic buildings, strange vehicles flying in the air. And throughout the fantastic landscape, three-dimensional avatars walk and fly and talk - and spend a new and very real form of currency. Welcome to Second Life, a fast-growing virtual reality community where users from around the world gather to live out their fantasies and assume personas they never could in the terrestrial world. The virtual world was created by a real-world company, Linden Labs, in 2003 and now numbers some 200,000 members who spend hundreds of thousands a day in "Linden dollars," the game's currency. They buy land and buildings (all virtual of course), clothing and accessories, movies, vehicles, and music.

And more and more, they give money away. Real money to real charities.

Philanthropy, it turns out, is sweeping the world's largest virtual 3D community and big-name organizations like the American Cancer Society, TechSoup, Global Kids, and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society are getting involved, creating virtual "chapters" and holding online fundraising events.

Last weekend, the American Cancer Society raised more than $38,000 in its Second Life Relay For Life, a virtual event that featured a thousand participants "walking" for sponsor dollars throughout the game's 42,000-acre virtual world.

“We are thrilled with the success of this year’s Second Life Relay For Life program,” said Michael Mitchell, national vice president and executive director of the American Cancer Society’s Futuring & Innovation Center.  “Now, more than ever, we know that a virtual community can be engaged just as effectively as a real community to help fight cancer.”

This was the second such event for ACS, which more than tripled its fundraising. Even more important in what is essentially an experiment in community-building, it involved many more people. ACS is also planning to open a virtual office in Second Life, located appropriately on the ACS Island. This year's fundraiser also featured online auctions for the services of a growing professional workforce: designers who create "skins" for Second Life users: entire body types and looks, from movie star sex appeal to fantastic wizards and dragons. Said Second Life blogger Chris Carella:

“Beyond the money raised for ACS one of the great things about this event is how it pulls together the community with a buzz that permeates through Second Life’s massive and rapidly growing world.”

What's so attractive for nonprofits in Second Life? I think a strong, empowered, and very motivated audience is part of it. Second Life activists invest a great deal of time, and no small amount of money, in creating their alternative universe; they're open to anything new and they value early adopters. Earlier this month, TechSoup held part of its NetSquared technology conference within Second Life, mixing video of a panel discussion with a 3D lounge and meeting place where nonprofit technologists could meet as avatars. Participant Marc Sirkin of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, who said his organization is developing a Second Life presence, posted his impressions of the event on his NPMarketing blog:

My impression in regards to the event itself from a technical perspective was... WOW. The amount of effort and work that went into this event was stunning. It is amazing what is possible in SL (streaming live video, food objects, directories etc...) - the richness of the platform is pretty amazing and very powerful. I don't think people yet realize how powerful this is going to be ... now's the time to experiment. By finding volunteers within these worlds, we can begin to develop new models of advocacy, fundraising and patient services.

Will Second Life fundraising and activism become more than a niche activity? It’s a question raised on the Non-Governmental Imagination blog, which notes that blogging was a tiny niche only three years ago and now, of course, non-profits are fully engaged:

As I watched that crowd of swaying avatars on stage, I couldn’t help but feel like a dinosaur. I was a little scared of this medium, in that it seemed so foreign to me and would require so much work to get a firm grasp of. I know SL is experiencing tremendous amounts of growth right now, and the people immersed seemed so comfortable flying around (literally) and building worlds and friendships that I had to ask myself “who are these people and where do they find the time to spend in Second Life?” These same questions, mind you, are the same ones I asked about bloggers two years ago. Although blogging may have been a niche activity then, it’s not now. I guess I just reacted how lots of people do to new ideas they can’t wrap their head around. Will SL become the new blogging, a medium which is cheap or free and any NGO would be foolhardy to ignore as a means of raising awareness or money?

As several people noted, fundraising is almost secondary at this point. In the ACS event, attention was the key, as well as participation; and you could easily imagine cancer patients slipping into Second Life skins and taking part in long-distance walks that their real lives do not currently allow. That spirit of participation is evident in the ACS event, in the NetSqared mixed-media conference, and in the experiments of high school students in creating an alternative world for themselves working in a program of Global Kids, which aims to “transform urban youth into successful students and global and community leaders by engaging them in socially dynamic, content-rich learning experiences.”

At this stage, it’s all about experimenting with the medium learning about what a virtual “society” means, and how an alternative currency can figure in philanthropy. Beth Kanter, an independent technology consultant to nonprofits and blogger, agreed:

Last night's event brought back memories for me - of what it was like 13 years ago doing demonstrations at nonprofit conferences about online communities for arts organizations.  You're not going to have perfection when it is an experiment!

About the Author

Tom Watson is publisher of onPhilanthropy.com. You may contact Tom at: twatson@changingourworld.com