Be on the lookout for an avatar named MensajerosDeLaPaz Jubilee, last seen sitting under NBC's Christmas tree. This avatar will be holding a sign that reads "Help a child have a second oportunity [sic] in his First Life."This is, apparently, an effort on the part of the RL Mensajeros de la Paz, a not-for-profit organization that asks help for children from broken homes. It's assumed that one will be able to speak with M. Jubilee to coordinate a donation, or otherwise offer assistance. An interesting issue is that, as the press notice I was sent mentions, "The kid hasn't any land nor properties, except for a cardbox, some newspapers and a sign ... " That's actually about the same as a newbie owns when first joining SL, so I don't know that that aspect of the av's appearance will register, but the sign ought to make some take notice. This is a great move for a not-for-profit organization, and speaks directly to a grass roots/word of mouth method of information dissemination.
You can get more information on Mensajeros de la Paz here.
1. I don't know much about this charity but I think this is a great idea and a sign of things to come.
Charities need money. Most always have been underfunded and always will be. Most are worthy enough causes, although some get too bogged down in administriva and don't focus enough on their goals. but I digress...
One of the biggest things that prevents most otherwise 'good' people (including myself) from donating often is convenience- to make a CC donation online, one must put in name/address/cc#/etc, or write a check IRL. That's one of the reason those street corner santa guys do so well- it's easy to grab your pocket full of change and drop it in the bucket.
Online, things like PayPal and Google Checkout can make this easier to do (reduce the inconvenience factor) but SL has them all beat- you are already in the world, already signed in, all you have to do is right click their donation box and hit 'pay'.
The L$-US$ conversion also helps- most people won't bother going through a paypal or other checkout to only donate a dollar (US) or two, although they are happy to part with the dollar itself. OTOH, most people would happily donate L$250 to a charity without knowing much about it.
Combine this with the effects of the SL world- people can set up donation boxes for your charity that are also scripted to pay the charity, and the wide range of people that will be willing to part with a buck or two and you have a (potentially) very useful donation system.
In short- it gives the charity access to a few hundred thousand of the most wealthy people in the world, most of which will happily donate a dollar or two US, and makes it so brain dead easy for them that there is very little reason to say no.
Granted the above only applies to confirmed or premium users and there's no guarantee that everybody that walks by will donate.
But I think a charity with a well thought out donation campaign in SL could do very well for itself...
Posted at 3:36PM on Dec 4th 2006 by Chris