Nonprofits in the Metaverse

Ronnie Rhode on nonprofits in Second Life

The nonprofit sector has become a growing presence in the virtual world of Second Life. Much like their “for profit” brethren, they are exploring and learning how to conduct business in a place that exists only on silicon chips in row after row of servers at a data center. With the growing numbers of nonprofits entering virtual worlds, is it safe to assume they are successful? How do they measure success?

In my own experience, I’ve found Second Lifers to be extremely generous, making contributions of both monetary and non-monetary value to the causes they believe in or to those that have touched their hearts. Benefit concerts occur often on a daily basis and our avatars encounter collection kiosks for a host of charities at various events and venues when we’re out clubbing, shopping or simply exploring. But how does the average person who logs into Second Life and wishes to make a contribution distinguish between a legitimate charity and one that is not? How can the average avatar become engaged in supporting the causes and the representative organizations while in Second Life?

I took these questions to Ronnie Rhode, who has established a strong presence with her “Garden for the Missing”. Ronnie is also very active with the Nonprofit Commons SIM’s. She readily agreed to meet with me at her office on the Aloft SIM, one of the two nonprofit SIM’s managed by the TechSoup organization in Second Life.

“Hello Nazz! It’s always a pleasure to see you. Nazz, I’d like to introduce Anika Pastorelli from the Giving Circle Network, a RL nonprofit also with an established SL presence.” Ronnie said.

“Hello Ladies.” I replied as I arrived. “Thank you for making time to meet with me Ronnie, good to see you again and it’s very nice to meet you Anika.” I selected an empty chair and joined the two ladies as the office and site continued rezzing around me. As it did, Ronnie caught Anika up on how she and I had met and why I’d contacted her.

“I may be able to answer some of your questions Nazz. I’m working on a study here at NPC, at the request of TechSoup. I’ve not finished the study completely and when I do, the results will be given to them. But we can talk in general terms about it. Afterwards, we can take a magic carpet tour of the SIM if you’d like.” Pastorelli said. I thanked her and readily agreed to the tour, it’d been some time since I had ridden a magic carpet.

“Let me give you some background on the Non Profit Commons, Nazz.” Ronnie said. “There are two SIM’s NPC I and II. This is the second one and opened up at the end of May, we had a huge and successful grand opening on the 28th. There are eighty nonprofits located on the two SIM’s, making this one of the largest concentrations of nonprofits in SL. TechSoup manages the two and is looking at adding a third one soon. That one will be dedicated to environmental nonprofits. We’re all very excited about that. If you’d like, I can mention to the TechSoup director in SL, Glitteractica Cookie that you’re working on a story and you may want to meet with her. She can tell you more about TechSoup and what their plans are for NPC.” I told her that I would appreciate the introduction and thanked her.

“So, how does the average avatar protect themselves from being taken in by an illegitimate charity? Really Nazz, the answer is the same as it would in their first lives, by doing some research on the organization before making a contribution or volunteering. A good place for them to start in SL would be here at the NPC. The nonprofits here are screened when establishing an office.” Rhodes said.

“Without revealing too much about the study and of course the results, Nazz, I can tell you at a high level the consensus view amongst the nonprofits I’ve spoken with.” Anika said. “The nonprofits here are finding that they need to run like any other business in SL to be successful. Increasing awareness and promoting their causes are the most common reasons why they are here and the focus of their activities in SL.”

“Promotion and increasing awareness of the product or services a business sells would be the same for both a ‘for profit’ and a ‘nonprofit’ enterprise ladies. Measurement of effectiveness for a ‘for profit’ business can take many forms.” I said. “How do the nonprofits in SL determine and measure their effectiveness?”

“Well, each would do so depending on what their mission is and on their beneficiaries.” Said, Anika. “Like the ‘for profit’ sector, effectiveness is determined by how they achieve their mission and serve the people and community who are the beneficiaries. As an aid to the nonprofits here in SL and those who are thinking of coming into SL, there are ‘Best Practices for Nonprofits in SL’ posted to a ‘Wiki’, here’s the address, www.nonprofitcommons.org check it out when you have a chance.”

“Nazz, on Friday’s at 8:30 AM there’s a Community of Nonprofits meeting. You should stop by at the next one and meet some of the people and listen in on the discussion and plans. I’ll introduce you to Glitter then if you’d like.” Ronnie said. “Meanwhile, if you have any other questions I’m sure we can find someone here who can answer them for you. Now, if you’d like, we can take the tour, on the magic carpet.”

With that, we walked over to the magic carpet that awaited our arrival. On the way, I thanked both for having taken time out of their busy day to have met with me and given me insight into their slice of the metaverse. “It was our pleasure, thank you for taking the interest in and writing about nonprofits Nazz.” Pastorelli said.

“Hop on Nazz, we’re about to take off.” Ronnie called out. I did and we were on our way around the SIM. The tour includes notes being written into chat, all while stopping off at several sites along the way. It was definitely a good source of information on the represented organizations and their virtual presence, along with the commentary and delightful company of both Ronnie and Anika.