The NonProfit Times - December 15, 2007 - (Page 4)

Nonprofits Getting A Lease In Second Life By Marla E. Nobles A merica’s Second Harvest (A2H) added another location to its coalition of more than 200 food banks and food-rescue organizations. But unlike the other operations, this one won’t be stateside. In fact, donors will have to log on to enter its doors. The Chicago-based food bank is the latest in a growing number of nonprofits joining the cyberspace community known as Second Life (SL). Some of the third sector neighbors include Fund for Animal Welfare (situated on Progressive Island), Reporters Without Borders (Hangflame), Save the Children (Midnight City), World Vision (Kiwa Northwest), and the Southern California chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, which launched the virtual “MS Fly” fundraising event this past June. Another 32 nonprofits are housed on SL’s new Nonprofit Commons space, which TechSoup officially launched this past August.There were two simultaneous grand opening celebrations, one in SL and the second “in-world” event in San Francisco.The nonprofits-only space was donated by the world’s first virtual millionaire, Anshe Chung, and managed by TechSoup. Since opening to the public in 2003, SL, created by San Franciscobased Linden Lab, has experienced explosive growth. In April 2004, SL had around 6,000 residents. Just over three years later, that number surpassed 9 million (as of August 21), growing by nearly 3 million this past summer alone. One of Nonprofit Commons’ first tenants, A2H first landed on SL this past May, when the charity took part in a virtual ribbon-cutting for the grand opening of the online community’s inaugural supermarket. The presence of A2H was unmistakable, via billboards A shot of American Cancer Society’s virtual headquarters in Second Life, created by virtual-world developer Infinite Vision Media. displaying the A2H brand, posters touting its cause, along with the virtual presence of the charity’s president. Phil’s Supermarket, named for Today Show Food Editor and Contributor Phil Lempert, officially launched on May 7 both online in SL and offline at the Food Marketing Institute (FMI) established its presence in the Web community during 2005 when the charity launched the cyber version of its popular Relay for Life event. ACS pre-empted this year’s third annual SL Relay for Life, held July 27-28, with the creation of a virtual headquarters on June 1.Although they’re not housed in Just as Phil’s Supermarket is a source of information about food and not an actual retail operation, A2H’s food bank will be a vehicle to disseminate information about the organization and its mission. conference held in Chicago.As part of the cyberstore’s grand opening, the virtual counterpart for Dave Brearton, executive vice president, global business services and strategy at Kraft Foods Inc., presented “city girl” avatar, or rather,A2H President and CEO Vicki Escarra, with a donation of $450,000 for the charity’s Community Nutrition Program. The American Cancer Society (ACS) the Nonprofit Commons space, according to Susan Tenby, online community manager at TechSoup, ACS has a presence there and is invited to all the events. “It’s a great push into another arena to bring awareness and fundraising opportunities to hunger,” said Karen Paciero, director of individual giving at A2H. While it’s still too early to determine the benefits of a presence in SL, Red Cross Continued from page 1 a blueprint for accountability. “The Panel establishes high ethical standards and this behavior is not condoned,” said Wheeler. Everson was the ARC’s eighth CEO or interim CEO in 12 years. In terms of accountability, the ARC board got it right, executives said. "This is a good-news, bad-news story. The good news is the Red Cross board acted deliberately and transparently to address a governance problem. The bad news is that, once again, the Red Cross is in the spotlight with a negative story, which will continue to erode the public’s trust in major philanthropic organizations,” said John Graham IV, CAE, president & CEO,ASAE, in Washington, D.C. According to Gary Bass, executive director of OMB Watch in Washington, D.C.,“I think everyone has the same reaction, which is:This is shocking." Added Bass, "Of course this is bad for Red Cross. It’s bad for any organization; it’s bad for our sector; it’s bad for management/employee relations. So he should know better.” 4 H.Art Taylor,president and CEO of the BBB Wise Giving Alliance in Arlington, Va., said that this is a setback because, “The Red Cross was making many positive steps to improve the negative perception that the public has of the organization. … The team in place around Mark Everson was very strong, and a big reason why the organization was moving forward.” Linda Crompton, president and CEO at BoardSource in Washington, D.C., called the situation “extraordinarily bad luck” for the Red Cross. “How do you prevent a kind of thing like this from happening? You do what you can do. You have a whistleblower policy in place, you do your due diligence when you’re hiring these people, and you do the reference checking, and you try to prevent this kind of thing from happening,” she said. “What the board should be commended on is that they’ve taken swift action. Especially when you’re in the kind of situation that the Red Cross is in, the worst thing to do is to prevaricate and to delay taking any action. Because you know it’s going to be kind of devastating to you,” said Crompton. Senior Editor Mark Hrywna and Staff Writer Marla E. Nobles contributed to this story. she noted she’s well aware of the scope and reach of the online community. “It stunned me when I discovered the Second Life demographic,” said Paciero, who said informal research has led her to believe SL reaches, on average, people in their 30s and 40s. The charity’s mean age range is 55-65, “so this is still reaching a relatively younger group, which is a great opportunity for us.” Myriad for-profit businesses have already established themselves in the Web space, including BMW,Toyota, Nissan, Microsoft, IBM, Calvin Klein, Playboy Magazine, MTV, BBC Radio, The Weather Channel and Reuters.Additionally, the SL economy is a real economy, with millions of Linden Dollars – with an exchange rate of 270 Lindens for $1 USD – changing hands each month. “Second Life is composed of people from all seven continents,” explained Randy Moss, manager, futuring and innovation-based strategies for ACS. Moss said users implement translator programs to speak across languages, and thus SL is a 24/7, persistent, collaborative, and real-time environment. According to Moss, when he suggested ACS launch an SL version of its already successful Relay for Life event, the overwhelming response was, “What’s the point?” Moss’ argument: “Because for these people (SL residents), this is their community.And we are a community-based organization.” One big leap of faith later, ACS launched the SL Relay for Life during 2005 and raised more than $5,000. The following year, the event brought in $41,000.This year the event raised nearly $115,000 (or 32 million Linden dollars), eclipsing its original goal of $41,000. Moss said he manages the ACS presence in SL, which now includes a virtual ACS headquarters. He unveiled the first public showing of the new headquarters at the inaugural Run Walk Second Life, page 5 DECEMBER 15, 2007 THE NONPROFIT TIMES www.nptimes.com http://www.nptimes.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of The NonProfit Times - December 15, 2007

The NonProfit Times - December 15, 2007 Say Hello To 2008, Kissin’ Cousin of 2007 Scandal Ensnares Red Cross CEO Contents Nonprofits Getting A Second Lease On Life Hot Nonprofit Auctions Is It $10, $25 or $100? The World’s Best Fundraisers Turbo-Charged Web Use Help Wanted: 640,000 Open Positions Focus On Community Impact Has United Ways Changing Donor Migration - North Putting That Spark In Your Script NPT Jobs Resource Directory

The NonProfit Times - December 15, 2007

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.