NPSL: Nonprofits in Second Life

For the fourth consecutive year running, the American Cancer Society held their annual Relay for Life Second Life. 2008 was the most successful year yet for this virtual relay to raise funds to fight cancer.

Today I attended the Avatar on Duty session at the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership office on Aloft Nonprofit Commons. 2020Vision (Ashima Saigal) moderated the session and she was joined by several other Johnson Center staff, along with a sizeable crowd of interested avatars. We were all there to discuss a key question for those involved with working with nonprofits in Second Life: How can nonprofits find long-term sustainability in Second Life and better translate into real-world action towards achieving their missions?

The session gave us opportunity to brainstorm and discuss this topic in an open forum. One of the first issues we discussed was what nonprofits hoped to gain by having a presence in Second Life. Many avatars saw Second Life as a way to engage a wider audience and bring awareness of their organization's work. Others mentioned the benefit of having a common meeting space and a way to network and collaborate with other nonprofits doing similar work, as well as connecting with organizations they might never have had the opportunity to meet. Jarhead Euler of Uptown Shelter gave the example of how his organization only heard about Community Voicemail through Second Life and now is meeting with several other organizations to discuss implementing this tool for their real-life work.

Wondering about how your nonprofit's work in the virtual world can make real-world impact? Then be sure to check out the regular Avatar on Duty Sessions at the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership office on Aloft Nonprofit Commons.

The next session, Mon. July 28th, at 10 AM PDT/SLT will focus in particular on how nonprofits can find long-term sustainability in Second Life and how to better translate this into real-world action towards achieving their missions. Join in the conversation with philanthropic advisers and community builders in Second Life.

Please send a message (IM) to 2020Vision Obviate (Real Name - Ashima Saigal) or email her at saigalas@gvsu.edu if you have any questions. Come ask your questions and they will do their best to help you to grow your organization's mission.

You can teleport directly to come join the session.

Avatars representing survivors, caregivers, their families and the millions of passionate supporters engaged in fighting cancer worldwide will take center stage virtually, July 19-20, when the American Cancer Society conducts its fourth annual Relay For Life® event in the Second Life virtual world. The 2008 Relay in Second Life will celebrate the “heroes” who epitomize the Society’s global mission and who represent this summer’s virtual world event theme.

UPDATE: SL is back up. I was able to get in about 9:10. If you missed the NPC meeting, never fear, you can catch transcript to be posted here

As I'm sure some of you have encountered already today, Second Life is currently down for emergency maintenance. It's currently not allowing anyone to log in. Per their grid status page:

"We have to close logins for a while to enable the database to process the overflow from earlier. The landstore is not accessible for the moment as well."

Highlights:

Don't miss Dancing in the Streets--well, virtual dancing, that is-- on the streets of NPC2 this Sat. May 17th from from 2-6 pm SLT/PDT.

New Nonprofit Commons resident, Ophoenix will be having an in-world dance party/fundraiser in conjunction with their real life fundraising event. Come and enjoy music avatar DJ Namov Abramovic, dancing, and tours of the second Nonprofit Commons location, NPC2.

Courtesy of Bernhard Drax, we now have a wonderful new Nonprofit Commons Video. Draxtor did a fantastic job putting this together. If you like what you see, be sure to check out more of our Nonprofits and Second Life videos and Draxtor's weekly Life4U show "The Drax Files".

Tomorrow, April 28th at 11 A.M. PST/SL, Robert Bloomfield and Metanomics hosts Susan Tenby (aka Glitteractica Cookie) of TechSoup, and the American Cancer Society's Randal Moss, Director of the Futuring and Innovation Center.

Three ways to be a hero.
One event to launch them.

The Second Life Event April 26th will celebrate the launch of:

Windows Server 2008

Visual Studio 2008

SQL Server 2008

Register in Second Life to ensure you have a seat or visit the Face Book Event Page.