NPSL: Nonprofits in Second Life

Do you consider yourself a modern-day Columbo and LOVE searching for clues? Then please join us for NPC's Scavenger Hunt! The hunt begins on August 22 @ 7PM SLT and continues through August 24 @ 8PM SLT. This is an awesome opportunity to become more aware of what Nonprofit Commons and its wonderful organizations are all about. And, c'mon, who doesn't love an excellent hunt for goodies?

The opening ceremonies begin at the Nonprofit Commons 2 Aloft @ 7PM SLT with a fabulous performance by Vincent Merricks. Don't be left out! Come by and grab your clues!

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.

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."

As many of you know SL is about to turn 5 years old... Yup, a whole handful! This is a great opportunity to bring some attention to the work your nonprofit is doing in SL and RL.

As Linden Labs announced yesterday the party will be a two week event with the second week featuring exhibits from “business, education, health care and nonprofits”. Not only that but as they stated in their blog on Tuesday, June 3rd,

“We’ll close with a ceremony including a special guest speaker
with a very important announcement. “

The suspense is killing me!

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".

Memorable things often happen without planning. Like on March 24 Ludwig van Beethoven died at the age of 56 in Vienna, Austria. Oh yeah, that was in 1827. Something else momentous happened this past Monday, March 24 ... and it was LIFE! It was life at NonProfit Commons Aloft. We had a party.

Dear Friends of Great Strides (a Nonprofit Commons tenant on Aloft Island),

Katie, a 5 year old Gypsy Vanner who lives at our farm and works with clients, sustained a rather severe leg injury this week. While we are pleased to report that she is recovering from her surgery, she will require several weeks of hospital care, followed by an extensive recovery period back home.

Yesterday Glitter, Jessika, Ine Kenzo, and Beth Kavka were all presenting in-world for the California Association of Nonprofits conference. As a last minute idea, I decided to join the conference in-world as an audience member. Glitteractica Cookie sat across from in the real world as her avatar fielded questions and answers from the presentation.

About the Nonprofits in Second Life (NPSL) Community
The Nonprofit Commons project, managed by TechSoup, is a virtual community of practice for nonprofits to explore the opportunities and benefits of Second Life. Nonprofit Commons (NPC) currently consists of two virtual locations (sims) housing over 65 social benefit organizations, managed by a community of volunteers, under the leadership of TechSoup.