NPSL: Nonprofits in Second Life

via the Mind Blizzard blog There's again news from the Dutch NGO front:
Yesterday saw the opening of a Dutch NGO island, called "Goede Doelen eiland" (good causes island). The island is a presentation of the Dutch Red Cross and the Dutch Fund for Disability Sports. The island is sponsored by Dutch bankers ABN Amro and the Free University of Amsterdam (VUA) and was build by students of the VUA.

On June 22, MacArthur Foundation President Jonathan Fanton and Linden Lab CEO Philip Rosedale (a.k.a. Philip Linden) had an historic conversation about how virtual worlds could revolutionize philanthropy. At the event, Fanton also announced that the foundation would begin a year-long investigation into virtual worlds, including making some in-world grants through the USC Annenberg Center on Public Diplomacy.

The MacArthur Foundation blog has recently posted the complete event documentation, including pointers to articles and blog posts, podcasts, and videos.

Jackson Soderstrom
Dan Michel
http://www.secondharvest.org
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendi...

Goal for Second Life:
Increase awareness of hunger in America and our org, raise money and build a community both in RL and SL for the issue

Benefits to Organization

An Invitation to Participate. Survey: Engagement of Second Life by Educational Institutions

All educational professionals currently using Second Life are invited to participate in a survey: Engagement of Second Life by Educational Institutions. The purpose of the survey is to identify and describe the extent to which educational organizations are engaging Second Life at an institutional level.

Back in December after Clay Shirky's piece on Second Life, Stan who writes the PacificRim Exchange Blog took out his "I'm Sticking With DOS" buttons from the attic to make some points -- maybe something about keeping an eye on the future horizon.

I wanted to highlight a couple of observations that Lucy Bernholz makes in her analysis of yesterday's discussion about philanthropy in Second Life by the MacArthur Foundation.   She points out why this was such a groundbreaking event and suggests a compelling new metaphor for philanthropy:

I just came from an historic and ground breaking event.  I don't know if I'm still shaking from the excitement or the hour long multi-tasking frenzy of listening to a live audio feed, seeing a blog.tv stream, reading a chat history, answering ims, and taking notes!

Xin Revolution
Michael Langford
CARE
www.care.org/

Why is your organization in Second Life?

We're exporing the use of Second Life as part of our larger strategy for social networking and community building

What would you recommend that npos in sl check out?
Other non-profits should check out, obvioulsy, the non profit commons space, but also The Bay and Better World Island and Ubuntu. Also Angela Eclipse's Take Action! shop

What advice to get started?

MacArthur Foundation President Jonathan Fanton

On June 22nd at 9:00 AM PST,  Jonathan's avatar along with Second Life CEO Philip Rosedale  will lead a discussion with residents on the role of philanthropy in virtual worlds.

Who's Who in Virtual Worlds! Find expertise, share expertise, meet others who are interested and working in virtual worlds, share ideas, make friends! This is a social network for colleagues working in a variety of virtual worlds to meet others and share experiences. Invite your friends and colleagues. Check it out.