Italy: real fundraising in the virtual world

The most original and charitable Christmas present this year? A ?pixel-ed? yak that can be found grazing on Second Life. Save the Children, short of real life yaks to give to poor Tibetan families, has started selling pixel-ed versions of these four legged animals in the virtual 3D Internet universe created in 2003 by an American company called Linden Lab. Yes, that?s right – real, virtual, fundraising animals. Is it really possible?

Save the Children?s spokes person, Rosie Jordan, swears it is. ?Second Life is an unexplored fundraising frontier and one that is very promising. It has an internal turnover of 64 million dollars and its public is made up of potential clients that are hard to reach in the real world: nearly 2 million users with an average age of 32, for the most part technology experts with a strong community spirit, live in this virtual universe built on the web. The American third sector has aimed fundraising at this target for a long time by developing Internet marches and fundraising campaigns.?
Until now, however, no not for profit organisation had ever tried selling anything on Second Life. Here shopping is paid for in Linden Dollars, a local currency that can be converted to U.S dollars according to a fluctuating, but relatively stable, exchange rate: 250 Linden dollars for each green bill.

Vita: How much does a pixel yak cost and how is this virtual sale transformed into real charity?
Rosie Jordan: Each animal is sold for one thousand Linden dollars. The money donated is converted into American dollars through the Lindex Currency Exchange, which can be consulted on the Second Life website, and then deposited on Save the Children?s bank account. Save the Children then transfers it to Tibet. The exchange rate changes daily. On the 5th of December, the first day we started selling online, one yak cost 3,5 U.S dollars.

Vita: What do Second Life buyers do with your yaks?
Jordan: The success of the virtual world lies entirely in its creativity. Once you have bought a yak for charity, you can give it away to another member of the virtual community, you can milk it, ride it or use its wool to make yourself a virtual jumper. What is more: each yak can be personalized up to the point that it can be made to speak to its buyer.

Vita: These yaks were the strong point of your Christmas catalogne this year. How many animals have you sold?
Jordan: 130, that is all we had in stock. That is why we have now made the decision to open a Yak shack on Second Life, where the herd is potentially infinite in size. According to Linden Lab in the month of September alone commercial exchanges on Second Life have generated sales transactions of 3.596.674 U.S dollars. Soon we will know whether virtual users are charitable too.

Vita: As well as fundraising, some of the American charities that have opened a ?branch? on Second Life have asked their members to volunteer. What do you think? Why should someone choose to give their time in the virtual rather than the real world?
Jordan: Second Life residents are a new public for Save the Children. We are the first charity to have ever sold anything: if the results are positive then we will continue to do so. The same goes for other forms of virtual charity ? from marches to volunteering ? that are still to be explored.