I often get asked "How do you find out what non-profits are active in Second Life?" There is an enormous variety of non-profit, socially conscious, humanitarian and activist actions going on every day, but they are not always easy to find. Given the wide range of activities, there is not one definitive list of non-profits available as far as I know. That's how big Second Life is.
Here are some suggestions of where to start though:
- Get the TechSoup Non-profit HUD (Heads Up Display): Put on this handy in-world device and you can do your own self-guided tour of the dozens of non-profits that have provided information to TechSoup. This is not comprehensive… yet. But it's definitely a good way to get a snapshot of what's being done out there. You can find it at the TechSoup space on Info Island (teleport SLURL.)
- Use the SL Event Search function: I like the web version, versus the in-world one. The category "Charity/Support Group" is particularly helpful at narrowing the hundreds of events going on each day.
- Join the Eventful Group "SL Non-profit Events": I created a group on the calendar website eventful.com that aggregates non-profit events going on in-world. The advantage of eventful groups is that you can subscribe to it as an RSS feed, and download the events to your own Google or iCal or Outlook calendar.
- Join the SL Non-Profit Email List: This is kind of hard to find on the SL website, but there is a listserv for non-profits active in SL. You can ask questions on the list to others who have year's of experience and tons of non-profit contacts in SL.
I'm sure I've forgotten a few other resources for finding out about non-profits in SL. But these are good places to begin.
Written by: rikomatic