# A busy week for nonprofit brands in Second Life

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2007/08/19/busy-week-nonprofit-brands-second-life/
- Published: 2007-08-19T10:21:57+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

**Last week was particularly busy in terms of the activities of nonprofit organisations
in [Second Life](http://secondlife.com), with [WWF](http://panda.org) unveiling 
its ‘Conservation Island’ plus the formal launch of the [Nonprofit Commons](http://www.nonprofitcommons.org/about)
community – providing free virtual office space and advice for nonprofits wanting
to get started in the virtual world.**

Nonprofit Commons launched on Tuesday, with **[60 people in San Francisco joining over 100 online in Second Life](http://www.netsquared.org/blog/britt-bravo/nonprofit-commons-second-life-launched-last-night)**
at the launch event. Supported by Second Life entrepreneur **[Anshe Chung](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anshe_Chung)**,
Nonprofit Commons offers nonprofits new to Second Life a free parcel of land including
an empty office, which they can then use as a base to trial different activities.

Then on Thursday, WWF formally unveiled its own Second Life presence, **[‘Conservation Island’](http://www.panda.org/news_facts/newsroom/index.cfm?uNewsID=111080)**.**
[When you visit](http://slurl.com/secondlife/WWF/138/199/41)**, you find yourself
at the foot of a waterfall looking out over a short street and an orang-utan in 
an ice-cream van. From there you can visit various displays explaining different
aspects of WWF’s work, from bycatch to climate change.

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It’s great to see WWF addressing global issues using the global medium of Second
Life. However, I’m sad to say that Conservation Island really doesn’t make the most
of Second Life’s interactive potential – and as a result I fear it’s not going to
achieve the level of engagement and education that it could have done. There are
all of the usual things, like links out to the WWF site and free branded avatar 
clothing, but that’s about it. In many cases the animals I spotted around the island
couldn’t be interacted with at all. Overall, it feels rather like a missed opportunity,
which continued development will hopefully help address.

Over recent months Second Life has been receiving quite a lot of negative media 
coverage. Time Magazine went so far as to include Second Life in its **[five worst websites list](http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1638344_1638341_1633628,00.html)**
and Wired got in on the act too, with an **[article](http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/magazine/15-08/ff_sheep)**
about corporate marketers wasting millions trying to establish a brand presence 
in Second Life.

Reports like these are a natural counter-balance to the incredible hype Second Life
has received over the last 6 to 12 months. As a fairly regular visitor I can confirm
that it really doesn’t live-up to the type of PR-spin which has people expecting
a truly lifelike virtual world – but that’s no reason to right it off as completely
pointless.

Set aside the fact that the graphics are not up to the quality of the latest gaming
consoles, that only some 30k of its claimed 8m residents are ever online at the 
same time, and that if more than 70 people visit a single place then the whole thing
grinds to a halt. What we have here is still a fascinating experiment in online 
social networking, enabling people from all around the world to communicate and 
interact with each other in a new and potentially highly creative way.

That said, I’m not advocating that it come first in every organisation’s list of**
[Web 2.0](https://www.fundraising.co.uk/busy-week-nonprofit-brands-second-life)**
marketing plans. I simply believe that it shouldn’t be ruled-out without fair consideration.

Second Life’s potential for good was amply illustrated by last month’s wonderfully
well designed and executed **[Second Life Relay for Life](https://www.fundraising.co.uk/second-life-relay-life-event-set-top-us100000)**,
raising over $110k for the **[American Cancer Society](http://www.cancer.org/docroot/MED/content/MED_2_1x_American_Cancer_Society_Raises_Nearly_115000_during.asp?sitearea=MED)**–
and hopefully the Nonprofit Commons initiative will enable many more good causes
to test new ideas and reach new audiences through this innovative online environment.