Phaylen Fairchild Productions : The Integrity of Cyber-Charities

Virtual Worlds are fast becoming a hotbed for Charity organizations who want to reach a global audience and raise awareness for their various causes and interests. With the incorporation of currency conversions from fake to real, some of them are finding that maintaining a presence or holding fundraisers virtually can bring in some much needed extra tax free dollars to aid their efforts. With an increase in the visibility of Virtual World Charities, it was inevitable that we would see a rise in the abundance of charities that are not entirely what they seem, nor do they intend to do what they claim. In a world where an authentication process is non-existent, we as residents are left to do our own homework before donating, and that’s not always easy because even some truly legitimate organizations aren’t completely transparent about their ties to Second Life from the real world, and vice-versa. An exception to this is The American cancer Society who has harnessed the good-will and giving power of virtual volunteers and donors annually to support their efforts - not only do they maintain a presence in SL, but their Official website also prominently features those virtual efforts and reports on them! Their Relay For Life event is probably one of the most reputed in any virtual medium.

On the flipside of the coin there has been an influx of events that promise to benefit a vast array of charities or people in need over the past few years. In the past several months I can recall being invited to three events that had been put together to help a resident who was homeless/sick and another, believe it or not, intended to support a girl whose computer had blown up and she needed another. One amazing things about Second Life is the desire so many people have to perform good deeds, and in that vein we have one of the most beautiful communities found anywhere. That inherent trait also makes us easily manipulated - not because we’re stupid or gullible - but because we deal in an anonymous world with anonymous people and therefore we have no choice but to trust within that context. That is the reality of our Second Lives. Many of us have never met our best friends, our partners, our colleagues ect. in the flesh. It does not mean our feelings for them are any less valid or important as they would be if we had physical contact or a visual, fleshy representation of them rather than just an avatar form. When someone indicates they are in need, our reaction, typically, is not any different either. This is where, unfortunately, predators can see our vulnerability.

Of course, you can imagine how people might react if, say, we asked for some real details on the individual or organization our donations were supporting, if only for some insurance that it’s truly a valid organization/authorized representative or individual in need. I’m sure we’d be called cold, possibly deemed paranoid. Skepticism in this field isn’t really politically correct when So-and-So has a child with an inoperable brain tumor who wants to see Disney Land before the unthinkable happens. How dare you or me question the awful reality these people have to live! It throws off your moral compass, it preys on your conscience if you allow the most remote question enter your mind. Sadly, it’s what a lot of predators rely on.

One very popular club in Second Life recently threw a fundraiser for an individual who needed a car to get to work in real life. Sounds good enough, but I’m going to do something many may find inexcusable and just throw it out there for consideration. What if that wasn’t the case at all? What if a person’s *insert need here* doesn’t really warrant a fundraiser but instead just requires them to get off their ass, get off Second Life and find a job. What if they just can’t afford a plane ticket to go meet their SL lover on the other side of the world? What truly makes that individual’s trials any different from the life issues that you or I might face at any given time, yet we don’t run into our Virtual world and prey upon the sympathies of others with a sob story. Certainly not an every case scenario, but it happens… it’s happening now and it will happen again and again. Virtual worlds with an endless reach into the community and thereby the pockets of well intending residents are a breeding ground for con artists, and their numbers are increasing at an alarming rate, especially around the Holidays.

It is challenging for anyone to ask for proof or some type of authenticity of a Charity or individual in need because it seemingly suggests we are of a cynical type. None of us want to come off as Cruella DeVilles. We want to believe in the honesty and integrity of others even if we’ve never met them. We want to believe nobody in their right mind would misrepresent their interests in order to procure monies from people for personal gain. Nobody is that cruel and malicious, right? But, I ask you this, where would be a better place to get away with it? Especially when nobody can overcome their own moral inhibition enough to ask who they are, or to ask them to qualify their intended use of funds raised without raising some hairs themselves.

It is our responsibility as netizens to self police, even in difficult circumstances such as this, without fear or discomfort. If someone in a Yahoo! Chat room said they were raising money for Autism Awareness, would you throw a few bucks into their paypal without knowing:

1. Who there are beyond a screen-name
2. How they are associated with the Official Organization
3. Investigating whether the Organization has publicly acknowledged the virtual effort. That relationship should be made visible on the benefactors website with an article/post, a link, or something that makes their affiliation with a virtual Avatar or effort indisputable.
4. Qualified the claims of intended use of funds.
5. That some authorized relationship exists OUTSIDE the virtual entity - Someone expecting the funds/Someone delivering the funds. For example, a board member of the organization who has authorized an external fundraiser or has a Real Life volunteer in-world moderating the events and the cashflow.

You have a RIGHT to be confident in where your money is going and how it us used when someone solicits you. You also have a RESPONSIBILITY to make sure that such a solicitation is completely valid and not some elaborate scheme disguised as a fundraiser. There are several big fundraisers out there that happen annually which seem to have no traceable association with the organizations they claim to benefit - and they are raising thousands and thousand of US dollars. While they may openly declare how much was raised, where is the final posting that shows the check being handed over, or a posting on the official website giving a “Thank you to Second Life” as American Cancer Society does.

Linden Lab does not have the resources to ensure the validity of every single Organization, so it is up to the users of the platform to do their due diligence and become aware of the risks involved when supporting any Organization or Individual who is anonymous. We live in a world where anyone can be anything, and we’ve all seen people we believed were really, really good do some really, really bad things. The margin here for fraud is so incredibly great that more people should be concerned, they should be cautious without guilt, and they should not be afraid to ask questions.

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