I am behind one of the several projects entered utilizing virtual reality, and I'm feeling compelled to draw some attention to those that are using virtual worlds to engage in creative nonprofit efforts. With the arrival of Second Life a few years ago, virtual reality (VR) has finally gotten a foothold as a technology for not only social networking and gaming, but also training, meetings, marketing, and yes, even nonprofit activities like education, outreach, activism, and fundraising.

I am getting ready for the Virtual World Community and philanthropy session I am co-hosting with Robin Harper of Linden Lab.  We both have been hard at work trying to get the whole of the virtual philanthropy explosion condensed into a great presentation.We are going to focus on answering a lot of questions.  Why should we invest in this community?  Why does virtual community matter?  Is it really possible to have philanthropic activity in a virtual community?  We  I am not going to spoil the answers for anyone ... you will have to come to the session to find out.

 I will however make a few general statements.  Virtual worlds are huge, population wise some are as large as major metropolitan areas of the USA.  The technology continues to be more immersive, and the advent of transferable currency has made it a viable venue for fundraising.  Considering these two factors alone virtual worlds are becoming a very viable place to hold philanthropy fundraisers as well as educational arenas for education.