Fund raisers/benefits

[Shawnee McLaglen]

I would like to know if you can hold fund raisers or benefits here to help a cancer patient? I do not have any land, shop or club. Can I place a classified asking if anyone has a place that can be used to hold a benefit?

[Rolig Loon]

You could certainly do that.  Be prepared for some level of skepticism from other SL residents, though. One of the features that makes SL attractive to many people is anonymity -- the fact that we rarely know each other outside of SL, or know only as much as we are willing to share with each other.  One down side is that it can be easy to weave stories about ourselves that are not entirely true and that cannot be verified easily. You will find that many people are at least cautious about contributing to a fund raiser or benefit because they cannot be sure who they are contributing to or how the funds will be used.  This is not a way of saying that you shouldn't go ahead with your plan.  Just be as open and honest as you can, beginning with people who already know you and have a history of trust with you. Perhaps one of them can help you find a venue and with the planning.

[Lindal Kidd]

Rolig's done a good job of pointing out some of the difficulties.  One more, though...$L are not worth much, in real life terms.  SL does have some official fundraising events.  The annual Relay for Life is perhaps the largest and best known.  But even a grid-wide event like this takes a huge amount of effort and time to raise a significant amount of donations, because they are collecting it a few pennies at a time, in real life terms.

You may be better off using a different system, such as youcaring.com or gofundme.com.

[Shawnee McLaglen]

Thank-you both for your info. I have started things in real life and it is hard to get people to respond. Just hoping the right people will see what I'm trying to do and offer help.