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SL Merchant Philanthropy Need Improving?


casey Crisp
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I was wandering around the Spoonful of Sugar event which raises money for the very worthwhile "Doctors without Borders" program.  It struck me that, as I read over the list of  over 150 merchant participants, that there were few (if any) of the big stores in the mesh body/mesh head/skin categories.

These are shops that people are spending a good bit of money in.  I hope that the owners are finding ways to use some of their profits to give back to the global community that I don't know about.  If they aren't, then shame on them for being so selfish when other smaller shops that don't make as much do!

Personally, I would like to see the shops that ARE charitible make a good faith statement of policy (on their blogs/store fronts/marketplace listing) that they give some percent of their revenues to charitiable groups (either in sl or rl).  I would certainly prefer to support a 'good corporate citizen' with my purchases over one that does't give back.

Just think of the increased funds for all the needy causes in the world if everyone who shopped in SL brought their purchasing power to bear on the donation practices of designers' shops!

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Personally, my charitable donations are done in RL and not SL. I'd rather give directly to the charity than having even as little as 5% go toward processing the donation. The only situations where I will shop with the express idea of the money going toward a cause is one directly organized to benefit an SL resident in need.

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There's no way that I can agree with what you wrote (the OP). It's nobody's business whether or not individuals donate to charities, and there's absolutely no reason for anyone to advertise that they do. You're not exactly barking up the wrong with your idea. You're not even looking at a tree.

Why on earth would any business advertise that they donate to charitable groups? It's a ludicrous idea. Next you'll be wanting us all to put stickers on our RL doors, saying "I donate to charities".

Edited by Phil Deakins
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It maybe the businesses you are singling out were not invited or chosen to participate in the event.
I don't think it's anyone's business but the store owners what they do with the L$ they make, last thing you should do is judge someone over whether or not they make charitable donations in SL (with an unknown percentage of the donation being creamed off by the account the L$ goes to) you don't know what's going on behind the avatar. I have no problem people wanting to give L$ to charity it's their choice i prefer to make my donations in RL to causes and charities i want to support

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Charities are something far better done in real life with real money and not inside a game with fractions of a micro-transaction and huge overheads eating that away.

Individuals and many businesses, especially the largest, will already use donations to reduce their tax liability. But if they do or don't doesn't matter, I believe it is *wrong* to demand others give. That's not what charity is.

Charity means you need to put your own money where your mouth is, not demand others do. And not just a piddly percentage on your L$100 micro-transaction. A proper tithe or at least a very generous donation, in real life, to a charity that matters to you.

Supporting Médecins Sans Frontières in SL might seem noble, but the money they will get from this is small change, a few pennies from each person, and worse, some people end up thinking that by spending L$1000 they are doing great good and totally absolve themselves from a decent donation in real life. Send Médecins Sans Frontières a large and meaningful donation in real life instead, the money will not be eaten up and the organisation will be able to do far more.

I'd rather all this inside SL charity stopped, people shouldn't get warm and fuzzy for a few cents.

 

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41 minutes ago, sweetlilcasey said:

 Just think of the increased funds for all the needy causes in the world if everyone who shopped in SL brought their purchasing power to bear on the donation practices of designers' shops!

Whether or not some SL business donates to charities, either inworld or in RL, would make absolutely no difference to my shopping habits in SL, and based on my interactions with other folks in SL over the last decade or so, I highly doubt it would impact too many other people's shopping habits in SL either.

 

41 minutes ago, sweetlilcasey said:

 

 Personally, I would like to see the shops that ARE charitible make a good faith statement of policy (on their blogs/store fronts/marketplace listing) that they give some percent of their revenues to charitiable groups (either in sl or rl).  I would certainly prefer to support a 'good corporate citizen' with my purchases over one that does't give back.
 

 

Like Blush, I prefer to do all of my charitable donations in RL directly to charities that I believe in, eliminating any middle-man and thus any cut of the money that they take for "processing fees".  However, I would not advertise in SL who I donate to, how much I donate, or anything else related to my donations, because that is not anyone's business here.  Thus I would not expect any person or business here to disclose such info.

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I'm sorry sweetlilcasey because I think you mean well, but what you're advocating, basically a 'selfish business red letter' ,...well I have no words to describe how annoyed this makes me.
Dr's Without Borders is a great cause, and I love to see the Relay For Life participans inspired to do something good in life (they were so nice to me not long ago regarding a family members cancer diagnoses). And I feel kindly toward them despite my thinking Relay For Life should be renamed "Relay For Monsanto", or Big Pharma, and so prefer to donate to organizations researching what CAUSES cancer rather than some synthetic fix by Big Pharma.

But you are taking too much control here by suggesting we consider not shopping at places who don't donate. I don't want someone deciding not to shop at my store because they assume I'm selfish, when I'm sending my donations this year to homeless veterans for a Xmas dinner, and to the Saint Joseph Indian School.
Yes, we need less commercialism in SL and life in general, but it shouldn't be forced or determined by you with some kind of silly 'good business list'.

When you advocate for the disadvantaged in this way you are doing damage. It causes people to mistrust those who want to help disadvantaged groups when you take too much control and advocate punishing tactics.

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I am not sure how many donate because they like to and how many just write the donations off as "advertising expenses". Most shops in those events only have some vendours with total or even just partial donations and many vendours that just go 100% to merchant. I would not neccesarily attest participating merchants "philanthropy". Sorry, I'm way to cynic for that ;).

 

Edited by Fionalein
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I believe that it's up to the individual merchants to decide whether they want to participate in charitable events in SL or not, and it's not up to others to judge them on that.  

In terms of which creators participate in various events - it doesn't bother me that "the big" mesh body/mesh head/skin creators don't participate in a particular charity event.  Part of the reason I attend various events is to perhaps discover other creators that I would not have normally come across.   

I prefer to do charitable donations in RL rather than SL, but I don't think there is any harm in having events in SL, and if nothing else, it may help educate someone about the particular cause (and perhaps lead to someone making a RL donation as well).

 

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9 hours ago, Phil Deakins said:

There's no way that I can agree with what you wrote (the OP). It's nobody's business whether or not individuals donate to charities, and there's absolutely no reason for anyone to advertise that they do. You're not exactly barking up the wrong with your idea. You're not even looking at a tree.

Why on earth would any business advertise that they donate to charitable groups? It's a ludicrous idea. Next you'll be wanting us all to put stickers on our RL doors, saying "I donate to charities".

I smell a debate!

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On 9/25/2018 at 1:36 AM, sweetlilcasey said:

Personally, I would like to see the shops that ARE charitible make a good faith statement of policy (on their blogs/store fronts/marketplace listing) that they give some percent of their revenues to charitiable groups (either in sl or rl).  I would certainly prefer to support a 'good corporate citizen' with my purchases over one that does't give back.

7

I am not sure how new you are to SL but a little something you may not have experienced, if all stores were to put what charity they support there would be dozens of people asking why not this one, why that one, they do not like that one, why not this one. Then there would be the other dozen that would say that this one time at charity camp, they had a run in with that charities trombonist and they were rude, and so they don't like that charity now. Then there would be the countries they are from are not the same and so they feel they should not have to donate by shopping to a country that is not their own...many of these things have actually been said over the years in similar cases, so it would not have the outcome you propose.

Philanthropy is awesome, and it happens a lot more than you seem to have witnessed in Second Life. We have as a community contributed at the drop of a hat to some of the biggest world disasters in minutes of the news going live in the past 12 years I have been here and earlier than that I am sure. Then there are the annuals, the fundraisers to support individuals and so on, and those people that you think should be fronting up to this one event you mention, have done so for years now, in other events, been part of,  sponsored, organised and supported many many over the years, they have also helped individuals in need because they cared about them. They are also very often big givers in RL, they care about their SL community and often are the same about their RL ones. They also do things like visit the events, shop them drop money in the donation kiosks and so on, just because you do not see it, does not make it not so.

This kind of post really sort of marks people with a label they are very much not deserving of. Maybe spend some time looking at who provides the land, is part of committees, is friends with organisers and the like, because you may find they do more than you are realising.

I also do not think anyone should be made to feel less than because they do not donate to a charity or fundraiser, some people need the money they earn, all of it, to pay medical bills, to support their families, to support extended families etc, and they will also probably be the person that gives someone on the bus their seat, helps someone cross the road, watches out for an elderly neighbour, makes sure the latchkey kid next door is safely home without being asked to, always shares their lunch with a co-worker who never seems to have enough, or brings an extra treat for the homeless persons dog that is near his/her bus stop...there are many ways to be a good person, and throwing money at something does not always make that so.

 

sorry got a bit rambly but I am too old here now, I know everyone mentioned without mentioning them has done more than their part over the years.

Edited by Sasy Scarborough
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On 9/25/2018 at 3:37 AM, Love Zhaoying said:

Someone merely needs to ask those creators to participate. Did you ask them to?

I doubt they will say "yes". How many so called "event exclusives" do you think a meshbody producer can bring forth every year?

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