Second Life Relay for Life - A new way to raise money for charity

What is the true benefit of a charity walk or run? To raise money for a cause through donations. What the participants do to earn the money is, honestly, secondary. For example, if I enlisted donors to pay $1000 for every hour I hang out in my apartment watching television, and I found enough people to sponsor me, people would only remember the thousands of dollars raised – that I earned it viewing everything on my NetFlix list in my jammies wouldn’t really matter.

I don’t say this to belittle the achievements of runners or rain on people who join charity walk-a-thons. I only want to set up the concept of a charity run that isn’t really a run.

The 2009 Relay For Life on Second Life is a new twist on the charity walk/run concept. Here a trail has been created through one of the world’s of Second Life. Users get the same sponsors for donations for a charity, but instead of walking or running in the real world, they move through a virtual world with their avatar. The course is rather interesting, and gives people a view of several sites (or rather, sights,) in and around the Second Life land the race takes place in.

Is anyone breaking out in a sweat or getting any exercise? No. What they have done is raise $70,000 for the American Cancer Society. 

Second Life had a massive jump in media buzz – followed by a massive drop in it soon after – in 2007. Marketers were very interested in SL during this time, if indeed this is where everyone was going to be. It didn’t take long to realize that it would take something very special to make marketing on SL work, as there were – and are – so very few success stories surrounding it.

I do think the example left by the Relay for Life, though, gives us a hint as to what works. Namely, the benefit is in providing something to do on SL. For the uninitiated, Second Life lets you design or buy clothes, build a house, get a job, talk with others… but if you just want to have some quick fun, it’s a little tough. (Sure you can fly like Superman, but believe it or not that gets boring quick.) 

Charity events like these give people a reason to congregate, socialize, and essentially have fun on SL. These charity events aren’t limited to runs, after all – they also hold dances, music concerts, auctions… all the same kinds of charity events you’d see in the real world.

It’s good to see people have found a way to use a social network (sorry haters, but SL is still, in it’s own way, social networking,) to benefit a charity. It’s also good to see that someone has found a new and interesting way to make a social site more sociable.

I think the only drawback here is going to be giving people an additional reason not to leave the house or exercise, but I’ll fly over that bridge when I come to it.

About the Author: Eric Reid

I am the Social Media Services Manager for Off Madison Ave. I've been with the company since 2006, when I was hired to do SEO, and link building in particular. When social networking sites started cropping up, at first I started using them to create backlinks - but they weren't the best for that, given all of the "nofollow" attributes. However, I did see the potential for all of the direct referral traffic they represent. Since then I've been actively pursuing both tactics for clients: Links that can help them for search, and social postings that get them involved in the conversation. It's about the coolest job you could ever get. ;)

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