Making a profit from charity Linden Research style
Linden Lab are once again asking the content creators in second life to give their time and creativity to support their Public Relations marketing and bottom line. The majority of which have just been told they’re to pay more for the same substandard marketing/sales service offered by XstreetSL.
Kiva is a very worthwhile cause. Microfinance in the developing world has been proven time and time again to be an extremely positive benefit to those who use it. Here’s a bit of reading to give you an idea of how it works and the benefits.
However:
Are Linden Lab going to match the money raised from the efforts of their creators? No
Are Linden Lab going to waive the fee they’ll charge to transfer the money raised out of Second Life and into the real world where it will be used? No.
So, Kiva won’t get the full amount donated and Linden Research gets lots of good publicity and makes some money. Clever huh?
You can support the work of Kiva directly – right down to chosing the type of microbusiness you wish to invest in.
Do that instead.
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eloheliot
At best, it feels like Linden Lab just didn’t invest much time or effort—other than simple promotion—of the event, and at worst it makes the Lab’s motives for doing this very duplicitous: e.g., http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2660/4117857191_1bbce842eb.jpg
Disbelief
Sometime I wonder if it’s just their business culture where they aren’t encouraged to think very deeply.
Most times though I just think it’s because they don’t care how it looks to us as most of this isn’t aimed at us, it’s aimed at improving their reputation with outsiders. It’s reasonable, most people just uncritically accept everything LL says – both inside and outside of SL.
You’ll see I hijacked your pic and put it in the post. unfortunately they don’t show up in comments and it really is too good not to share. 🙂