Wagner James Au / New World Notes

After a month-long fundraiser in Second Life rapidly put together by dozens of contributors and volunteers during the first Black Lives Matter protests in real life, the organizers of SL's Stand for Justice have converted all the donations and purchases made by the community in Linden Dollars into US dollars, and have donated them to Black Lives Matter and several other select groups — from the site: 

Having raised a total of $11,159.64 after processing fees, we have now made donations to 4 of the 5 charities as shown in the screenshots above. Black Visions Collective are now no longer accepting donations…As a result, we sent out a poll to the Stand For Justice group in-world asking them to choose between several options as to what we should do with the remaining funds. It is as a result of this poll that the remaining funds were donated to the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform.

To insure transparency and trust, screen captures of all the cash donations and the Linden Dollar cash-out processes are displayed on the Stand for Justice site. Since then, the site has also expanded to become a great resource for Black Lives Matter-related links, both for real life and the virtual world — including this list of Black-owned Second Life brands.

Huge credit goes to organizers Barb and Jack (aka OMGWTF Barbecue and Jack Nimble in SL), who've worked tirelessly in the background to make such a massive fundraiser succeed on such short notice. And I do mean "background":

From the start, Barb and Jack have insisted on keeping the focus on the fundraiser's mission and the Black people it's meant to benefit, and not them. But that won't stop me from thanking them!