A case study on marketing activities of nonprofit organizations in virtual world: Second Life - Live and Learn in Kenya "Feed a smile example"

The development of the digital and virtual world, i.e. Second Life, continues to support all types of organizations for new market opportunities. Given the complexity of the nonprofit marketplace and the existence of many organizations competing for a limited pool of support, virtual worlds become more crucial for nonprofit organizations. The effective nonprofit organizations found ways to expand its presence with the support provided by virtual worlds. The purpose of this study is to determine how and to what extent new digital platforms like virtual world is used by nonprofit organizations for marketing activities. A popular and economically thriving virtual world "Second Life" was selected for the research, and "Live and Learn in Kenya" was selected as a case study to focus on. The case study was conducted by using in-depth interview research technique. Findings suggest that virtual world, i.e. Second Life, provides new funding opportunities and competitive advantage to nonprofits and it will become increasingly important to the activities of marketing in the future.