Good Karma Effect receives$10,000 donation from Nelson Alexander
A Facebook network dedicated to spreading good karma is set to receive its first donation since becoming a charity — but online trolls are forcing it to give up a chunk of the $10,000 gift.
North West
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An online network dedicated to spreading good karma is having to shell out cash to pay for mental health training for its administrators to deal with online trolls.
The creator of the popular Good Karma Network Facebook pages, Amy Churchouse, registered the overarching group The Good Karma Effect as a charity in December, to “support more communities and empower more people”.
Good Karma Network Facebook pages are groups for neighbours to help each other and to bring communities together, with strict rules about keeping the networks positive.
The charity is about to receive its first donation from Nelson Alexander Real Estate in Flemington.
Real estate partner Paul Harrison said between $10,000 and $12,000 would be donated to the Good Karma Effect from the agency’s annual Foundation Day Auction.
Ms Churchouse said she would use some of the money to support the mental health of the volunteer Facebook group administrators.
She said although the administrators were “passionate volunteers”, they needed mental health support for the rude, and often abusive comments they had to filter from the pages everyday.
“The online space is not safe. People are open to everything and there’s no consequences for that. These volunteers don’t have any support and it makes it hard for them to know what to do,” Ms Churchouse said.
Mr Harrison said he wanted the donation to go towards helping the local community outside of the Facebook pages.
“There are things they are doing such as One Good Street where people volunteer to sit with the elderly, Kensington Backyards Session where they promote local bands in the area, and the Kensington Compost Initiative that promotes recycling and composting,” he said.
“This will enable us to have an impact on a number of initiatives in the community all at once.”
Ms Churchouse and Mr Harrison had both copped a slew of online abuse since the donation was announced on Facebook.
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Ms Churchouse had been called a “sociopath”, a “lunatic” and a “psycho” and Mr Harrison had received personal messages questioning the choice of donating to the Good Karma Effect, which they viewed as just a Facebook page.
But he said people could rest assured the allocation of the money would be put to good use helping others.
“Amy is a very, very proactive individual who wants to make a difference,” he said.
Mr Harrison said he had known two people who had committed suicide and wanted to support a local initiative that could tackle the rampant problem of online bullying.
“I think we’ve seen the best and worst of social media at play here over the last week,” he said.
“I can see clearly how it can lead to something more serious.”
Mr Harrison said he would consider the funds going towards mental health programs for Facebook administrators if it would have a positive impact on the wider community.
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