Riot Games will donate $1 million to support racial equality
It's making initial donations to The Innocence Project and ACLU.
Riot Games President Dylan Jadeja has published a letter revealing how the company intends to help combat racism and injustice. In it, Jadeja has announced that the developer is committing $1 million on efforts focusing on areas that the company believes “require attention and in which [it] can have an impact.” Those include areas include justice reform, investing in minority-owned businesses, creating opportunities for minorities in the industry, continued education and addressing bias and discrimination in the workforce.
To start with, Riot Games will make an initial contribution to The Innocence Project and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Both organizations have been vocal in the fight against police violence following the death of George Floyd. The developer will also match up to $1,000 per employee’s qualifying donations to these two and other organizations.
“We took time this week to look inward and to be thoughtful and deliberate in how Riot can truly help combat racism and injustice. After all, true change starts at home. We have had a long standing commitment to combating this within our games, but we realized that is not enough,” Jadeja wrote in his letter. Riot Games, like many other developers, has to grapple with online games’ notoriously toxic environments, which are usually rife with racism, misogyny and homophobia.
It’s also not the only gaming company that’s donating to causes that support racial equality. Electronic Arts also recently announced that it’s donating $1 million to “organizations dedicated to the fight for racial justice in the US and against discrimination around the world.” Humble also announced a $1 million fund dedicated to helping publish games by black developers.
