Riot Games Will Donate $1 Million Towards Fighting Systemic Racism

League of Legends creator Riot Games announced this week its intentions to donate $1 million [...]

By Tanner Dedmon

League of Legends creator Riot Games announced this week its intentions to donate $1 million towards organizations working against racial injustice and systemic racism. Those donations will start with contributions towards The Innocence Project and the American Civil Liberties Union, though it wasn't said how much would be donated to those two organizations. The intent to donate makes Riot Games the latest of many major gaming companies that have spoken up and taken again against systemic racism following the death of George Floyd and others in the Black communities. Riot Games also said it'd be deploying $10 million to investments and startups focused on underrepresented people in the games industry.

Riot announced its intent to donate towards the above organizations and others via social media on Friday. A more comprehensive statement about the plans beyond donating towards the cause was shared by Riot Games president Dylan Jadeja on the company's site.

"The murder of yet another unarmed black man has ignited a national outcry for justice, not only for George Floyd, but countless others in the black community who are dying at the hands of a system that they are supposed to be able to trust," Riot Games' announcement said. "Systemic racism is not a new issue, but we must acknowledge that complacency has contributed to slower progress than is needed to drive lasting change. Like many other companies with the ability and responsibility to accelerate progress, and to make it a reality, we have a part to play and it is on us to do more."

The donations will be made through Riot's Social Impact Fund, and donations from employees will also be matched up to $1,000. A partnership with Florida A&M University to support software engineers, a scholarship launched through the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund, and continued support of educational programs like Girls Who Code are also part of the plans.

Addressing the topic of why the donations and actions on Riot's part are happening now as opposed to other times, the statement said the recent events challenged Riot to look at what it was doing and if it was doing enough. Riot said "we know we can and must do more" and said its commitment will "continue well beyond when the media coverage slows and protests stop."

The new statements from Riot followed the message above shared earlier in the week where Riot initially announced its plans to donate more through the Social Impact Fund.

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