30 nonprofit organizations around the world nominated by players will each receive $10,000 grants to continue their work
Riot Games announced today the 30 recipients of their $10,000 community grants as a part of Progress Days inspired by Riot’s new TV series, Arcane League of Legends. Throughout the month of November, Riot is uniting its games and products for a global event called RiotX Arcane to bring together players and fans for the launch of the company’s first television series. As a part of the celebration, Riot is honoring the incredible work that these nonprofits are doing all around the world in hopes of inspiring progress.
Over the summer, Riot invited players from around the world to become a ‘force for good’ and nominate a nonprofit and/or a cause area that was important to them. Along with the nomination, players were asked to share a testimonial to explain why this cause was meaningful to them and how it was impacting their local community. Over 19,000 submissions came in from players around the globe and Riot’s social impact team, with the help of their partners ImpactAssets and GlobalGiving, vetted and chose 30 nonprofits to receive $10,000 donations. These high-impact nonprofits support a wide range of countries and cause areas, including an organization from New Zealand that supports community wellbeing and a nonprofit from Brazil that advocates for the rights of people with intellectual disabilities.
“Throughout Riot’s history we’ve seen time and again players come together as one collective community to support the smaller communities they are a part of,” said Jeffrey Burrell, Director of Social Impact. “I want to give the credit where it’s truly due and that’s to the players. It’s really special when we put out a call like this to players and get such an overwhelming response. We couldn’t do this work without them.”
The Riot Games Social Impact Fund is Riot’s nonprofit engine for our collective efforts for global social impact. Through the Social Impact Fund, in partnership with ImpactAssets and managed by GlobalGiving, Riot was able to distribute these grants to over 18 countries around the world. By being able to involve hyper-local NGOs serving local community needs, Riot is able to directly support the causes and interests of their community of players on what matters most to them.
Here are the 30 nonprofit winners:
América Solidaria Argentina, APAE Brasil, Ape Action Africa, Asian American Success Inc., BeLonG To, Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation, Clean Up Australia, Coalition for Rainforest Nations, Cordem ABP, Fundación Aquí Nadie Se Rinde I.A.P, Fundación Minga Valpo , Fundación Superación Pobreza, Genesis Women’s Shelter, Ingenium ABP, Instituto Vovô Chiquinho, LÖSEV, Maslow Project, Metropolitan Organization to Counter Sexual Assault (MOCSA), Plan International Japan, Prairie State Legal Services, Shatterproof, Société Protectrice des Animaux (SPA), SPEAR Islington (Resurgo), Story Tapestries, The Nature Conservancy, The Table Community Food Centre, Verein für krebskranke Kinder Harz eV, WAI Wanaka, WaterAid, and World Wildlife Fund-SA.
The $300,000 in community grants adds to another successful year of social impact. Earlier this year, Riot launched the charitable skin “Elderwood Ornn” and mobilized players to achieve real impact in their own communities while participating in a global event that raised over $7 million for the Social Impact Fund. Also this year, VALORANT held its first in-game fundraiser with a Give Back Bundle which raised over $5.5 million. 50% of the proceeds from weapon skins and 100% from accessories in the Give Back Bundle went towards Riot’s Social Impact Fund to be distributed to various nonprofits. In total, players have raised over $12 million through Riot’s in-game fundraisers for 2021.
About Riot Games
Riot Games was founded in 2006 to develop, publish, and support the most player-focused games in the world. In 2009, Riot released its debut title, League of Legends, to worldwide acclaim. League has gone on to be the most-played PC game in the world and a key driver of the explosive growth of esports. As League enters its second decade, Riot continues to evolve the game while delivering new experiences to players with Teamfight Tactics, Legends of Runeterra, VALORANT, League of Legends: Wild Rift, and multiple work-in-progress titles, while exploring the world of Runeterra through multimedia projects across music, comic books, TV, and more. Riot has also launched a publishing group, Riot Forge, to collaborate with third-party developers on additional games set in the League universe. Founded by Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill and led by CEO Nicolo Laurent, Riot is headquartered in Los Angeles, California, and has 3,000 Rioters in 20+ offices worldwide.
About Arcane League of Legends
Netflix and Riot Games bring the global phenomenon League of Legends franchise to television with the animated event series Arcane. The series will also be available on Tencent Video in China and marks Riot Games’ first series for television. Set in Riot’s globally popular League of Legends IP, Arcane is an animated series developed and produced by Riot Games in partnership with Fortiche Productions. Follow Arcane on social media at @arcaneshow.
