Riot Games announced today the recipients of $300,000 in community grant funding, as a part of Progress Days inspired by Riot’s new TV series, Arcane League of Legends.
30 non-profit organisations – including two in the UK – have been nominated by players and will each receive $10,000 to continue their work.
The two UK-based organisations are Spear Islington, whose mission is to help disadvantaged young people living in Islington into long term employment, and UK/Cameroon based Ape Action Africa, whose mission is gorilla, chimpanzee and monkey conservation.
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 honouring the work that these non-profits 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 non-profit 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 non-profits to receive $10,000 donations.
These support a wide range of causes in more than 18 countries around the world, including an organisation from New Zealand that supports community wellbeing and a non-profit 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.”
“All of the grant will go directly towards helping young people in London who face barriers to finding work. It is especially pleasing that we were nominated by a player in our community, who we expect has personal experience of Spear and its impact. I hope that they will learn that their action has had such a positive impact.”
Martin Ledigo, Spear Islington
Martin Ledigo, chair of trustees for Spear Islington, added: “The trustees of Spear Islington are delighted to accept the community grant from Riot Games. All of the grant will go directly towards helping young people in London who face barriers to finding work.
“With our support we can help them develop the skills and confidence to both find sustainable employment and help transform their lives. We work with around 100 young people a year and this will enable us to fund 7 young people to complete the Spear Programme.
“It is especially pleasing that we were nominated by a player in our community, who we expect has personal experience of Spear and its impact. I hope that they will learn that their action has had such a positive impact.”
Ape Action Africa director Rachel Hogan OBE commented: “As we near the end of what has arguably been one of the most financially challenging years in our 25-year history, we are absolutely delighted to have been nominated for a grant by a player in the RG community and incredibly grateful to have won! To receive these much-needed funds from Riot Games will make a real difference to the 287 orphaned primates who have been given a second chance at family life at our sanctuary. We cannot thank you enough!”
The full list of 30 non-profit organisations that received grants are as follows:
- 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
- World Wildlife Fund-SA
Earlier this year, Riot launched the charitable skin Elderwood Ornn and mobilised players to achieve real impact in their own communities while participating in a global event that raised over $7m for the Social Impact Fund.
Also this year, Valorant held its first in-game fundraiser with a Give Back Bundle which raised over $5.5m. 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 non-profits.
In total, players have raised over $12m through Riot’s in-game fundraisers for 2021.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
