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Riot Games announces Social Impact Fund charity to further aid COVID-19 relief

From now into late July, Riot Games is donating proceeds from the sale of certain skins towards corona virus relief efforts.

TJ Denzer

June 26, 2020 10:23 AM

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A lot of things have happened since the outbreak of COVID-19 lead to a worldwide pandemic, but that doesn’t mean the coronavirus has gone away. Rather, it’s still quite a problem in the United States and doesn’t appear to be going away anytime soon. The game industry and its events have still been affected heavily by COVID-19, and to that end, Riot made an announcement today that it would be continuing to aid relief efforts with a new Social Impact Fund charity running form now to late July.

Riot Games announced its new Social Impact Fund charity via a press release on June 25, 2020. From now until July 23, 2020, Riot is having a special on its medical themed skins and content - specifically relating to Nurse Akali, Kennen M.D., and Surgeon Shen. 100% of all proceeds from purchases of the related content in-game will be donated towards the Riot Games Social Impact Fund, which will allocate funds toward COVID-19 relief efforts in various fields of frontline medical work. Riot also posted a YouTube video about the Social Impact Fund charity, what content is involved, and where the money is going.

This is not the first of Riot’s efforts towards aid of COVID-19 relief efforts. The developer also put $1.5 million in donations split between donations from the company itself and its founders towards local efforts towards coronavirus relief. Since then, Riot has also made donations of PPE equipment such as masks and ventilators to hospitals and raised money through donations from fans through events like the Mid-Season Streamathon.

It may seem difficult to keep track of everything going on right now, but it’s important to remember that just because you’re not paying attention to the COVID-19 pandemic doesn’t mean it’s gone away. To that end, here’s hoping that other major companies will continue to pay attention and aid in the effort to drive coronavirus infection down and help bring an relief in the pandemic sooner, especially as the game industry and many of its marquee events continue to be shuttered due to inability to safely assemble.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.