Riot Games and the education nonprofit DonorsChoose launched their second donation matching campaign to support middle and high school teachers, especially those from equity-focused schools, who want to bring students’ interests in gaming and esports into their curricula.
September 4, 2024
[This unedited press release is made available courtesy of Game Developer and its partnership with notable game PR-related resource Games Press]
Riot Games :
What you need to know:
As students head back to school, Riot Games and DonorsChoose are teaming up for a donation matching campaign for the second year. In this campaign, the Riot Games Social Impact Fund will match every dollar that is donated to projects related to gaming and esports on the DonorsChoose campaign site up to $200,000.
Teachers looking to incorporate gaming and esports into their classrooms can submit project proposals that ask for funding to help purchase items like consoles or PCs for an esports club or team, programming equipment or software to teach a game development or design class, and everything in between.
Not only can incorporating video games into curricula open the door for the next generation of game designers and esports pros, but it can also be an exciting pathway into STEM lessons, cognitive skills, community-building, and enhance overall student engagement.
To support communities where the greatest needs are, Riot is focused on helping teachers from equity-focused schools where 50% or more of students come from low-income households.
By the numbers:
Here are some of the 2023-2024 academic school year results from last year’s campaign, which highlights the demand for gaming and esports in schools:
528 projects received funding across 44 states and the District of Columbia.
Supported 329 teachers, 90 of whom had their first-ever fully funded project thanks to the partnership.
The projects that were funded were able to benefit approximately 8,883 students across 304 schools, with 79% of the projects being from equity-focused schools.
Of the total projects funded, 62.9% came from teachers in grades 6-8 and 37.1% came from grades 9-12.
DonorsChoose saw a 102% increase in esports and gaming related projects posted to the DonorsChoose site from the 2022-23 school year.
Quote from Jeffrey Burrell: “Our first campaign with DonorsChoose exceeded any expectations that we could have had,” said Jeffrey Burrell, Head of Social Impact, Riot Games. “In 2023, it was the first time DonorsChoose had done a donation matching campaign that focused solely on gaming and esports and it was inspiring to see just how many teachers across the country have a strong desire to incorporate it in their classroom curriculum. By teaming up once again with DonorsChoose, we’re able to continue to expand access to more students who may not realize that gaming and esports can be a meaningful career pursuit.”
Quote from Alix Guerrier: “This back-to-school season, Riot Games is making it easier for schools to introduce esports as an extracurricular activity and to make game development a more accessible career track for students,” said Alix Guerrier, CEO of DonorsChoose. “Esports teams and gaming clubs in schools are not only teaching students how to collaborate with each other, but also helping to empower the next generation of engineers and innovators.”
Campaign Website: DonorsChoose x Riot Games Donation Matching Campaign Site
ABOUT RIOT
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.
With League in its second decade, Riot is continuing 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. In addition, Riot Forge gives developers access to Riot’s IP to create games like Ruined King and plenty of other adventures across Runeterra. Riot is also expanding the world of Runeterra through multimedia projects across music, comic books, board games, and Arcane, its popular animated series.
The annual League of Legends World Championship features qualified esports teams from 12 international leagues. Worlds is the most widely viewed and followed esport tournament, and it is among the largest and most popular gaming and sporting events in the world.
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.
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