After the huge success of this past weekend’s Pokémon GO Fest 2020, Niantic is donating a portion of their fest funds to social justice organizations like Black Lives Matter. Pokémon GO Fest is the annual event for the AR-driven mobile game that brings the entire community together for a weekend of special events, items, and rare catches.

Pokémon GO Fest 2020 was a roaring success; this year the event was threatened by the presence of Team GO Rocket, but trainers around the world weren’t going to let them spoil their good time. In fact, having the most notorious group of baddies in Pokémon history probably drummed up even more engagement than the standard Pokémon GO Fest. In order to participate in the event, trainers had to purchase an in-app ticket for $14.99. $5 million from this buy-in event was promised to Black Lives Matter, but they are now expanding their donation plan.

Niantic will now be donating a total of $10 million to various social groups, as well as bankrolling projects in gaming and AR by black creators. In addition to the money promised to Black Lives Matter, Niantic will be donating $100,000 to the Marsha P. Johnson Institute, a nonprofit that does work for the black transgender community, and matching employee donations up to $50,000.

The Pokémon GO developer will also be making donations of $60,000 to Gamehead, a nonprofit that teaches game development to kids, to bolster the future of what gaming can be. Along with all of those sums of money, Niantic has pledged to shake things up internally by championing a more diverse and inclusive workplace to create lasting change in the video game community.

These donations and pledges are great steps for the tech giant to be taking. With the huge success of this year’s Pokémon GO Fest, they could have very easily pocketed their extra earnings and not many people would have pressed them for answers. This is a good example of a big company doing good, but continued long term work for social justice and reform is what will really determine change.

Source: Niantic