Amid the ongoing Black Lives Matter protests, EA will donate one million dollars to foundations committed to racial justice.
In a statement to employees which the company made public, CEO Andrew Wilson said the company is "in the midst of a global outcry for change" and said they must go beyond listening and talking. As a result, the oft-maligned company is doing the good guy thing and donating one million dollars to racial justice charities including Equal Justice Initiative, the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, "and with more partners to come," said Wilson. Below you can find more of his words to the team.
In addition to supporting these organizations, driving change needs action from us all. The biggest impact can often be felt at local levels, and we encourage everyone to safely get involved.
To that end, we’re launching a new program to give everyone in the company an additional paid day each year to apply to volunteering in your community. With all of our employees around the world, that will represent more than 75,000 hours applied to the change we can make. In the coming days, we’ll share a list of volunteer activities focused on fighting racial injustice, most of which can be undertaken from home while we still follow pandemic health guidelines.
Then, on June 19, we will celebrate the Juneteenth holiday with an additional company-wide volunteering day, and participate in forums and virtual activities organized by our Black Electronic Arts Team ERG. We’ll share more details on all of this next week.
Wilson also revealed plans for a Community Conversation on June 9, which is open to the entire company for employees to speak up about racial justice issues within the company, including implicit bias and discrimination. The complete statement can be found on the company's website.
There have been many games entities joining the world in showing support for the Black Lives Matter movement, but to put their money where their mouth is makes for a step in the right direction for EA.
