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Zynga launches a $25 million fund for educational and charitable purposes

"The focus of the fund is to increase diversity and inclusion within Zynga and the games industry"

Zynga launches a $25 million fund for educational and charitable purposes

Zynga has created a new $25 million fund dedicated to educational and charitable purposes over the next five years.

In a letter to employees – via VentureBeat – company CEO Frank Gibeau explained that the intention is to create diversity and inclusion in both the games industry and the firm itself.

"Today, we are announcing that the Zynga Board of Directors has approved in principle a USD $25 million fund that will be directed to educational and charitable purposes over the next 5 years," said Gibeau.

"The focus of the fund is to increase diversity and inclusion within Zynga and the games industry. As we build out our programming, there will be opportunities for you and the Zergs to participate and contribute ideas."

In light of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, the American split a donation of $1 million between five social justice organisations. On top of this, in the last two weeks, Zynga employees have donated $70,000 to various charities, which has been matched by the company. Furthemore, staff donations will be matched by the firm until the end of the year.

Time to reflect

Juneteenth is on Friday June 19th, and is a day that is celebrated in commemoration of the end of slavery in the US. This year, Zynga will allow its employees to take the day off work.

"In acknowledgement of this day and the issues faced by our African-American and Black communities, we encourage our team members to embrace Friday as a day of reflection and education. We also ask managers to support those planning to commemorate Juneteenth to be able to take the time off," said Gibeau.

Several companies have made amendments to policies and have committed to change since the #BlackLivesMatter campaign started. Niantic for one has made a few promises to its staff, as has Google. The latter of which has got $175 million that it will put towards Black communities, education, developers and more.


Staff Writer

Kayleigh is the Staff Writer for PocketGamer.biz. Besides PGbiz and PCGI she has written as a list writer for Game Rant, rambling about any and all things games related. You can also find her on Twitter talking utter nonsense.