Last week, we posted an Action Plan for Social Good that covers how we plan to support three causes we think deserve attention right now — safety and equality for BIPOC, relief for patients with COVID-19, and support for victims of sexual violence. We also called out three related nonprofits — the NAACP, the CDC Foundation, and RAINN — that we’re going to be supporting through our company.

Since our Action Plan covers how we’re supporting these nonprofits, today we’d like to talk about why they’re important to us and why they deserve support and recognition for their work.

Our Core Values

When Rally Cry was founded, we all agreed on six core values that would guide our design, development, and decision-making processes. 

• Play Together — Create social experiences and empower communities.
• Positive Impact — Use gaming to promote social good, self-improvement, and positive change.
• Lead Responsibly — Build a pact of sincerity, safety, and transparency with players.
• Venture Boldly — Advance our technology quickly, confidently, and intelligently.
• Inclusive Design — Design simple, effective, inclusive, human-centered experiences
• Listen & Learn — Actively listen and adapt to new needs from the industry and our players.
  

We can’t hope to lead responsibly and have a positive impact if we’re not listening closely to the challenges that the world faces today, which is why we felt it was important to create an Action Plan.

Advocating for Safety with RAINN

Recently, many women and men in the gaming industry have come forward with personal stories of sexual harassment, assault, and bause. While safety and toxicity in the industry is a nuanced problem that involves many factors, from online anonymity to more systemic gender and sex-based issues, we believe that support for victims of sexual violence should be an immediate priority. Until we can guarantee a level of safety and support for everyone in the industry, we miss out on the many positive benefits of gaming, like relationship building and technical skill development.

We chose RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) after research because of their high Charity Navigator score and their focused approach on sexual violence. They direct 95% of their donations directly to survivors and prevention programs, and operate the National Sexual Assault Hotline. You can learn more about them here.

Fighting for Equality with the NAACP

Like many others, we stand by the protesters of the Black Lives Matter movement. Our team was horrified by the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and many more Black people across America, and like many others, we condemn police brutality, racism, and hate in our society. 

We’re sure many of you feel this way too, but we believe that gaming should be a place of freedom — where you define who you want to be, regardless of your upbringing or the color of your skin. What we’d like to fight for is a world where these freedoms are not unique to games. We all have a responsibility to stand up for our marginalized peers.

We chose the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) because of their long and decorated history of activism, education, and empowerment — starting with the race riots in the early 1900’s, through the Civil Rights Movement, and until today. You can learn more about them here.

Supporting COVID-19 Relief through the CDC Foundation

The COVID-19 pandemic has been disastrous for our country. While we’re passionate about tackling systemic challenges like sexual assault and racism, we also feel an immediate responsibility to support urgent relief efforts for the pandemic that actively threatens the lives of our friends and our families every day. 

We chose the CDC Foundation as a direct line of support to the CDC (Centers of Disease Control and Prevention) — one of the largest public health institutes for disease control in the world. Donations to the CDC Foundation allow the CDC to better educate and support Americans who are at the highest risk of contracting COVID-19, or who need help most urgently. Because the CDC Foundation is a federal agency, all of their scientific findings are available to the public as well. You can learn more about them here.

Looking Ahead

The three causes above and their corresponding nonprofit organizations will be our philanthropic focus for the rest of 2020, but we’re also in this for the long haul. As new challenges for the world arise, we’ll take time to strategize and think about how we can be part of the solution. 

Please continue to share your feedback, suggest new Causes, participate in our charity events, and tell us how we can make you feel proud to be a part of our community.