Activision Blizzard Pledges Up To $4 Million To Fight Against Systematic Inequality

Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick has announced a $1 million donation to various organizations that provide "transformative opportunities to Black Americans." The initial amount is going to the United Negro College Fund, the Equal Justice Initiative, and Management Leadership for Tomorrow.

The United Negro College Fund is an organization that funds scholarships for black students and general scholarship funds for 37 historically black universities. The Equal Justice Initiative provides legal representation to prisoners who may have been wrongly convicted. Management Leadership for tomorrow is an organization set on bringing more diversity to business leadership. The company did not specify how much of the initial donation would go to each organization.

The Overwatch and Call of Duty developer and publisher joins a number of other companies in donating to Black Lives Matter and related causes.

Kotick also announced a $1 million personal pledge and a pledge from the company to match employee donations to create an overall goal to raise $4 million for the above organizations.

Activision Blizzard came under fire recently for finding "multiple ways to unnecessarily enrich" Kotick according to company shareholder and CtW Investment Groups' director Dieter Waizenegger. Activision Blizzard saw $6.49 billion in revenue last year while Kotick made more than $30 million, meaning this donation is a drop in the bucket compared to his annual earnings. He is one of the highest-paid executives not only in video games, but across the entire entertainment media industry.

Activision Blizzard defended Kotick's compensation saying that "compensation is performance-based." The company has a shareholder meeting scheduled for later today.

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