Call of Duty Endowment

Our Work

Click the Image below to read our 2011 Grant Report

Hire Heroes USA

In May 2011 the Call of Duty Endowment launched a second Memorial Day campaign through Facebook to increase their grant funding to Hire Heroes USA (HHUSA), an organization that provides job training programs to support veterans and finds job placement for veterans. For every Call of Duty Endowment Facebook fan that volunteered to help veterans by donating their ‘status’ to honor a current military member or veteran, the Call of Duty Endowment provided an extra dollar to HHUSA’s initially agreed upon grant of $20,000. Fans had from Wednesday, May 25th until Monday, May 30th at 11:59PM PST to participate in the campaign, and by the end of the campaign, more than 16,000 people participated, providing HHUSA with a total grant of $36,000.

This second grant awarded by the Call of Duty Endowment to HHUSA, will allow the organization to provide returning veterans with the necessary transitional training programs and essential tools necessary to gain 21st century careers, through their career workshops and job fairs. HHUSA is dedicated to providing service members with post military career help with a personal approach to match career interests and skills to the needs of partnering companies.

The U.S. Chamber Of Commerce Kicks Off 100 Job Fairs

Activision recently supported a great initiative started by the US Chamber of Commerce by donating $10,000 in the name of the Call of Duty Endowment. Last week, the Call of Duty Endowment saw firsthand the effects of the donation by traveling to Chicago as a key sponsor of the official kick off for the US Chamber of Commerce’s veteran’s career fairs. The Chamber has committed to hosting 100 job fairs for veterans and their spouses across the country. There were over 100 companies in attendance and over 1,000 veterans walked through the doors during this one day event. Throughout the day, the Call of Duty Endowment had a chance to talk to some veterans and even employers about the reasons veterans are great assets to any company team. Click here to watch the video!

AMVETS, Student Veterans of America, Military to Medicine, the USO, and Veterans Green Jobs

On March 11, 2011, the Call of Duty Endowment announced $500,000 in grants to be given to five deserving organizations working to train, educate and place returning service members and wounded warriors back in the workforce. The announcement came on the heels of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) yearly Veterans’ Employment Summary. “It is a great honor to support these organizations that are training and placing our military men and women in 21st century careers,” said Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard, Inc. “For those who give selflessly to defend our freedom, we must continue to increase the public’s awareness of this problem, and we must work together with businesses around the country to find our heroes fulfilling and sustainable jobs.” The five grant recipients each received $100,000 to assist them in their efforts with career training and job placement throughout the country.

The USO will provide career support to wounded warriors and their families through the creation of two new facilities at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland and a new medical campus at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. Student Veterans of America works mostly with younger veterans on college campuses, while Amvets will expand their Career Centers pilot program, which has been helping veterans living in Ohio. Veterans Green Jobs, based out of Colorado, looks to train veterans in the emerging field of sustainable green jobs, and Military to Medicine provides veterans with online healthcare training and employment assistance in the medical field.

For more information on the organizations and their employment training programs, follow the links below.

Still Serving Veterans

Founded in 2005, Still Serving Veterans (SSV) has helped more than 4100 wounded warriors, veterans and their families connect with the services they need to deal with life changing injuries while reintegrating into post-military lives and meaningful new careers.

For more information about SSV, please visit www.stillservingveterans.org

Swords to Plowshares

On July 1, 2010 the Call of Duty Endowment announced it would give a $25,000 grant to Swords to Plowshares in honor of Independence Day. Swords to Plowshares is a non-profit organization that provides counseling, employment, and placement assistance to veterans. This grant money will assist with funding for the organization’s employment training programs and career placement services in the San Francisco Bay Area. A member of the Call of Duty Endowment’s Advisory Council, BG Harry Sieben, USANG-Ret., expressed why Swords to Plowshares was awarded the grant: “As America looks to celebrate Independence Day, it is imperative that we support those organizations which provide our veterans with a means to find rewarding careers and their own independence once their military service is complete. Since its inception, Swords’ has assisted thousands of veterans in getting off the unemployment line and we are honored to provide them with this grant.”

To learn more about Swords to Plowshares and their employment training programs and career placement services in the San Francisco Bay Area, click here.

The Activision Call of Duty Endowment Scholarships

In May 2010, the Call of Duty Endowment and Activision announced the creation of a new scholarship program to assist those veterans pursuing a career in videogame development at Austin Community College (ACC) and Madison Area Technical College (MATC). The program will assist veterans at these schools with the costs of software, transportation, and other educational needs, while the GI bill covers tuition costs for U.S. veterans at most schools. ACC and MATC were chosen by the Call of Duty Endowment and Activision because of their gaming and illustration programs, as well as the high number of veterans’ enrolled at each school and the participation of military veterans in the relevant course work.

To apply or learn more about the scholarships at MATC, click here.

To apply or learn more about the scholarships at ACC, click here.

Hire Heroes USA

The Call of Duty Endowment celebrated Memorial Day by embarking upon a Facebook campaign to increase funding for Hire Heroes USA (HHUSA), an organization that partners industry professionals with transitioning veterans during employment transition workshops. Their program also provides veterans with intensive career development programs, and gives returning service members the necessary tools needed to sustain a successful outcome when entering the 21st Century workforce. The campaign set out to receive 30,000 “Likes” for the Call of Duty Endowment Facebook page between Thursday, May 27th and Monday, May 31. For every “Like” the Facebook page would receive, the Call of Duty Endowment increased HHUSA’s funding grant by $1. Within four days, the the Call of Duty Endowment Facebook page received more than 30,000 new “Likes” bringing the total campaign grant money to $50,000 (the Call of Duty Endowment made an original commitment of a $20,00 to the organization). Brian Stann, Executive Director of HHUSA, expressed his support for the Memorial Day campaign, “People need to wake up and recognize what’s happening to our vets when they leave the service. We’re thrilled that the Call of Duty Endowment chose us to help them engage more folks on this issue, and gave us the opportunity to help more vets.”

After seeing the success of the Memorial Day campaign, Activision’s CEO, Bobby Kotick, decided to donate an extra $50,000 of his own resources to the HHUSA grant. Therefore, the Call of Duty Endowment and Kotick’s awards totaled $100,000 for HHUSA to be used to fund career transition assistance to recently returning veterans.

To learn more about Hire Heroes USA’s work with transitional services for veterans, click here.

Veterans Village of San Diego

On March 30, 2010 the Call of Duty Endowment announced a grant of $50,000 would be awarded to the Veterans Village of San Diego (VVSD) to help fund their employment and training programs offered to homeless veterans in the San Diego area. VVSD is the only program of its kind in the United States and is nationally recognized as the leader in serving homeless military veterans.

Phil Landis, chief executive officer at VVSD said when the grant was awarded that the donation would go a long way towards ensuring that more veterans could be served: “We were happy to train and place as many veterans as we did with employment opportunities last year, but with more and more troops returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan, this grant will allow us to serve even more of the increasing number of veterans looking for work.”

To learn more about VVSD’s work with homeless veterans in the San Diego area, click here.

Wounded Warrior Project

On February 3, 2010, the Call of Duty Endowment awarded $100,000 to the Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) to establish a new Transition Training Academy (TTA) in the United States. These academies help severely injured veterans explore Information Technology (IT) as a potential career field and to develop new skills with real-world applications.Chris Roberts, Director of the TTA program, stressed the impact this grant will have on assisting wounded warriors: “With this generous gesture, the Call of Duty Endowment will allow us to expand our program to a fifth site and provide this training opportunity to more veterans across the country looking to find a postmilitary career path in the IT industry.”

To learn more about the Wounded Warrior Project and their Transition Training Academies, click here.

Paralyzed Veterans of America

On November 10, 2009, the Call of Duty Endowment awarded a grant of $125,000 to the Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA) organization. This grant will provide resources to help underwrite the cost of a new PVA Vocational Rehabilitation Services Center in Augusta, Georgia or Boston, Massachusetts. This PVA program offers vocationally-oriented services to veterans with disabilities, especially those veterans with spinal cord dysfunction.

When the Call of Duty Endowment announced the grant, Homer S. Townsend, Jr., executive director of PVA, expressed how grave the employment issue is for disabled veterans. Speaking at the event Mr. Thompson noted, “PVA estimates the national unemployment rate for veterans with severe disabilities to be over 85 percent. With this grant, and the work already being done by PVA, we aim to make this grim statistic a thing of the past by helping to unleash the untapped talent and potential of this often underutilized part of our workforce.”

To learn more about PVA’s work in assisting disabled veterans with employment, click here.

USA Cares

In response to the terrible tragedy that shook the families and community members of Ft. Hood in the Fall of 2009, the Call of Duty Endowment donated $25,000 to the families of the victims of the incident through the USA Cares organization.

To learn more about how USA Cares provides support services to members and families of the armed forces, click here.

In the coming weeks and months, the Call of Duty Endowment will be awarding additional grants to other organizations. Return to this page to learn more about the Call of Duty Endowment in Action.

SFC Steve Robinson (USA-Ret.)

BG James A. "Spider" Marks (USA-Ret.)

CPT Gordon H. Mansfield (USA-Ret.)


About Us Launch Event Our Work Advisory Board Members About Activision Blizzard Contact Us	Our Work Click the Image below to read our 2011 Grant Report Hire Heroes USA In May 2011 the Call of Duty Endowment launched a second Memorial Day campaign through Facebook to increase their grant funding to Hire Heroes USA (HHUSA), an organization that provides job training programs to support veterans and finds job placement for veterans. For every Call of Duty Endowment Facebook fan that volunteered to help veterans by donating their ‘status’ to honor a current military member or veteran, the Call of Duty Endowment provided an extra dollar to HHUSA’s initially agreed upon grant of $20,000. Fans had from Wednesday, May 25th until Monday, May 30th at 11:59PM PST to participate in the campaign, and by the end of the campaign, more than 16,000 people participated, providing HHUSA with a total grant of $36,000. This second grant awarded by the Call of Duty Endowment to HHUSA, will allow the organization to provide returning veterans with the necessary transitional training programs and essential tools necessary to gain 21st century careers, through their career workshops and job fairs. HHUSA is dedicated to providing service members with post military career help with a personal approach to match career interests and skills to the needs of partnering companies. The U.S. Chamber Of Commerce Kicks Off 100 Job Fairs Activision recently supported a great initiative started by the US Chamber of Commerce by donating $10,000 in the name of the Call of Duty Endowment. Last week, the Call of Duty Endowment saw firsthand the effects of the donation by traveling to Chicago as a key sponsor of the official kick off for the US Chamber of Commerce’s veteran’s career fairs. The Chamber has committed to hosting 100 job fairs for veterans and their spouses across the country. There were over 100 companies in attendance and over 1,000 veterans walked through the doors during this one day event. Throughout the day, the Call of Duty Endowment had a chance to talk to some veterans and even employers about the reasons veterans are great assets to any company team. Click here to watch the video! AMVETS, Student Veterans of America, Military to Medicine, the USO, and Veterans Green Jobs On March 11, 2011, the Call of Duty Endowment announced $500,000 in grants to be given to five deserving organizations working to train, educate and place returning service members and wounded warriors back in the workforce. The announcement came on the heels of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) yearly Veterans’ Employment Summary. “It is a great honor to support these organizations that are training and placing our military men and women in 21st century careers,” said Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard, Inc. “For those who give selflessly to defend our freedom, we must continue to increase the public’s awareness of this problem, and we must work together with businesses around the country to find our heroes fulfilling and sustainable jobs.” The five grant recipients each received $100,000 to assist them in their efforts with career training and job placement throughout the country. The USO will provide career support to wounded warriors and their families through the creation of two new facilities at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland and a new medical campus at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. Student Veterans of America works mostly with younger veterans on college campuses, while Amvets will expand their Career Centers pilot program, which has been helping veterans living in Ohio. Veterans Green Jobs, based out of Colorado, looks to train veterans in the emerging field of sustainable green jobs, and Military to Medicine provides veterans with online healthcare training and employment assistance in the medical field. For more information on the organizations and their employment training programs, follow the links below. AMVETS Military to Medicine Student Veterans of America USO Veterans Green Jobs Still Serving Veterans Founded in 2005, Still Serving Veterans (SSV) has helped more than 4100 wounded warriors, veterans and their families connect with the services they need to deal with life changing injuries while reintegrating into post-military lives and meaningful new careers. For more information about SSV, please visit www.stillservingveterans.org Swords to Plowshares On July 1, 2010 the Call of Duty Endowment announced it would give a $25,000 grant to Swords to Plowshares in honor of Independence Day. Swords to Plowshares is a non-profit organization that provides counseling, employment, and placement assistance to veterans. This grant money will assist with funding for the organization’s employment training programs and career placement services in the San Francisco Bay Area. A member of the Call of Duty Endowment’s Advisory Council, BG Harry Sieben, USANG-Ret., expressed why Swords to Plowshares was awarded the grant: “As America looks to celebrate Independence Day, it is imperative that we support those organizations which provide our veterans with a means to find rewarding careers and their own independence once their military service is complete. Since its inception, Swords’ has assisted thousands of veterans in getting off the unemployment line and we are honored to provide them with this grant.” To learn more about Swords to Plowshares and their employment training programs and career placement services in the San Francisco Bay Area, click here. The Activision Call of Duty Endowment Scholarships In May 2010, the Call of Duty Endowment and Activision announced the creation of a new scholarship program to assist those veterans pursuing a career in videogame development at Austin Community College (ACC) and Madison Area Technical College (MATC). The program will assist veterans at these schools with the costs of software, transportation, and other educational needs, while the GI bill covers tuition costs for U.S. veterans at most schools. ACC and MATC were chosen by the Call of Duty Endowment and Activision because of their gaming and illustration programs, as well as the high number of veterans’ enrolled at each school and the participation of military veterans in the relevant course work. To apply or learn more about the scholarships at MATC, click here. To apply or learn more about the scholarships at ACC, click here. Hire Heroes USA The Call of Duty Endowment celebrated Memorial Day by embarking upon a Facebook campaign to increase funding for Hire Heroes USA (HHUSA), an organization that partners industry professionals with transitioning veterans during employment transition workshops. Their program also provides veterans with intensive career development programs, and gives returning service members the necessary tools needed to sustain a successful outcome when entering the 21st Century workforce. The campaign set out to receive 30,000 “Likes” for the Call of Duty Endowment Facebook page between Thursday, May 27th and Monday, May 31. For every “Like” the Facebook page would receive, the Call of Duty Endowment increased HHUSA’s funding grant by $1. Within four days, the the Call of Duty Endowment Facebook page received more than 30,000 new “Likes” bringing the total campaign grant money to $50,000 (the Call of Duty Endowment made an original commitment of a $20,00 to the organization). Brian Stann, Executive Director of HHUSA, expressed his support for the Memorial Day campaign, “People need to wake up and recognize what’s happening to our vets when they leave the service. We’re thrilled that the Call of Duty Endowment chose us to help them engage more folks on this issue, and gave us the opportunity to help more vets.” After seeing the success of the Memorial Day campaign, Activision’s CEO, Bobby Kotick, decided to donate an extra $50,000 of his own resources to the HHUSA grant. Therefore, the Call of Duty Endowment and Kotick’s awards totaled $100,000 for HHUSA to be used to fund career transition assistance to recently returning veterans. To learn more about Hire Heroes USA’s work with transitional services for veterans, click here. Veterans Village of San Diego On March 30, 2010 the Call of Duty Endowment announced a grant of $50,000 would be awarded to the Veterans Village of San Diego (VVSD) to help fund their employment and training programs offered to homeless veterans in the San Diego area. VVSD is the only program of its kind in the United States and is nationally recognized as the leader in serving homeless military veterans. Phil Landis, chief executive officer at VVSD said when the grant was awarded that the donation would go a long way towards ensuring that more veterans could be served: “We were happy to train and place as many veterans as we did with employment opportunities last year, but with more and more troops returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan, this grant will allow us to serve even more of the increasing number of veterans looking for work.” To learn more about VVSD’s work with homeless veterans in the San Diego area, click here. Wounded Warrior Project On February 3, 2010, the Call of Duty Endowment awarded $100,000 to the Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) to establish a new Transition Training Academy (TTA) in the United States. These academies help severely injured veterans explore Information Technology (IT) as a potential career field and to develop new skills with real-world applications.Chris Roberts, Director of the TTA program, stressed the impact this grant will have on assisting wounded warriors: “With this generous gesture, the Call of Duty Endowment will allow us to expand our program to a fifth site and provide this training opportunity to more veterans across the country looking to find a postmilitary career path in the IT industry.” To learn more about the Wounded Warrior Project and their Transition Training Academies, click here. Paralyzed Veterans of America On November 10, 2009, the Call of Duty Endowment awarded a grant of $125,000 to the Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA) organization. This grant will provide resources to help underwrite the cost of a new PVA Vocational Rehabilitation Services Center in Augusta, Georgia or Boston, Massachusetts. This PVA program offers vocationally-oriented services to veterans with disabilities, especially those veterans with spinal cord dysfunction. When the Call of Duty Endowment announced the grant, Homer S. Townsend, Jr., executive director of PVA, expressed how grave the employment issue is for disabled veterans. Speaking at the event Mr. Thompson noted, “PVA estimates the national unemployment rate for veterans with severe disabilities to be over 85 percent. With this grant, and the work already being done by PVA, we aim to make this grim statistic a thing of the past by helping to unleash the untapped talent and potential of this often underutilized part of our workforce.” To learn more about PVA’s work in assisting disabled veterans with employment, click here. USA Cares In response to the terrible tragedy that shook the families and community members of Ft. Hood in the Fall of 2009, the Call of Duty Endowment donated $25,000 to the families of the victims of the incident through the USA Cares organization. To learn more about how USA Cares provides support services to members and families of the armed forces, click here. In the coming weeks and months, the Call of Duty Endowment will be awarding additional grants to other organizations. Return to this page to learn more about the Call of Duty Endowment in Action. SFC Steve Robinson (USA-Ret.) BG James A. "Spider" Marks (USA-Ret.) CPT Gordon H. Mansfield (USA-Ret.)