Our Work
Click the Image below to read our 2012 Grant Report
National Chamber Foundation
The Call of Duty Endowment awarded the National Chamber Foundation’s Hiring Our Heroes program a $250,000 grant in November 2011 to fund 25 Veterans Hiring Fairs in 25 cities across the country in 2012.
For more information about the National Chamber Foundation or the Hiring Our Heroes program, visit their website here.
Business and Professional Women’s Foundation
In December 2011, the Call of Duty Endowment announced a $100,000 grant to the Business and Professional Women’s Foundation (BPWF) to support the launch and deployment of the Joining Forces for Women Veterans and Military Spouses Mentoring Plus™ program.
For more information about Business and Professional Women’s Foundation, visit their website here.
Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America
The Call of Duty Endowment awarded Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) a $50,000 grant in November 2011. The Endowment’s funds support IAVA’s Combat to Career program, an initiative which provides resources to its members, including 6,000 business suits, helping hundreds of them navigate the job market at Smart Job Fairs, and providing training to vets through Google Resume Workshops.
For more information about Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, visit their website here.
Still Serving Veterans
First awarded a grant of $25,000 in the fall of 2010, the Call of Duty Endowment announced a second $100,000 grant to Huntsville, Alabama-based Still Serving Veterans (SSV) on October 30, 2011. SSV exists to empower veterans and their families by helping them reintegrate into the workforce and community via counseling, coaching, guiding, job transition, assistance in obtaining meaningful employment and all Veterans Administration (VA) benefits to which they are entitled.
For more information about Still Serving Veterans, visit their website here.
Hire Heroes USA
First awarded an $80,000 grant in May 27, 2010, Hire Heroes USA has since received two more donations totaling $70,000 for their active engagement in the Call of Duty Endowment’s 2011 and 2012 Memorial Day Facebook Campaigns. The Endowment’s funding over the past two years supported the expansion of the Wounded Warrior Transition Assistance Workshops program.
For more information about Hire Heroes USA, visit their website here.
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.
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.
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.









