Doubles Down and Commits to Placing 100,000 Veterans Into High-Quality Jobs By 2024

SANTA MONICA, Calif. – October 15, 2018 – The Call of Duty Endowment (“the Endowment”) today announced that it has reached its goal of funding the placement of 50,000 veterans into high-quality jobs ahead of schedule. Now, the Endowment is doubling down with a new goal of securing placements for a total of 100,000 veterans by 2024. Thanks to the work being done by the Endowment, veterans in the United States and United Kingdom have found premier opportunities with hundreds of companies including Amazon, Apple, Bank of America, Deloitte, Delta, IBM, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, Nike, and SpaceX.

“The Call of Duty Endowment has exceeded expectations and continues to benefit the lives of veterans and their families, significantly giving back to those who sacrificed for others,” said Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard and co-founder of the Endowment. “With U.S. and U.K. veteran unemployment and underemployment challenges persisting, I am thrilled to advance our efforts with a new, ambitious goal of securing employment for 100,000 veterans by 2024.”

When the Call of Duty Endowment was established in 2009, its initial goal was to identify and fund best-in-class organizations to place 25,000 U.S. veterans in jobs by the end of 2018. That goal was met two years early, and was subsequently revised to place 50,000 veterans into high-quality jobs by 2019.

“The Call of Duty Endowment is making a remarkable impact in the lives of our veterans,” said General James L. Jones (USMC, Ret.), Co-Chairman of the Endowment. “High-quality, meaningful employment is imperative to their successful transition back to civilian life and the Endowment’s focus on these efforts is unmatched.”

To help place veterans in high-quality jobs, the Endowment works with carefully vetted, high-performing veteran employment organizations through its prestigious Seal of Distinction program in partnership with Deloitte. The Seal of Distinction program bestows awards annually to the highest performing non-profits that meet the Endowment’s benchmarks in effectiveness, efficiency, and integrity in placing veterans in high-quality jobs. In 2017, the Endowment expanded its reach overseas, identifying and forging partnerships with a select group of U.K.-based veteran’s charities.

“Placing fifty thousand veterans in meaningful jobs is significant—that’s the equivalent of more than half the U.S. Army’s annual recruit class. By finding and funding world-class organizations and with the unwavering support of Activision Blizzard, we were able to reach our goal ahead of schedule,” said Dan Goldenberg, executive director of the Endowment. “Our approach is to marry common sense business practices with philanthropy, which enables us to place vets in jobs at about 1/6 the cost per placement of U.S. Department of Labor efforts. We are proud of, and share this achievement with, all of our grantees who have worked tirelessly towards our shared goal.”

To date, the Endowment has awarded more than $28 million in grants to Seal of Distinction recipients, and Activision Blizzard has donated over $31 million to the Endowment—at an average cost-per-placement of $505, year-to-date. In addition to providing funding to leading veterans’ employment organizations, the Endowment partners with its grantees to provide advice and support aimed at helping them sharpen their already top-notch operations.

About Activision Blizzard, Inc.

Activision Blizzard, Inc., a member of the Fortune 500 and S&P 500, is the world’s most successful standalone interactive entertainment company. We delight hundreds of millions of monthly active users around the world through franchises including Activision’s Call of Duty®, Destiny and Skylanders®, Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft®, Overwatch®, Hearthstone®, Diablo®, StarCraft®, and Heroes of the Storm®, and King’s Candy Crush, Pet Rescue, Bubble Witch and Farm Heroes. The company is one of the Fortune “100 Best Companies To Work For®.” Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, Activision Blizzard has operations throughout the world, and its games are played in 196 countries. More information about Activision Blizzard and its products can be found on the company’s website, www.activisionblizzard.com.

About the Call of Duty Endowment

The Call of Duty Endowment is a non-profit, public benefit organization co-founded by Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard. The Endowment helps veterans find high quality careers by supporting groups that prepare them for the job market and by raising awareness of the value vets bring to the workplace. For more information about the Call of Duty Endowment, please visit www.callofdutyendowment.org.

ACTIVISION and CALL OF DUTY are trademarks of Activision Publishing, Inc. All other trademarks and trade names are the properties of their respective owners.

Source: Activision Blizzard, Inc.