MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
After huge success in the US, Activision is bringing its Call of Duty Endowment programme to the UK. Funded by an in-game purchase in Call of Duty: Black Ops III, the charity will provide grants to help UK armed-forces veterans find ‘high-quality’ employment.
For Call of Duty players, the Call of Duty Endowment Double Duty Calling Card is available as of today. This consists of an animated card which players can display online and ‘allows players to view a service member transform before their eyes from a uniformed warrior to a civilian on their way to work, showing their donation’s meaningful impact on the veteran community.’
It also comes with three rare supply drops, so there’s a practical upside for players too. All proceeds go to the endowment and that’s likely to be a lot of money, with over $25m (19m) raised to date in the US by the Activision scheme.
The programme has been running in the US since 2009 and has now placed 37,000 US veterans into full-time jobs with an average salary of 42,000. It targets to up the number of placements to 50,000 by 2019.
Our expansion to the UK was a natural move–with a long-standing ally whose armed forces have served so closely with those of the US.” said Dan Goldenberg, Executive Director of the Endowment.
In expanding to the UK, the programme is making partnerships with a select group of charities over here, which will be announced in the coming months. The endowment will ‘identify and evaluate veteran-serving non-profit organizations that effectively connect recent military veterans with real career opportunities.’
Those organisations that are selected will receive a 23,000 grant to assists them in placing veterans in work, with further support in grants that have historically averaged more than 450,000.
For more information on the programme head to www.callofdutyendowment.org.
