The Call of Duty Endowment programme is heading to the UK. Following success in America, the charity provides grants to armed-forces veterans in order to help them find ‘high-quality’ employment. The charity is funded by an in-game purchase in Call of Duty: Black Ops III with the addition of three in-game rare supply drops.
The funds raised in the US have totalled over $25 million, so it is an incredibly successful scheme so far. 37,000 US veterans have entered into full-time work and have achieved an average salary of $55,000 since the programme’s inception in 2009.
With the UK expansion, the programme will be making partnerships with local charities and will ”identify and evaluate veteran-serving non-profit organisations that effectively connect recent military veterans with real career opportunities’. Selected organisations will receive a £23,000 grant to help assist the veterans with a work placement.
455.000 of the C.O.D.E. Warrior in-game packs were sold in Black Ops III raising over $1.7 million and Infinity Ward launched the C.O.D.E. Courage pack for Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare in December 2016.
“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 executive director of the Endowment programme, Dan Goldenberg.