The Call of Duty Endowment had its biggest year ever in 2019, with more than 11,000 veterans placed in high-paying jobs upon returning to civilian life. The organization has now surpassed 66,000 total placements in pursuit of its goal of 100,000 total by 2024. Activision Blizzard CEO and Call of Duty Endowment co-founder Bobby Kotick said:
Last year, we placed 11,661 heroes into new jobs, and our cost of placement remains a fraction of the Department of Labor’s placement expense. The average starting salary is over $60,000, and over 81% of our placements are in jobs lasting one year or longer. The Call of Duty Endowment team continues to lead our efforts with excellence.
The organization released a series of stats for 2019, highlighting the growing impact the Call of Duty Endowment has had in its 10 years. These stats include analysis of the economic value of placed veterans, retention rates, starting salaries, and the general reach that its many campaigns had during the year.
Call of Duty Endowment 2019 Stats
- Veterans placed: 11,661
- 2019 Economic Value Created through Veteran First Year Salaries: $700 million+
- Average cost per placement: $499 (1/6 the Department of Labor’s cost)
- Placements for full-time work: 93%
- Placements for post-9/11 Veterans: 90%
- Women placements: 19% (compared to 16% presently in the military)
- 6-month retention rate: 88%
- 12-month retention rate: 81%
- Average starting salary: $60,733 (almost double national annual median personal income)
- Social Media Reach: 286.8 million
During 2019, Call of Duty Endowment partnered with a number of organizations to bring awareness to its cause. It launched the #HireHonor campaign featuring former Secretary of Defense James Mattis. Call of Duty Modern Warfare received a downloadable pack of digital items, with proceeds going to CODE. Crash Team Racing even joined in with an exclusive retro warplane kart. There was an exclusive PS4 theme to raise funds for CODE, a campaign with GameStop, and the launch of the inaugural CODE Bowl, which saw a variety of streamers and service members playing Call of Duty while raising money and awareness.
The Call of Duty Endowment has seen consistent growth as a games for good organization, with its goals of placing veterans in high-paying civilian jobs more efficiently and at a reduced cost than government aid programs. CODE saw more campaigns and reach than ever in 2019, and it is expected to continue to grow in 2020.
