Thursday, February 17, 2011

Activision's Bobby Kotick Helping Vets Find Jobs

By James Gillespie


Bobby Kotick, CEO and President of Activision Blizzard, may be known to many as the outspoken and sometimes controversial leader of digital entertainment and gaming. Since the birth of the Call of Duty Endowment in 2009, Kotick has taken on the role of master philanthropist. He and his nonprofit corporation provide assistance to returning veterans and help them find jobs after military service. In just over a year, the foundation has made substantial progress in the battle against soaring unemployment rates for veterans.

A couple of years ago, Bobby Kotick had the idea of donating a performing arts center and an art museum with programs designed for veterans in Los Angeles. After proposing the idea to Veteran Affairs, he learned that returning veterans were in need of a little more than a museum. With the unemployment rate for veterans up over 20 percent in 2009, it was obvious to Kotick that he had the opportunity to make a real difference in the lives of men and women who fought to preserve the ideals of the United States.

In November of 2009, the Call of Duty Endowment granted its first sum of financial aid to Paralyzed Veterans of America. The $375,000 donation will be used for the creation of a vocational rehabilitation center for disabled veterans in Boston. The endowment was started with proceeds from the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and began at $1 million. Bobby Kotick wants the endowment to have the means to fund a variety of projects around the country to prepare veterans to enter the work force successfully.

Another grant was made in March of 2010 to the Veterans Village of San Diego in the amount of $50,000. The village offers employment and training programs for homeless veterans in the greater San Diego area. The grant allows the program to take in a greater number of homeless veterans and prepare for even more who will be returning from Iraq and Afghanistan in the near future.

Bobby Kotick and Activision Blizzard took their philanthropy to a new creative level with the May 2010 announcement of the Activision Call of Duty Endowment Scholarships. This facet of the nonprofit corporation provides assistance to veterans interested in pursuing an education in videogame development. Video games are a common way that members of the military spend their down time and Kotick has donated consoles and games to the military in the past. Now returning veterans will have the opportunity to contribute to the exciting field of video game development.

The Call of Duty Endowment, known as CODE for short, funds many other programs around the country to aid veterans with post military career help. As one of the most successful video game producers in the world, Bobby Kotick and Activision Blizzard have leveraged their success to help out the very people who fight to protect the United States.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...