Call of Duty Endowment has placed 180,000 veterans in jobs at 1/14th the federal government's cost

Call of Duty Endowment

Dan Goldenberg spent nine active-duty years as a Navy pilot, another eighteen as an intelligence reservist, and a decade in management consulting before landing at Activision's philanthropic foundation. The pitch that brought him in was simple: the Call of Duty Endowment had written large checks to veteran-employment nonprofits and couldn't account for the money a year later. The board wanted a business operator, not a nonprofit veteran, to fix it.

The model

Goldenberg rebuilt the foundation around what he calls a venture philanthropy model. Nonprofits apply through an open process, are vetted by Deloitte across four dimensions — performance metrics, leadership background checks, financial health, and legal compliance — and are funded against specific quarterly goals. Miss the goals, lose the funding.

The results are hard to argue with. Each placement now costs $686, one-fourteenth the federal government's cost per placement. Starting salaries at placed jobs run more than double the government benchmark, and twelve-month retention rates are 40% higher. For the last three years, the Endowment has placed more veterans in jobs than the federal government has. Cumulative placements stand at 180,000, approaching Goldenberg's symbolic target of surpassing the size of the US Marine Corps.

A Penn State study later validated the core hypothesis: veterans who receive professional resume preparation and interview coaching are three times more likely to land a high-quality job.

“Every $686 placed a veteran in a job — that's one fourteenth the cost per placement of the federal government's efforts. The results show double the starting salaries and 40% greater twelve-month retention rates. For the last three years, we've placed more vets in jobs than the federal government has. Cumulatively, that's 180,000 vets placed in jobs so far.”

Funding

The foundation is a legally separate 501(c)(3). Activision covers nearly all operating costs, which means in-game revenue from items like the Valor pack flows directly to placement work rather than overhead. The player community has contributed tens of millions of dollars over the past decade through those purchases. Corporate partners — Pilot Travel Centers runs a current round-up campaign, USAA sponsors the annual Code Bowl esports competition — and other foundations round out the revenue base.

Where the gaps are

Goldenberg is blunt about two mismatches. Healthcare is booming, yet half of Navy and Marine Corps corpsmen who want to work in it can't get jobs there, despite carrying the same training as Army medics. Skilled trades — shipyards, data centers, construction — have aging workforces, strong wages, and genuine demand, but pipelines connecting that demand to veterans are still thin. A shipbuilding manager told him it now takes three to four times as long to build an aircraft carrier partly because of a motivation and accountability gap in the workforce — exactly the kind of environment where veteran discipline tends to pay off.

AI as a force multiplier

Goldenberg's view on AI is worth flagging for anyone watching the nonprofit sector. He argues nonprofits have more upside from AI than commercial companies do, because funders measure impact per dollar rather than earnings per share. No funder, in his thirteen years, has ever asked him to spend less money — they ask for more impact with the same money.

The practical application he's pursuing: use agentic AI to handle resume creation, LinkedIn profiles, cover letter versioning, and CRM updates, so that job counselors spend twenty minutes validating a resume rather than three hours drafting one. Unlimited AI-driven interview practice replaces the one or two mock sessions a counselor can realistically run per client. The counselor, freed from administrative work, does more of the one-on-one relationship work that actually converts a veteran into a compelling hire.

The Endowment is actively looking for tech partners to build this out. No partnership has been announced.

Next milestone: 200,000 cumulative placements.