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us at dale at veteransradio .org or jim at veteransradio
.org to get more information, but we'd love to
have you come out and we'd certainly love to
have you sponsor. We want to welcome to Veterans
Radio today, the president of the Call of Duty
Endowment, Dan Goldenberg. Dan, welcome to Veterans
Radio. Thanks so much for having me. Well, let
me set this up a little bit because first I should
probably acknowledge that you are a retired Navy
captain who brings 27 years of active and reserve
military service to the table here, as well as
more than a decade of business experience. And
you are now the president and have been since,
oh, it's been 12 years or something, call of
duty endowment. So let's start with this. How
did a nice kid like you end up at the United
States Naval Academy and in the Navy for a career
with some educational stops along the way at
Harvard and MIT and the Air Command and Staff
College? But how'd you get started in this mess?
Yeah well it's funny I grew up in New York probably
about 10 miles from West Point and my dad was
actually had been in the army so you know after
realizing the West Pointers were stealing all
the the best girls from my high school I couldn't
go to West Point and keep my self -respect so
I had to go to Navy and no it's just you know
there were a lot of things pushing me that way,
but the opportunities of the Navy. I wanted to
be an astronaut. It seemed like the best place
to go for that. Didn't quite work out, but I
had a lot of fun along the way in the astronaut
attempt. But, you know, it was just a wonderful
experience. I always thought the Navy just offered
the most options, and it's true. I got to do
many, many interesting things. Don't regret a
day of my service. Well, your military highlights
include four tours as a commanding officer, a
carrier -based naval flight officer, special
assistant to four secretaries of the Navy. I
mean, you had a great career, but you're now
in a really, and have been for a dozen years
now, a really interesting opportunity. What is
the call of duty endowment? Yeah, so we didn't
set out to be this, but we have become the largest
funder of veteran employment in the country,
in the U .S. and probably in the U .K. as well.
What happened was, back in 2007, Bobby Codick,
who was the CEO of Activision Blizzard, had noticed
that Call of Duty had rapidly become the company's
flagship product, if you will, and it did and
continues to do really well today. And he wanted
to find a way to meaningfully give back to the
community that inspired it, the veteran community,
the military community. And Bobby was very into
the arts, still is. And he approached the Secretary
of the VA at the time, a gentleman by the name
of Jim Nicholson. And he said, Jim, I'd like
to create an art facility for veterans on the
West LA VA campus. And if you ever met Jim, Jim
said something effective, Bobby, vets don't need
freaking free art, they need jobs. He didn't
use the word freaking. And I think like to most
people that would have been a turn off with the
Bobby that was a challenge accepted moment. And
because the, you know, a lot of the corporate
efforts, a lot of the government, all the government
efforts and most of the philanthropic efforts
were failing in that regard. They weren't, not
only were they not getting vets and jobs, they
weren't getting them the high quality jobs, which
really matters a ton. So the notion was we could
take a private sector approach to this really,
you know, tough problem to solve and maybe get
better results. And for the first four years,
we did not. We did what a lot of companies did,
which is write big checks, provide the big cardboard
check recipient moment, you know, photo op and
then the difference was nothing happened. I said
four years, really three years of that. And in
fact, across that time, you know, our cost per
placement was about the same as the Department
of Labor's and we'd only placed about a thousand
veterans and jobs. So. the board of the endowment
was very dissatisfied and they said look there's
got to be a better way to do this and they looked
for someone that someone ended up being me a
veteran with business experience to come in and
see if we can create a better model so we created
a model we co we collaborated with Deloitte to
create this model to find the highest performing
non -profits out of the tens of thousands of
veteran non -profits that exist to fund them
coach them and help them grow and that model
is called the seal of distinction and ultimately
once we implemented it, it led us to place 150
,000 veterans and jobs. And last year, we did
it cost one 15th that of the Department of Labor.
So yeah, I mean, that's kind of how it how it
started. And it continues to run really well.
It's all about, you know, the vetting model.
the finding the high performers and then the
accountability model that's also part of what
we do to ensure they deliver results for veterans
well not just numbers but quality yeah let me
let me dig deeper into those numbers because
i want to know how is it that you've uh the organization
has been able to assist in placing 150 000 vets
in high quality jobs Yeah. So, you know, once
we've identified through, we have this vetting
model. It's real simple. It's about a page and
a quarter of information from organizations.
So we plug that into our skill distinction model.
We have an outside board of advisors who assess
the responses. We usually pick the best five
to 10. And then we hand them over, for years,
we handed them over to Deloitte. Deloitte would
then do an assessment as one non -profit called
it the business equivalent of a proctology exam
to really understand can these organizations
deliver, can they be trusted, we'd look at. you
know, do their performance metrics ring true?
Can we prove that they are in fact accurate?
Background checks on their key employees. We
do a historical current and future financial
health check, and we do what's called a policies
and procedures check. So those four things add
up to our assessment of these organizations.
If they come back green on all four areas, then
it goes to our board for approval. If that happens,
we give them a $30 ,000 unrestricted grant as
an award, but more importantly, opportunity to
get a much larger restricted grant. And our average
grant size is probably about $800 ,000 a year
per organization. So big opportunity. They in
turn commit to certain placement goals and we
monitor them quarterly. And if they're hitting
them, fantastic. If they're not, we have a conversation
to understand why not to try and diagnose. And
if we can, coach them to get back on track. or
provide them with the necessary resources, whatever
it may be. If they can get back on track and
hit the goal, great. If they can't, we move on
and we work with someone else. So you really,
if I understand it, Dan, then what the Call of
Duty Endowment is doing, it is focusing on? Not
exactly, no. It's actually the nonprofits that
do the placement work. So you're partially correct
in the sense that We also work on, if you will,
the supply and the demand side, the supply of
job -ready vets. We vet those nonprofits through
our sealed distinction process that will do the
counseling, the resume creation, the interview
practice to get vets ready, the supply of job
-ready veterans. And then that's where most of
our funding goes. We also work on the demand
side. And we can talk about that more if you
like, about encouraging companies to make high
-fit placements with veterans. But most of our
work is actually on the nonprofit side, the counseling
services for veterans. That's where the almost
$100 million that we've put against the problem
goes. So you're funding the nonprofits who are
helping the vets make that transition. Yeah,
and it makes a huge difference like accountability
drives performance at the end of the day Yeah,
and you know we see you know the organization
we find over time. We're very quantitatively
focused but qualitatively We've seen these are
the organizations who stick around and our average
grantees probably been with us for about eight
years So it's not like returning over the participants
a lot. Most of them at this point are really
hitting their commitments But they're committed
to constant improvement They're open to new ideas
and changing how they do business. They're very
adaptable. And by the way, these are all things
the federal government's programs are not. And
that's a huge, huge difference between this nonprofit
approach and the federal government approach.
Like the Department of Labor's veteran employment
program gets the same money pretty much every
year, despite the fact that performance generally
declines, right? That's not okay. Our model is
all about accountability. And can you give us
an example of a non -profit organization that
you've been working with and so you can help
us visualize like how does this work? Absolutely.
So we have 10 grantees we work with right now,
eight in the US, two in the UK. I'll give you,
we are ready to serve the whole spectrum of veterans
and transitioning service members. Guard and
Reserves. Just one thing we do not fund, we don't
fund military spouse placement. It's just so
we stay focused. It's an incredibly important
and worthy area, but it's not what we do. Many
of our grantees do help with military spouse
employment. We just don't fund that. An example
would be vet jobs. They're exceptional. They
work with a large number of transitory service
members, veterans, and guardsmen and reserves.
They're particularly, the particular area of
expertise, you know, they'll have anyone that
is with the garden reserve. They have very deep
relationships and memos of understanding with
many state guard bureaus and all the reserve
branches. They're excellent and they get tremendous
outcomes. Whereas you contrast that with, say,
JVSO Cal, they're focused on really eye -bearer
to employment veterans in Southern California.
These are folks who may have challenges with
mental health, addiction, criminal records, those
kind of things. Across the board, almost 90 %
of those we place were enlisted when they left
the service. So we're not cherry picking junior
officers. If a junior officer approaches one
of our organizations for help, they'll get it,
absolutely. But our focus is helping, you know,
like our key constituent is that E -4, E -5 coming
out of the military, right? They're the ones
who tend to need the most help. They also have
a long runway career -wise ahead of them where
they can benefit from these services. Yeah, the
enlisted folk, good. don't have the, sometimes
the education and certainly not the network,
the business network. And thereby transitioning
is so much harder and they need more help. Have
you found over the dozen years or so that this
approach is reaching more people? Or is it because
we've finally ended the war in Afghanistan, you're
starting to see that maybe the the supply here
of transitioning people is less. No, it's unrelenting.
The need is, if anything, it's growing. And I
think, look, we transition 200 to 250 ,000 folks
out of the military every year, rain or shine,
right? So the need is unrelenting. The market,
the job market we're sending them into is constantly
evolving. And unfortunately, government programs
like TAP are not adapting. to those needs. And
so, you know, if TAP was doing its job, if the
military did as good a job transitioning service
members as it does making them, there wouldn't
be a need for us or our grantees. But unfortunately,
that's not the case. You know, you bring 100
soldiers into a classroom, with one facilitator
who maybe a month ago was wearing a uniform themselves,
they're not getting the customized counseling
services they need. You really, as a service
member, in almost every case, need help. And
by getting help, even if you don't think you
need it, you'll probably get the better outcomes.
We know, for instance, that if you can help professional
help with two things resume creation and interview
practice you're three times more likely to get
a high quality job that's not our data that's
penn state's veterans metrics initiatives data
um like you need whether you know it or not you
need help with resume slash linkedin profile
creation and interview job practice you get those
two there are other many other things that go
into the equation but those two things really
move the dial and our grantees are superb at
it And the other thing I'll say is, no service
member should ever pay for these services. That's
our job. We do that. Yeah, it's an incredible
organization, Call of Duty Foundation Endowment,
and what you're able to do because of the support
of Activision Blizzard is amazing. And one of
the things you said that I want to highlight,
which is this is sort of customized help, right?
Assistance. grantees, your non -profits in different
locales probably have different challenges that
the transitioning service member makes and they
can adjust to it because they're local. Again,
a nationwide TAP program or something just probably
isn't nimble enough or on the ground enough to
really do that. Have you noticed the difference?
Yeah, you're 100 % right. It's the agility, one,
because they're in local markets. Two, they're
constantly talking with employers. And at this
point, they've placed in many, many employers,
they've placed many veterans. So they're constantly
in a feedback loop around the stuff. And here's
the difference between them and, say, the Department
of Labor's programs. They have the ability to
adjust, right? Whereas the Department of Labor
is under different kinds of constraints. You
know, every congressman probably wants an America's
Job Center in their district, whether they need
it or not. And it's just a very inflexible architecture,
right? Like our grantees can redeploy resources,
change the training, change the way they do resumes.
I mean, I'll bet anything the way that our grantees
are using generative AI right now to help with
this is probably, you know, years ahead of the
oil price. So I haven't figured out the legalities
of how to use gen AI yet. It's actually invaluable.
It's just one example. So like their adaptability
is key and their connection to employers and
local market makes a huge difference. Well, this
sort of sets up the next two things I want to
talk about that the endowment's been involved
in that I want you to. talk about and the first
is using data to measure veterans economic health.
I know this is something that's important to
the endowment and you've got some solution ideas
but but that you know actually that terminology
measuring veterans economic health I don't think
I've read about that I don't think I've heard
people interested in it in it in that sort of
holistic way. How did how did this come about?
Yeah, I'm so glad you raised that up. Not many
people give me the chance to talk about this
because it's a little wonky, but it's so important.
We love wonky on Veterans Radio. This is what
our listeners want. They want a little more than
what you get the headlines in the general press,
so please expand. The number that the politicians
and most of the press focused on is the BLS,
Bureau of Labor Statistics, number, veteran employment
number. The problem that the BLS economist told
me himself is it is a car that had been turned
into a boat. That number was never intended to
be used the way it is, and there's a lot of problems
with it. And if you look at it for months and
months, it's up and down, it's all over the place.
It absolutely is a terrible measure of how veterans
are doing economically for a number of reasons.
One, the sample they use is not necessarily representative
of the veteran population. Two, the question,
and this might be the most important thing to
ask you that determines the unemployment rate,
is this. Last week we were paid for work. last
week where you paid for work. If you answered
yes, you're considered fully employed. So if
you mowed your neighbor's lawn for 25 bucks,
employed. Five hours a week, five hours last
week in Barista, fully employed. Drilled in the
guard last weekend, but don't have a civilian
job, fully employed. The other thing is they
ask you, are you a veteran? If you answer, you
know, there are many people who've worn the uniform
who actually are veterans who don't identify
as veterans. My dad was in the Airborne. To his
dying day, he said he wasn't a veteran. because
he hadn't been in combat. Combat experience has
nothing to do with veteran status but you know
it's it's like for all these reasons it's a terrible
by the way their insights they go to the state
level but that's as far as they go so Like you
can't tell from the government's numbers the
difference between employment in Los Angeles
and employment in San Francisco for veterans.
It's not really actionable. So anyway, the question
is, is there a better way? And the answer is
yes. Well, no, before you get to the answer,
why would it be important to have more accurate
measure of veteran economic health? Absolutely.
So, you need something that's real -time, accurate,
and actionable. Real -time, you know, things
change, right? We need to know within at least
a couple weeks what the situation is for veterans
in the job market. Two, accurate, you know, we're
going to make investments based off of this,
so it has to be right. And three, you know actionable
locally so you know not like down to the zip
code or congressional district level we need
to know where the need is so we can deploy resources
in the right place and that's one of the problems
with the Department of Labor's resources they
spread the peanut butter across the whole country
whether they needed or not right as opposed to
deploying it to where the need is greatest we
have so anyway that's that's why it's important.
Well I want to expand on that a little bit as
in some of your materials So much of what happens
to veterans is sort of opinion -based. Well,
I think they need this, and I feel they should
have that. What you're trying to do is say, we
really got to make this data -driven. So when
we decide issues like, what do we do about employment
for veterans in this region, or food insecurity,
or even suicide prevention, you can dig deeper
and find out, hey, here's an anomaly on people
not being, veterans not being able to work or
being fully employed. that's impacting these
other policy decisions, but it's data -driven,
not just feelings, right? Oh yeah, absolutely.
I need to take you on the road with me because
you said it better than I can say it. That's
exactly correct. And you know, even though the
number one service, transitioning service member's
request is employment service, less than one
-tenth of 1 % of the federal veteran budget goes
to employment. Less than one -tenth of 1%. So
if you talk about, you know, Deploying government
resources to where they're needed using data.
It's horrifically misaligned right now. And if
you get the full side of that is if you get it
right, if someone quickly gets into a high fit
job coming out of the service or during a period
of unemployment, their dependency on very expensive
other government services like mental health,
physical health, housing is reduced, right? There's
a multiplier effect to getting this right. And
no one has tied together that no one say look
if we just nail employment early in the transition
process it's actually going to reduce our costs
elsewhere and free up resources to those who
very badly need them. Yeah too much of the VA
in particular is not focused on doing it right
the first time because in the end that's the
cheapest best way to go. But I cut you off. You
said, hey, you know, here's the problem, but
there are some solutions. What does Call of Duty
Endowment think about solutions? One solution
is super cheap and could be done very quickly.
So there's two databases that come into play
here. There's what's called the VADER database,
V -A -D -I -R, which is a list of social security
numbers for all of our veterans. The other database
is the Social Security Administration's payroll
database, also by social security numbers. You
correlate, obviously, respecting privacy and
confidentiality within the walls of the government.
You correlate those two. databases, you know,
the weekly payroll database that anybody who's
legally employed as part of, and the list of
all veterans. And you actually know what every
veteran in the country is making down to the
zip code level every week. And boom, all of a
sudden, this data exists. It's just correlating
to data sets. Obviously, again, protecting privacy,
but rolling this up in aggregate, you could create
a heat map of the whole US showing where the
greatest need is, and it would be near real time.
I mean, it would be at most a month time late,
right? How much better is that than what we have
right now? So solutions which seem simple are
almost always the best. This seems simple. Therefore,
there must be huge impediments to implementing
such a simple solution. What are they? Well,
that's the crazy thing. Everybody, you know,
we talked to senators, congressmen, their staffs
about this. Everyone agrees like that's the right
answer. And yet inertia is a powerful thing too.
overcome in the government right so but because
that's the way we've always done it uh which
is the worst like that's an answer the general
commercial sector will get you fired exactly
exactly but in the in the government sector it
preserves your job so um but but it's absolutely
the right right answer we just need to bring
the right folks together to accomplish it so
i mean they would just unlock so much value by
the way like that's the kind of thing i wish
doja was doing Like this is a no -brainer. Cost
neutral, in fact, cost savings and value enhancer,
and yet it's still not being done. And I have
no pride of ownership. I wish someone within
government would run with us and make it happen,
but it's the right answer. Well, as I said, sometimes
these simple and right answers are the hardest
ones to implement. We're talking we're talking
to Dan Goldenberg who is the president of call
of duty endowment he was also a retired Navy
captain spent 27 years in service and Another
decade or so in the business world before coming
to call of duty endowment where he's been for
a dozen years I Want to switch topics if I can
Dan staying with some of the work that's call
of duty endowments doing But moving to a report
from March of 2025 that you put out, veteran
perceptions, survey results, and policy recommendations.
Tell us what the start of this was. Yeah, so
we partnered with an organization called Mission
Roll Call to do the study in Ipsos. Ipsos is
a big surveying company. Because, honestly, it
actually is a great dovetail from what we were
talking about previously, which is frustration
with where the government is spending money.
And honestly, I've been very frustrated with
the House and Senate Veterans Affairs committees
and their unwillingness to make change, even
though the system continues to fail. And so it
dawned on me that some of the best work being
done in Congress is being done by the Senate
and House Armed Services committees. And the
question was, is veteran well being a national
security issue. And if it is, perhaps we could
get these committees involved in it and we could
actually get some progress. And so we commissioned
the study to determine that. You know, like at
a time of historically bad recruiting results.
So there's a study called Jammers, DOD does every
year. They've been doing it since 1983. So for,
you know, 40 plus years, they assess the willingness
to serve amongst high school students. and of
their key influencers, teachers, parents, coaches,
to recommend service. And there's only one time
in 40 years where this number has been that low,
and that was during the surge in Iraq when body
bags were coming on every day, right? It's at
the lowest level it's been during that period.
And we want to say, hey, the legacies of 20 years
of war, as seen through public sentiment about
our veterans, negatively impacted recruiting
in an unprecedented way. So in other words, if
the public thinks bad things happen to you if
you join the military and become a veteran, is
that part of the reason, even though it's not
a reason that DOD has ever cited, is that part
of the reason we're having a hard time recruiting?
And unfortunately the answer is yes. That's what
the study told us. You know, the traditional
explanations of why recruiting, struggling, you
know, it's the bad economy, or it's a good economy,
kids are out of shape, there's a samurai culture,
we're only sons and daughters of those who serve
joint, etc. They just something different happening
here, because as I said, there aren't body bags
coming home regularly. So what's going on here?
And so The bottom line is, we found out that
67 % of parents and 55 % of the general population
is unlikely or very unlikely to recommend military
service. Yeah, these stats out of this survey
really drive this point home. I'll tell you,
I was surprised that educators were more likely
to recommend service than parents or the general
population. I wouldn't have guessed that. So
there's information in this survey of, I think
it was over a thousand people, that helps again
shape your views on policies and actions based
on data versus feelings. So that is one that
surprised me. And some of the answers by Americans
about, well, if you get out of the military,
you're damaged, surprised me as well. Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, the good news and the bad news is what
you honed in on is educators. There's a great
opportunity of educators. They're better informed,
and they're more willing to be even better informed.
There's a receptiveness with them towards military
service. And if they are better informed, they're
the most likely to recommend service. So for
DOD, It's very clear that's where their efforts
need to focus. It's twofold, right? It's one,
actually driving better outcomes for veterans,
and then two, educating the public. There's all
kinds of misperceptions out there. We did a whole
social media campaign of truth versus reality.
70 % of respondents thought veterans are economically
unstable, but Pew Center research shows that
median household income for veterans is actually
significantly higher than non -veteran households,
or two -thirds of respondents thought veterans
aren't productive in the workplace. where Gartner
research actually showed that veterans are 4
% more productive in the workplace. And they
looked across a million Fortune 500 employees.
Or this perception that civilians don't care
about veteran well -being. Actually, they do.
90 % of them showed strong support for improving
federal programs. The list goes on, but like
mental health, let's talk about that for a second.
80 % of respondents thought veterans aren't mentally
healthy, but according to the Journal of Health
Care, veterans have lower rates of mental health
issues than non -veterans. This is one example.
So there's all these misperceptions out there.
Some of this is related to our... entertainment
business, right? Whether it's TV or movies, unless
the veteran comes home damaged, the story doesn't
seem to have an arc to it. And I find this very
frustrating when you hear like what the statistics
you just reported. And I think in past I've heard
from folks that veterans have a higher percentage
of home ownership, which is where stability and
wealth gets generated for a family than non -veterans.
And so, yeah, getting, busting some of these
perceptions is very hard work, isn't it? Yeah,
and you know, it's the old... you know, the truth,
a lie goes around the world twice before the
truth gets its shoes on, right? So it's, you
know, on your homeownership point, 65%, two thirds
of response thought vets don't own their own
homes. The census data shows that 80 % of veterans
own their own homes as compared to 60 % of non
-veterans. That's a huge generational wealth
creation vehicle that is something you could
market for recruitment and dispel that myth,
but we're not investing in it at all. is a huge
mistake in my judgment. I'd agree and we're talking
to President of Call of Duty Endowment Dan Goldenberg,
US Navy Captain retired. Dan the other area I
wanted to touch on before we run way out of time
is there's a lot of positive news in this study
that you did and published back in March. The
idea that young people would benefit from connecting
with veterans and hearing their experiences was
really highly regarded. And there's a whole list
of things where like, it seems like it's the
opposite. You heard all these horror stories
about veterans. You get to this set of questions
and it's like, oh yeah, these are really good
people. We have to have more interaction with
them. Yeah, look the problem we're up against
is this our society still respects the military
and veterans to a high degree But it's kind of
like this. It's like I respect veterans. I admire
them. I applaud them I'll donate to them. I just
don't want my kid my player on my team my student
to go be one of them Because if they do, bad
things are going to happen to them. That's what
we're up to display. At the same time, to your
point about good news, there is a huge willingness
across parents, teachers, coaches, and students
to learn about the veteran community, to meet
veterans, that we, again, don't really take advantage
of. You know, the best recruiters, Jim, are not
wearing a uniform and sitting in a recruiting
station. They're you and me. They're people whose
lives are better because of their service. And,
you know, DOD really does very little to activate
us. Can you, you know, if we thought about veterans
for a minute as alumni of the military, could
you imagine a successful university that didn't
use their alumni to attract candidates? It's
unthinkable, right? Yeah, excellent point. You
know, but we get, we, you know, it starts a transition
where they can't get you out the door fast enough
once you say you want to leave. We don't prepare
them well to be successful. And then Even those
people like you or me, like the best decision
I ever made in my life, my wife winses whenever
I say that, but I remind her if I hadn't made
that decision, I never would have met her. So,
you know. If you had gone to West Point, you
would have dated one of those high school girls.
That's true, oh my gosh. But, you know, ultimately,
like veterans are an incredible asset, you know,
for this problem that needs to be tapped into,
for sure. So let's go to the four key recommendations
that the Veteran Perceptions Survey results generated
and this was done sponsored with Call of Duty
Endowment and Mission Roll Call. Talk to us about
the recommendations. Yeah, four recommendations.
The first is accountability drives performance.
We need to make this massive $340 billion federal
spend on veterans accountable to results. Right
now they simply are not. you know, what gets
measured gets done. There's no system in place
to track, to update the American taxpayer on
how this money is being spent, why it's being
spent, and what kind of results we're getting.
And we think if there's sunshine, we'll really
help that. Again, that's one of those things
I was hoping Doge might drive or government accountability
efforts would. We'll see. Second, It's so clear,
you know, year after year, so our grantees, the
Call of Duty Edom's grantees, since 2022, we've
been placing more veterans in jobs than the federal
government. Like that's staggering for a fraction
of the price. Last year again. It's staggering,
but it's also sad. It is very sad. There's no
accountability there. And so after years, and
I've got 12 years of quarterly data showing this,
it's time to redirect the federal government
funding for employment to the non -profits that
have a proven track record of doing a better
job. That's the second. We direct these government
funds to proven non -profits that can deliver
better results and honestly we could probably
get to full employment for veterans and give
money back to the government when it was all
said and done. You're talking about 150 to 180
million dollars a year and for half that price
we could probably through non -profits get to
full employment. The third point is and it starts
to get to helping the truth get its shoes on
is launching a national veteran awareness campaign.
So little of recruitment efforts focus on the
good things that happen to you through your military
service after you take the uniform off. We need
a national campaign focused on that, highlighting
the great economic outcomes, the health outcomes,
all the the family outcomes that actually do
happen through military service. And that includes
involving the veteran community in this. And
then finally, a great opportunity, this is a
more tactical recommendation, but worth noting,
because you picked it out, was that we have a
great opportunity to focus, DOD has a great opportunity
to focus on educating high school staff. If they
educate them on the actual great results veterans
get by and large, and you know, on the things
we're doing to improve. they're likely to get
an extended recruiting force from teachers and
high school staff. Yeah, it's a force multiplier
if you do that right. Perfect way to describe
it. Before we come to the end and I told Dan
at the outset here, I've been following Call
of Duty Endowment for a number of years and this
is a great first opportunity to talk with them.
Dan, where's the future go? What does the endowment
do on a going forward basis? What's the plans?
Yeah, so first of all, you know, right now because
of the government cuts, I think a very timely
thing we have to think about is we estimate over
80 ,000 veterans have lost their job in federal
employment in the last two or three months. 80
,000. That's a tidal wave of unemployed veterans.
And if you think about it, you know, I think
we want the narrative that Some people pitch
is that oh these are low -performing bureaucrats,
but if you look into it is actually not true
The vast majority of these people were probationary
employees right relative relatively new hires
to the government or people who are recently
promoting. So literally what the folks are getting
rid of those who are easy to get rid of, which
are, you know, new hires who are excited to come
start their job and serve. They're not jaded
bureaucrats. And those who are your top performers
who got promoted. These are great potential hires.
And yet the kind of resources, not great as they
are, that transitioning service members have
like TAP. Those are not open to these employees.
There's no systemic program to help them, and
they need help because even if they've been working
in government for 10, 20 years, you know, the
things you do to get hired and promoted in government
are very different than the private sector. Our
resources in the Call of Duty Endowment are open
to them, and we'd love to get the word out to
them. You know, it doesn't matter how long ago
you took off the uniform. If you served, we're
here to help. So that's an area where we're keenly
focused on. Getting better data, as we discussed,
that's another area. And then the third area
is really, quite frankly, getting that government
funding, federal government funding away from
the Department of Labor to, not to us, but to
our grantees so they can do more great work for
a much lower cost for the veteran community.
If you're a veteran out there and maybe you lost
your job in the federal purge, and you want to
know more about Call of Duty Endowment and maybe
get pointed to a non -profit grantee of the endowment.
How do folks learn more about the endowment and
how do they plug in? Yeah, so they go to callofdutyendowment
.org and click on veteran support and we'll connect
them with our highest performing grantees who
are most appropriate for their situation. Well,
we really appreciate the time you've given us
today, Dan Goldenberg, U .S. Navy Captain, retired
President of Call of Duty Endowment, and we're
really thrilled to talk about the data that you're
generating so that decisions can be made on that
versus feelings, and certainly you're having
a great impact, and we encourage all the work
that you're doing. Thanks for your time today.
Thank you, Jim. It was a real pleasure. We just
want to remind you that Veterans Radio podcasts
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Fossone. It's been a pleasure to be your host.
I'm a Veterans disability lawyer at Legal Help
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