Social Investment Areas
Crucial funding for vital needs
At Cisco, we make social investments in areas where we believe our technology and our people can make the biggest impact—education, economic empowerment, and critical human needs. Together, these investment areas help people overcome barriers of poverty and inequality, and make a lasting difference by fostering strong global communities.
Education
Our strategy is to invest in technology-based solutions that increase access while improving student performance, engagement, and career exploration. We support K-12 solutions that emphasize science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) as well as literacy. We also consider programs that teach environmental sustainability, eliminate barriers to accessing climate change education, and invite student engagement globally to positively affect the environment.
What we look for:
- Innovative early grade solutions using the internet and technology to bridge the barriers preventing access to education for underserved students globally.
- Solutions that positively affect student attendance, attitudes, and behavior while inspiring action by students to improve learning outcomes, whether they participate in person, online, or in blended learning environments.
- Solutions with high potential to replicate and scale globally, thereby increasing the availability of evidence-based solutions that support student-centricity, teacher capacity in the classroom, and increased parental participation to help students learn and develop.
Note that Cisco does not provide direct funding to nonprofits or schools for the following:
- Sustaining existing programs, interventions, or solutions.
- Geographic replication through sponsorships.
- Purchasing 3rd party technology solutions for learning management, customer relationship management, or collaboration technologies.
- Paying on-going operational expenses for teachers/administrators/aids salaries, purchasing supplies, paying student tuition, purchasing equipment (i.e. hardware and/or software), or recurring utilities.
Learn more about our community partners and CSR programs in education.
Economic empowerment
Our strategy is to invest in early stage, tech-enabled solutions that provide equitable access to the knowledge, skills, and resources that people need to support themselves and their families toward resilience, independence, and economic security.
Our goal is to support solutions that benefit individuals and families, and that contribute to local community growth and economic development in a sustainable economy.
We target our support in three interconnected areas:
- Skills development to help job seekers secure dignified employment and long-term career pathways in technology or other sectors, including environmental sustainability/green jobs.
- Inclusive entrepreneurship with small businesses as engines of local growth as well as high growth potential start-ups as large-scale job creators nationally and internationally, in technology or other sectors, including environment sustainability/green businesses.
- Banking the unbanked through relevant and affordable financial products and capacity building services.
Learn more about our community partners and CSR programs that support economic empowerment.
Critical human needs
We seek to help overcome the cycle of poverty and dependence and achieve a more sustainable future through strategic investments. We back organizations that successfully address critical needs of underserved communities, because those who have their basic needs met are better equipped to learn and thrive.
What we look for:
- Innovative solutions that increase the capacity of grantees to deliver their products and services more effectively and efficiently
- Design and implementation of web-based tools that increase the availability of, or improve access to, products and services that are necessary for people to survive and thrive
- Programs that increase access to clean water, food, shelter, or disaster relief and promote a more sustainable future for all
Note: By policy, relief campaigns respond to significant natural disaster and humanitarian crises as opposed to those caused by human conflict. Also by policy, our investments in this area do not include healthcare solutions.
Learn more about our community partners and CSR programs in critical human needs.
Explore our grant programs
Product Grant Program
We donate networking technology to help nonprofits make innovative use of the Internet.
Global Impact Cash Grants
Funding to multiply the results of organizations with national or multinational operations.
Bay Area Community Impact Grants
Support for eligible organizations in underserved communities near San Jose, California.