What we look for
We fund high potential organizations that have the capacity to scale innovative tech-enabled solutions for maximum social impact.
Our selection criteria include:
- Social impact sectors: Fit within one or more of our priority social impact sectors: crisis/critical human needs, education, economic empowerment, and climate regeneration.
- Technology: We direct funding toward solutions that apply technology to deliver programs and services, and/or support organizational insights and operations - to connect the unconnected and close the digital and data divide.
- Replication: We look for solutions that can be replicated beyond the initial geography in which they are developed and implemented.
- Scale: We aim to support solutions that have potential for scale.
- Impact: We fund organizations that have a commitment to tracking progress, validating impact, and reporting transparently.
- Market demonstration and ecosystem impact: We look to support solutions that demonstrate market potential and/or will have result in ecosystems level impact.
- Organizational capacity and proximity: We look for organizations with strong management capacity, inclusive teams, and that are proximate to the communities they are supporting.
- Viability: We aim to support organizations and solutions that can be financially viable, and to ensure sustained impact beyond our lifecycle of engagement.
Types of support
We bring the best of Cisco and Splunk to our partners through a mix of funding, technology donations, strategic guidance, and employee volunteerism.
Funding
Our unique investment model is designed to fill a critical gap in funding for high-potential organizations – identifying those with early-stage, tech-enabled solutions that we believe have the potential to scale exponentially and deliver extraordinary impact across our priority social impact sectors.
Funding is provided both by Cisco Inc., via Social Impact Investments; and by the Cisco Foundation. Funding source(s) for each specific program are noted below.
Our specific funding programs:
- Global Impact Cash Grants: Funding to non-profits leveraging technology to deliver programs and opportunities that can be replicated and scaled at a country, regional, and/or global level. Funded by Cisco Inc. and the Cisco Foundation. (Open to concept notes, which can lead to an invitation to apply.)
- Regional Solution Cash Grants: Cisco employees identify and nominate standout local solutions for grant support. Funded by the Cisco Foundation. (By invitation only.)
- Splunk Cash Grants: Unrestricted funding and strategic partnerships to empower nonprofits across all sectors with the ability to discover and use their data to generate positive, lasting change. Funded by Cisco Inc. (By invitation only.)
- India Cash Grants: Collaborating on innovative solutions that empower underserved communities in India. Funded by Cisco Inc. in support of Cisco’s compliance with the India Companies Act. (Open to concept notes, which can lead to an invitation to apply.)
- Habitat for Humanity Cash Grants: Providing support to local Habitat affiliates that are building homes for families in need around the world. Funded by Cisco Inc. and the Cisco Foundation. (By invitation only.)
- Regenerative Future Fund Investments: Funding impact investments in early-stage climate companies, from Pre-Seed to Series A, in support of our $100M climate commitment. Funded by the Cisco Foundation. (Open to inquiries.)
Technology grants
We also find that the same Cisco technologies that deliver maximum impact for our business customers work equally well for our partner organizations.
Our specific technology grant programs:
- Cisco Technology Grant Program: Awarding Cisco’s best-in-class technology to qualifying nonprofits. Funded by Cisco Inc. (Two open application pathways online.)
- Splunk Product and Training Donation Program: Free software licenses and training to help nonprofit, academic, and research organizations secure data infrastructure, increase efficiency, and innovate new solutions to deliver more good. Funded by Cisco Inc. (Open application.)
Strategic and technical advisory services
We also connect our partners to strategic and technical advisory services from Cisco’s global employee community. These pro-bono consulting services support our partners across a range of areas, from solution design and testing, to security, governance, strategy, organization structure, marketing, and more. Advisory services are provided via both 1:1 consulting and by teams.
Employee volunteerism
Employees may also volunteer their time for individual and group volunteering as needed.
Grant giving policies
All supported organizations must adhere to Cisco policies related to nondiscrimination, religious proselytizing, nonsupport of violence and terrorism, advocacy, lobbying, and other political activities and other areas listed in our grant giving policies.
Measuring social impact
Accurately measuring progress and validating true impact are core to how we support our partners and drive exponential social value.
We work collaboratively with our partners to jointly establish key performance indicators and associated targets; support data collection, analysis, and validation; and provide advisory services and other support to enhance impact evaluation capabilities.
Together, we track various levels of impact including individual impact, community/ecosystem impact, and organization impact including:
- Social impact on individuals, communities, and ecosystems for each of our priority social impact sectors.
- Replication of solutions beyond initial geography
- Scale of reach and engagement
- Financial viability and additional funding secured
In 2016, Cisco set an ambitious goal to positively impact 1 billion people around the world through our Networking Academy initiative and Global Impact Grant program. In December 2023, we were thrilled to share that we exceeded our goal – more than a year earlier. Learn more about how we impacted one billion lives.
