Our funding recipients
Learn about the nonprofits that Cisco is supporting as part of our Economic Empowerment sector.
Economic Empowerment grantee partners
Agora Partnerships: Agora Partnerships accelerates the growth and sustainability of Latin American social impact entrepreneurs and small businesses across a multitude of industries. Their platform built with Cisco support, Ecochallenge, empowers entrepreneurs to apply sustainable solutions to run and grow their businesses, increase revenue, enter new markets/gain market share, and reduce their carbon footprint.
Astia: Astia is transforming the way businesses are funded, providing capital, connections, and guidance that fuel the growth of best-in-class entrepreneurs. With our partnership, they have been able to develop the Connect platform through which all of their deal sourcing, screening, and investment happens—enabling them to attract a more diverse investor pool.
Bridges to Prosperity: Bridges To Prosperity builds bridges to better lives in rural communities. Cisco supports their Fika Map project, a suite of remote analysis AI and machine learning tools to identify transportation barriers in hard-to-reach regions.
Center on Rural Innovation: Center on Rural Innovation (CORI) works with rural communities to build tech economies launching initiatives that support innovation, entrepreneurship, workforce development, and tech job creation in the places they call home. Cisco is supporting CORI’s work using technology to improve the impact of their workforce development programs.
Centro Community Partners: Centro provides entrepreneurs with education, one-on-one business coaching, mentorship, leadership programs, and access to capital so they can create local jobs, become financially stable, and help build thriving communities. Through support from Cisco, Centro is streamlining and improving the efficiency of its operations, as well as developing innovations for entrepreneurship through Centro Labs.
Defy Ventures: Defy’s entrepreneurial programs empower the formerly incarcerated to defy the odds by equipping them with the new skills and new connections needed to succeed. Cisco is supporting Defy to digitize their CEO of Your New Life curriculum to enable scaling to new prison locations.
Entrepreneurship for All: Entrepreneurship for All (EforAll) is accelerating economic and social impact through entrepreneurship in midsize U.S. cities. Cisco is supporting making EforAll programs available virtually, enabling them to quickly scale across the U.S.
FINCA: FINCA offers responsible, relevant, and affordable financial products and services such as small loans or savings accounts to people in remote communities using technology like mobile phones and tablets. Cisco is supporting FINCA in using technology and data to target clients with relevant and culturally sensitive content in local languages, as well as FINCA Ventures’ investments in innovative companies focusing on climate and fintech solutions throughout Africa.
Generation: Generation is a global nonprofit network that transforms education to employment systems to prepare, place, and support people into life-changing careers that would otherwise be inaccessible. Cisco is supporting Generation’s platform upgrades, enabling both global scale and enhanced data capture, as well as AI pilots in its job search and match functionality.
International Rescue Committee: Supporting Access to Financial Empowerment (SAFE) empowers new humanitarian entrants as they begin their journey to financial stability and economic security in their new homes across the U.S. Cisco’s support is enabling the IRC to expand the existing SAFE platform to build out multi-lingual tech offerings to serve as a portal for all new humanitarian entrant communities, starting with Spanish-speaking communities.
Laboratoria: Laboratoria empowers Latin Americans from low-income backgrounds by giving them access to education and work in technology. Cisco is supporting the development of Laboratoria's assessment, learning, and evaluation platform.
Living Goods: With Cisco's support, Living Goods has developed and implemented a set of mobile apps and underlying technology platform to increase the scale, efficiency, and effectiveness of the organization's micro-entrepreneur network and improve health outcomes in Uganda, Kenya, and Burkina Faso.
NESsT: NESsT develops sustainable social enterprises that solve critical social problems in emerging market economies. Cisco is supporting their investments in climate- and tech-focused entrepreneurs in the Amazon region.
New Energy Nexus: New Energy Nexus’ supports entrepreneurs in driving innovation into the global clean energy economy. Cisco is supporting the New Energy Academy, an online-offline training platform for electricians and technical professionals looking to build their solar installation and design skills and enter the solar sector as an entrepreneur or professional.
Opportunity International: With Cisco support, Opportunity International is designing and delivering mobile banking products and training to low-income people globally who lack access to financial products and services.
Solar Sister: Solar Sister recruits, trains, and supports entrepreneurs in building businesses designed to generate clean energy for off-grid communities in Africa. Cisco is supporting the organization in using technology to enhance the digital skills of its entrepreneurs and improve the efficiency of Solar Sister's operations to support its overall growth objectives.
Trickle Up: Trickle Up supports the development of sustainable livelihoods for those living in extreme poverty, using a "graduation" approach to help start and build financially viable businesses. Cisco is supporting Trickle Up in applying technology to connect coaches with their beneficiaries to deliver capacity building and other critical services, which will facilitate deeper connections between Trickle Up and the people it serves.
Upwardly Global: Upwardly Global works to eliminate employment barriers for work-authorized skilled job-seekers who have international credentials, so they can successfully join the professional U.S. workforce. Cisco is supporting the organization's efforts to develop, pilot and scale tech-enabled products and services that address barriers to quality employment faced by new job seekers.
