Global Impact Grant Program

Education investments

Supporting students, teachers, and schools by increasing engagement, building skills, promoting subject mastery, and expanding student capacity to thrive.

Global outlook

Improving global access to education prepares individuals, and their communities, to capture the benefits of the digital economy and thrive.

44 M

UNESCO reports 44 million additional teachers are needed by 2030

44 %

WEF reports that 44% of worker core skills are expected to change in 5 years

10-15 points

From 2018-2022, math scores declined by an average of 15 points, while reading skills declined by 10.

Education Hero

Our strategy

Globally, society seeks to improve access to education, and experience indicates that education and innovation are interconnected. To move ahead, society must address key factors involving lack of reliable access and quality—thereby bridging the data divide for students, teachers, and communities.

Education impact pillars

We focus on supporting solutions across four key areas aligned to our strategy:

Scaling student-focused STEM, climate and literacy solutions

We invest in early grade direct service solutions that emphasize science, technology, engineering, math (STEM), youth climate actions and literacy.

Building teacher classroom capacity

We support solutions which build, enable and foster teacher productivity and proven practices that benefit students.

Preparing youth for the innovation economy

We engage students with relevant, engaging and industry aligned career exploration and relevant industry innovation.

Bridging the learning digital divide

We advance ecosystems that improve access to internet connectivity and learning devices.

Innovation leads to measurable impact

We measure the areas that matter most to ensure our key investment goals are met.

13.3 M

13.3 million students and teachers have engaged in early grade Computer Science education delivered by Code.org in classrooms in over 180 countries.

6.6 M

6.6 million students and young people have received specific, relevant and actionable career guidance around the world by CareerVillage.org.

2 M

2 million students engaged in climate and STEM education delivered in classrooms by over 24K teachers via Cool.org.

Our funding recipients

Learn about the nonprofits that Cisco is supporting as part of our Education investment sector.

The Algebra Project: The Algebra Project is dedicated to enhancing math literacy through innovative approaches in secondary education, aiming to elevate math skills for all children.

BellXcel: BellXcel is a nationally recognized nonprofit that creates innovative solutions for school districts and community organizations to improve out-of-school-time (OST) programs.

CareerVillage.org: CareerVillage democratizes access to career information and advice for underrepresented youth by crowdsourcing the answers to all questions students submit about any career.

Code.org: Code.org expands access to computer science and AI education in classrooms around the world striving for every student in every school for the opportunity to learn globally. 

ColorMyOutdoors: Color My Outdoors are committed to creating a future where outdoor spaces are places of belonging, representation, and leadership for Black and Brown communities.

CommonLit: CommonLit is a comprehensive literacy program with thousands of reading lessons, full-year ELA curriculum, benchmark assessments, and standards-based data for teachers.

Cool.org: Cool.org equips educators to provide exceptional learning experiences to students with the skills to solve real-world issues in social, environmental, and STEM.

Darsel: Darsel is a math solution bridging the digital divide with low-end phones and AI to improve learning outcomes and reverse learning losses in low and middle income countries. 

European Schoolnet: European Schoolnet leads communities of STEM teachers in over 34 member EMEA countries to improve innovation and access to STEM education.  

Glific (Project Tech4Dev): Glific is two-way communication platform that bridges the digital divide gap between schools and education organizations with teachers, students and their households. 

Human-I-T: Human-I-T strives to bridge access to devices, internet access, and provide digital skills training to support communities left on the wrong side of the digital divide. 

mEducation Alliance: Cisco supports the launch of “MathPower! Explorer,” an early-stage math education solution for math education using interactive voice response (IVR) in East Africa. 

Carnegie Mellon University CyLab: CyLab’s outreach and awareness picoCTF program provides web-based, publicly accessible tools for use by individuals and teachers in classrooms to raise global awareness of cybersecurity. 

Raspberry Pi Foundation: Raspberry Pi Foundation mission is to enables all young people to realize their full potential through computing through practical classroom experience to help teachers bring the excitement coding and AI into the classroom. 

Save the Children: Save the Children with their Waliku program provides an attendance capture with learning outcomes platform for frontline educators in underserved communities around the world.  

Science Buddies: Science Buddies strives to inspire and educate students of all ages with hands-on STEM explorations through educational experiences centered on student discovery, engagement in STEM. 

Talking Points: TalkingPoints solutions foster family engagement with teachers and school administrators, driving tangible increases in student attendance and learning outcomes in reading, writing and math. 

Ten Strands: Ten Strands builds environmental and climate literacy curriculum with an eye to benefit all students with innovative learning experiences that interoperate with school learning systems.

We Thrive: WeThrive platform serves local communities and schools by providing an out-of-the-box youth entrepreneurship training and recognition program for underestimated youth nationally.

Expanded access to education transforms lives

Our social impact partners help learners access the tools, knowledge, and support they need to move ahead in their lives while building their families and communities.

Harnassing teacher feedback to drive better learning

Cisco AI experts helped our grantee CommonLit benefit from machine learning.

Gamifying cybersecurity to pique curiosity in STEM

Our grantee picoCTF has developed innovative tools to engage students.

Using tech to bridge the digital divide for all.

Our grantee World Possible reaches offline learners with an innovative server.

Purpose Reporting Hub and Cisco Purpose Report

Cisco is putting people, technology, and resources toward Powering an Inclusive Future for All, where everyone has the opportunity to thrive.