Cisco Foundation

Tech-enabled solutions for a healthy planet and thriving communities

About Us

The Cisco Foundation was established in 1997 by a gift from Cisco Systems, Inc. Together with Cisco Social Impact Investments, the Foundation aims to catalyze a vibrant ecosystem of changemakers working to positively impact people and communities around the world.

Vision and Mission

We envision a world of equitable, resilient, and empowered communities where everyone can reach their full potential and thrive. Our mission is to partner with organizations to create and scale innovative digital solutions that promote a healthy planet and advance the well-being and self-reliance of underserved communities globally. We accomplish this by harnessing the breadth of Cisco’s offerings of strategic guidance, catalytic funding, technology donations, and support from the Cisco community.

Theory of Change

Our Theory of Change illustrates our guiding principles, our offerings, and how these offerings drive measurable outcomes and impact toward our vision and mission.

Cisco Foundation’s FY24 Impact Report

Dive deeper into the Cisco Foundation’s vision, mission, and unique approach to social impact – and experience the progress, partnerships, and impact we created in Fiscal Year 2024. 

Our priority social impact sectors

We focus on investing in innovative, tech-enabled solutions to the challenges and opportunities that matter most to communities in need, prioritizing four social impact sectors:

  • Crisis Response/Critical Human Needs: Mobilizing to provide essentials to communities in need and those in crisis, including food, housing, secure connectivity, and disaster relief
  • Education: Supporting students, teachers, and schools by increasing engagement, building skills, promoting subject mastery, and expanding their capacity to thrive
  • Economic Empowerment: Transforming communities through skill development, long-term career opportunities, entrepreneurship, and access to financial products and services
  • Climate Regeneration: Building an inclusive, regenerative, and resilient climate future through education, regenerative agriculture, conservation/protection, and clean energy solutions

Our offerings

Catalytic 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 four priority social impact sectors. We provide early-stage, seed-level funding to high potential organizations to design, create, test, and scale technology enabled and delivered solutions that can result in deep impact.

Grants and impact investments: We invest in both non-profit and for-profit innovators:

  • Global Impact 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. Learn how to apply.
  • Regional Solution Grants: Funding to non-profits leveraging technology to deliver programs and opportunities within a specific community or country. (By invitation only.)
  • Habitat for Humanity grants: Providing support to build homes for families in need around the world. (By invitation only.)
  • Impact investments for climate solutions: Funding investments in early-stage climate companies, from Pre-Seed to Series A, in support of our $100M climate commitment. Explore climate investments.

Strategic guidance: But we don’t just write a check. As a technology company with a long history of innovation, we share the best of Cisco’s strategic expertise with our partners, providing ongoing support to help them advance promising ideas to pilot project to proven concept, and then to replicate and scale for maximum impact.

Technology investments: We also find that the same Cisco technologies that deliver maximum impact for our business customers work equally well for our partner organizations.  Our partners and other qualifying nonprofit organizations can tap into Cisco’s Technology Grant Program so they can secure connect and deliver their programs, get better data and insights into their business operations, and improve their productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness.

Measuring impact

We define impact as a positive, measurable change in outcomes for individuals. Positive impact is defined as and varies by social impact sector.

Across our social impact investment portfolios, we further define positive impact as occurring when an individual has:

  • Successfully gained access to a critical resource              
  • Engaged meaningfully in the formal economy           
  • Demonstrated learning

 

Learn more about how we define and measure impact.

Additional resources

Other social impact offerings

Social impact partners (major grantees)

Blogs and case studies

Subscribe to our newsletter

One billion lives positively impacted

Foundation Leadership

Charu Adesnik, Executive Director, Cisco Foundation; Director, Social Impact Investments, Cisco
Mary de Wysocki, Senior Vice President, Chief Sustainability Officer, Cisco
Guy Diedrich, Senior Vice President, Digital Inclusion Office, Cisco
Saidah Grayson Dill, Vice President, Legal and Deputy General Counsel, Cisco
Rob Johnson, Senior Vice President, Global Tax and Customs Administration, Cisco
John Morgridge, Chairman Emeritus, Cisco
John Rivers, Vice President, Global Services Sales, Cisco
Alba San Martin, Senior Director, Latin America Partner Organization, Cisco
Agostino Santoni, Vice President, EMEAR South Sales, Cisco
Brian Tippens, Chairperson Cisco Foundation; Senior Vice President and Chief Social Impact and Inclusion Officer, Cisco
Jacqueline Wong, Senior Director, Commerce Lifecyle Operations Asia Pacific, Cisco

Cisco Foundation financial disclosures

Review Cisco Foundation U.S. IRS 990PF reports:

Power an inclusive future for all

We pursue our purpose by closing the digital divide, empowering the future of work, fighting for equality and social justice, and building a regenerative planet.