Cisco Systems Foundation Grants for Mississippi Education

Cisco Systems Foundation Grants for Mississippi Education is sponsored by Cisco Systems Foundation. Nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations using technology to deliver education, crisis response, or economic empowerment programs in Mississippi and beyond can seek up to US $100,000 for innovative, early-stage solutions serving mostly economically underserved communities.

Cisco Foundation | Inside Philanthropy OVERVIEW: The Cisco Foundation, the charitable foundation affiliated with Cisco Systems, supports technology-enabled approaches to education, economic empowerment, climate resilience and crisis response. IP TAKE: Cisco is a relatively approachable corporate funder for nonprofits that fit its Global Impact Cash Grant criteria.

Eligible organizations can submit an unsolicited letter of inquiry year-round; full proposals are invitation-only. Strong prospects have technology-enabled programs that serve economically underserved communities, generate measurable results and can be replicated or scaled beyond a single locality.

Cisco also makes local grants through an employee-nominated program, so relationships with Cisco employees can matter significantly for smaller, place-based organizations. PROFILE: The Cisco Foundation was established in 1997 with support from Cisco Systems.

The foundation works alongside Cisco’s Social Impact Investments team and aims to help organizations create and scale digital solutions that support healthy, resilient communities and improve the well-being and self-reliance of underserved people. Its four current priority areas are Cisco Crisis Response, Education, Economic Empowerment and Climate Resilience .

In addition to cash funding, Cisco and the foundation may support partners with technology, strategic and technical assistance and employee volunteerism. Cisco awards grants in geographic areas where its parent company has a significant operational presence.

The foundation’s central competitive funding mechanism is the Global Impact Cash Grant Program , which supports nonprofits using technology to address significant social challenges and develop solutions with potential for replication and scale.

Cisco also maintains other funding mechanisms, including employee-nominated Regional Solution Cash Grants, Habitat for Humanity grants and climate impact investments through the Cisco Foundation Regenerative Future Fund. Grants for Environment, Climate Change and Clean Energy Cisco currently calls this priority area Climate Resilience .

In 2021, the foundation committed $100 million over 10 years to nonprofit grants and impact investments in climate solutions. Its current nonprofit climate grant priorities include nature preservation and restoration, regenerative and resilient agriculture, climate finance, and climate education and action. The foundation is particularly interested in technology-enabled approaches to climate resilience.

Current or recent nonprofit partners listed by Cisco include the Amazon Sacred Headwaters Alliance, Digital Green, Digital Opportunity Trust, Kara Solar, Terraso, Vibrant Data Labs, Mad Agriculture, One Acre Fund, RMI and The Nature Conservancy, among many others. Recent tax filings reinforce the foundation’s interest in data, conservation, agriculture, climate finance and workforce strategies.

Its FY2024 grant list included, for example, $500,000 for World Wildlife Fund work on a nature-based solutions platform in Peru, $500,000 for a climate finance tracker associated with Vibrant Data Labs, about $372,000 to Work on Climate and $450,000 to Technology Matters for the Terraso platform. The foundation also operates the Regenerative Future Fund , an impact-investing vehicle rather than a nonprofit grant program.

It invests in early-stage climate companies and venture funds, with current interests in clean energy access and innovation, carbon solutions, regenerative agriculture, adaptation and resilience technologies, and early-stage climate funds. Cisco says this program is open to inquiries . Current investments include Aikido Technologies, Chloris Geospatial, Mitti Labs, Terradot and Vibrant Planet.

Climate nonprofits seeking ordinary charitable funding should use the Global Impact Cash Grant process rather than the impact-investment pathway.

Cisco’s current Education strategy centers on four areas: Scaling student-focused STEM, climate and literacy programs; Building teacher classroom capacity; Preparing young people for careers in the innovation economy; and Bridging the digital divide by improving access to internet connectivity and learning devices.

The foundation backs technology-enabled education models rather than making grants directly to individual schools through the Global Impact program. Current grantee partners include Code. org, CommonLit, CareerVillage.

org, Raspberry Pi Foundation, Save the Children, European Schoolnet, Human-I-T, World Possible and the Algebra Project, among others. Recent grants have supported curriculum, educational technology, teacher resources and digital access. The FY2024 grant list included $400,000 to CommonLit, $350,000 to Save the Children, $300,000 to Code.

org, $225,000 to World Possible and $100,000 to the Algebra Project. Cisco also operates Cisco Networking Academy , its longstanding digital-skills initiative, but the academy is a broader Cisco program rather than a Cisco Foundation competitive grant program. Cisco’s current education page lists Networking Academy under additional education resources, separately from its Foundation and Global Impact grantmaking.

Grants for Work and Opportunity Cisco calls this funding area Economic Empowerment . Its current strategy has three main components: developing skills-to-career pathways, supporting entrepreneurs and expanding financial inclusion. Cisco seeks technology-enabled solutions that help underserved people obtain employment and career opportunities, start or grow businesses, and access financial products and services.

Current Global Impact grantees in this area include Entrepreneurship for All, FINCA Ventures, Generation, Laboratoria, Opportunity International and Solar Sister. Other listed partners include Bridges to Prosperity, Center on Rural Innovation, Defy Ventures and the International Rescue Committee. Recent awards illustrate the breadth of this portfolio.

The foundation’s FY2024 grant list included $500,000 to Opportunity International for digital innovation in women’s economic empowerment, $225,000 to FINCA International, $200,000 to Bridges to Prosperity and $300,000 to Digital Green for climate-resilient farmer producer organizations. The strongest fits are not limited to conventional workforce training.

Cisco also backs technology-enabled entrepreneurship, access to capital, financial inclusion, small-business development and economic mobility models. Grants for Disaster Relief and Humanitarian Aid Cisco Crisis Response combines cash support with emergency connectivity, technology solutions, technical expertise, capacity building and partnerships with humanitarian organizations and emergency-response agencies.

Cisco says the initiative has supported responses in more than 60 countries and has disbursed more than $184 million in cash grants for disaster relief and critical human needs over its history. Cisco works with organizations including Habitat for Humanity, NetHope and Destination: Home. Cisco helped establish NetHope in 2001 and continues to support its consortium of humanitarian organizations.

The FY2024 grant list included $250,000 to Trek Medics International for its cloud-based emergency dispatch platform, grants to World Central Kitchen for Gaza relief, $200,000 to Mercy Corps for emergency response in Palestine and $150,000 to International Medical Corps for humanitarian crisis response in Gaza.

Crisis Response organizations may also qualify for the Global Impact Cash Grant pathway if they meet its eligibility requirements. Separately, organizations responding to an active emergency may request communications assistance through Cisco Crisis Response. Cisco publishes a separate non-emergency Crisis Response contact address, crisisresponse-info@cisco.

com . Other Cisco Foundation Grantmaking Global Impact Cash Grants The Global Impact Cash Grant Program is Cisco’s main publicly accessible nonprofit grant opportunity. It supports U.S. and international nonprofits with national or multinational operations .

Programs must align with Crisis Response, Education, Economic Empowerment or Climate Resilience and serve a population that is more than 65% economically underserved , relative to the target geography. Cisco gives priority to programs that make innovative use of technology, measure their impact, address significant unmet needs and have credible potential for replication, scale and long-term sustainability.

The company also looks for strong organizational leadership and management capacity. The program accepts applications year-round . Prospects begin with an online eligibility quiz.

Organizations that pass may submit a Letter of Inquiry describing the nonprofit, proposed program, population served and budget. Cisco may take up to one business quarter to review an LOI. Organizations whose concepts are judged to be a strong fit are then invited to submit a full proposal.

The maximum request for a first-time grant recipient is $100,000 . Regional Solution Cash Grants Regional Solution Cash Grants support promising local organizations identified and nominated by Cisco employees. These grants are funded by the Cisco Foundation and are invitation-only .

This is an important distinction for smaller local nonprofits. Organizations that do not have the national or multinational reach expected of Global Impact applicants may be better positioned for a Regional Solution grant, but there is no public application process.

Habitat for Humanity Cash Grants Cisco and the Cisco Foundation also make invitation-only grants to local Habitat for Humanity affiliates building housing for families in need. The Foundation’s FY2024 filing shows numerous $10,000 general-support grants to Habitat affiliates around the country, consistent with this program. The Cisco Foundation reported approximately $18.

9 million in charitable disbursements in FY2025 , according to its latest Form 990-PF as compiled by ProPublica. The filing reported about $242 million in net assets. For a national or international nonprofit that clearly meets the Global Impact criteria, the best first move is to use Cisco’s eligibility quiz and LOI process rather than waiting for an introduction.

A strong inquiry should demonstrate that the program reaches predominantly economically underserved people, uses technology in a meaningful way, has measurable outcomes and can scale beyond the initial project geography.

For smaller or local organizations, there is no comparable open Regional Solution application; cultivating substantive connections with Cisco employees through volunteering, community partnerships or existing issue networks is more relevant because employees nominate organizations for that program.

Cisco accepts letters of inquiry via its Global Impact Cash Grants Program from “organizations around the globe with national or multinational operations. ” Start the application process by completing the eligibility quiz. Eligible organizations may submit proposals at any time, but the foundation may take up to three months to review letters.

Full proposals are accepted by invitation only. See complete guidelines here . For information about past giving see the foundation’s funding recipients section or its annual reports .

Contact the Cisco Foundation via email at ciscofoundation@cisco. com or by telephone at (408) 527-3040. Enable JavaScript to continue This site uses JavaScript to verify your account, display articles, and provide other features.

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