A key part of Cisco's social investment portfolio, the Cisco Systems Foundation provides financial grants to organizations in communities where Cisco has offices or a large number of employees. The foundation is a separate, private, nonprofit (501c3) organization, established with a gift from Cisco Systems in the form of an endowment. At the close of FY2006, the total value of the annual foundation endowment was more than $150 million, up from about $100 million in FY2005 because of a $50 million contribution from the corporation to the foundation.
In addition to providing nearly $10 million in grants, the foundation invested $500,000 in MicroVest, a leading microfinance investment fund. This represents a new investment vehicle for Cisco Systems Foundation and will fund microfinance institutions that support the entrepreneurial poor throughout Latin America, Eastern Europe, and Asia.
Two of the foundation's most enduring partnerships are discussed in this report:
- Teachers Without Borders
- One Economy
Teachers Without Borders
Teachers Without Borders is devoted to closing the education divide through teacher professional development and community education. The organization is established in 119 countries and will be opening in-country offices in China, Brazil, and Zambia this year.
Through Teachers Without Borders, Cisco Systems Foundation funded a program in South Africa that trained 850 teachers and 2000 students in science and math. For the first time, 100 of these students took the national standards test and 63 percent passed. Tribal elders now see science and math as educational necessities. The South African government was so impressed by this program that they have offered to build a Teachers Without Borders school for the poorest population in South Africa and cover 60 percent of its salary costs.
One Economy
One Economy is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to maximize technology to help low-income people improve their lives and enter the economic mainstream. Cisco's partnership with One Economy helps the organization bring computers and Internet access and training to low-income families and neighborhoods that do not currently have regular access to this technology.
Thirteen Cisco Community Fellows worked nationally to accelerate broadband installation and computer training in low-income homes and help nonprofit housing development and social services agencies use networking technology to improve their operations.
One Economy created The Beehive Website,
where more than 8 million low-income individuals go for information and resources about jobs, money, health care, school, and family. In addition to maintaining this portal, One Economy also works with owners and developers of new affordable housing across the country to consider broadband installation and Internet access as indispensable components of their housing plans. A Cisco Leadership Fellow working with One Economy is also developing a business plan for the organization to equip existing low-income housing with broadband access.
