April is World Volunteer Month. All month lengthy, we’re recognizing a few of the methods Cisco staff give their time, abilities, and experience of their communities.
In 1991, the US established April as Nationwide Volunteer Month. At present, that scope has expanded, and it’s acknowledged as World Volunteer Month. Since Cisco’s founding 40 years in the past, giving again to our communities has been part of our custom.
Giving again as a behavior is a part of what it means to work at Cisco at the moment. It’s an essential side of our tradition and supported by a wide range of applications. Merely put, our staff love to assist their communities and Cisco helps their efforts.
Workers Volunteer, Cisco Donates
Our industry-leading Matching Items Program matches eligible worker money and inventory donations dollar-for-dollar as much as $10,000 every year—but it surely’s not simply financial donations which might be eligible for matches. By means of this system, staff may also get their volunteer time matched with a $10-per-hour donation from Cisco to the group the place they gave their time.
In FY24, staff gave 720,000 hours in volunteer time and used the Matching Items Program to get their eligible hours matched with a donation from Cisco.
For instance, in Kraków, staff not too long ago partnered with Hearty Basis, a neighborhood group that helps kids’s training and social welfare. Cisco staff organized a collection of workshops for college students centered on cyber safety, programming, and different important digital abilities. Additionally they developed a full-day Future STEM Heroes occasion designed to ignite an curiosity in science and expertise. Altogether, staff volunteered 36 hours of their time to assist college students leading to a Cisco donation of $3,600 to the muse.
In London, our Meraki Provides EMEA chapter organized a digital volunteering occasion with the Psychiatry Analysis Belief. Workers from across the globe attended and discovered in regards to the group’s groundbreaking analysis, in addition to the significance of each resilience in our communities and the worth of decreasing psychological well being stigma.
“Cisco’s $10 match per volunteer hour added a particular dimension to our partnership with the Belief,” mentioned Meraki Provides World Co-lead Racha Tfaili. “By getting their time matched with donations, staff not solely discovered in regards to the essential work this group is doing, additionally they raised greater than $3,500 to maintain this essential analysis going.”
At all times-On Alternatives
Our always-on Neighborhood Influence Portal is a digital instrument that permits staff each to prepare volunteer occasions for others to affix and to join volunteering. Volunteering will be in-person, digital, or team-based. Our staff volunteer for the whole lot from native meals kitchens to worldwide help organizations to digital camps that assist youngsters find out about expertise.
“In FY24, our buyer engineering group had 100% participation in volunteering” says Buyer Supply Chief Monica Huerta Castillo. “Cisco’s Neighborhood Influence Portal helped us establish volunteer alternatives. We’ve accomplished the whole lot from digital volunteering to on-site actions to going out to volunteer on initiatives within the area. We do it as a result of it’s a part of who we’re. We additionally discover that our group tradition—which incorporates our values of belief, humility, empathy, and curiosity—is strengthened after we volunteer collectively. If we are able to influence the world as a group, think about what we are able to do inside Cisco!”
In 2025, we’re making it simpler for workers to seek out and be a part of volunteer occasions by way of our new companywide quarterly World Week of Giving. Began organically by one in all our enterprise items, we acknowledged the facility of a centered week that brings our staff collectively. That’s why we’re increasing this system to be obtainable to all staff. We accomplice with neighborhood teams in focus areas similar to training, sustainability, meals safety, and poverty.
Paid Time Off for Volunteering
One other method we assist worker volunteerism is thru our Time2Give profit, which offers every worker as much as 10 days of paid time without work per 12 months to volunteer. Some staff have taken a two-week block to journey on worldwide volunteer missions. Others unfold their outing with common volunteering in faculties. Nonetheless others have used their time to present specialised abilities to nonprofits similar to coding and professional bono authorized work.
Stella Au, an government assistant in New York, traveled to Vietnam the place she was joined by six Cisco colleagues from Australia. Collectively, they used their Time2Give advantages to assist construct a house for 2 sisters in Thai Binh. “I traded my laptop computer for shovel and trowel and acquired my arms soiled—mixing cement, chopping metal wires, and laying bricks,” mentioned Au. “One of many new owners burst into tears overwhelmed with pleasure that she now not has to run to a neighbor’s home each time it rains. That’s when it actually hit me: this was greater than only a home—we have been constructing safety, hope, and a brighter future. Cisco’s Time2Give made it doable for me to do that.”
It All Provides Up
In FY16, we set a aim to have 80% of staff give again to their communities a minimum of as soon as within the 12 months by 2020. We achieved this milestone and have sustained it every year since.
One of many methods we did this was by recognizing that giving again takes a number of totally different types. Organized volunteer efforts have worth, however so can doing one thing good for a neighbor in want. That’s why staff may also contribute to our 80% aim by way of Cisco Citizen, a program that acknowledges volunteer efforts not lined by different applications.
In FY24, we as soon as once more hit our 80% aim with 70,000 Cisco staff world wide performing in service of individuals, planet, and society.
“I really feel very lucky to work for an organization that cares for not solely staff’ wellbeing, but additionally our communities and atmosphere,” mentioned Digital Advertising Supervisor Vivien Chia, who can also be the APJC Lead for Cisco’s Inexperienced Group Community. “For my part, giving again has the facility to unite folks to come back collectively to make higher impacts. Much more important and significant impacts will be made when there may be assist from companies. By means of the Matching Items Program, Time2Give, and the Cisco Citizen volunteer monitoring program, we are able to elevate extra consciousness and expedite pressing change.”
Making a Collective Influence
Our collective actions have contributed to constructing a tradition the place serving communities in want has change into a part of our DNA. Participating at scale allows us to donate extra to nonprofits, reply to extra crises, improve volunteering assist, and do extra good for the world.
Throughout World Volunteer Month, we acknowledge and have fun all of the methods our staff make a constructive influence.
To be taught extra in regards to the influence Cisco staff are making, try our “What We Achieved” eBook about how we’ve got supported our staff’ giving again efforts and reworked our collective contributions within the course of.
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