April is International Volunteer Month. All month lengthy, we’re recognizing a number of the methods Cisco staff give their time, abilities, and experience of their communities.
In 1991, the US established April as Nationwide Volunteer Month. Right now, that scope has expanded, and it’s acknowledged as International 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 right this moment. It’s an vital facet of our tradition and supported by a wide range of packages. Merely put, our staff love to assist their communities and Cisco helps their efforts.
Workers Volunteer, Cisco Donates
Our industry-leading Matching Presents Program matches eligible worker money and inventory donations dollar-for-dollar as much as $10,000 every year—nevertheless it’s not simply financial donations which might be eligible for matches. By means of this system, staff also can 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 Presents 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 youngsters’s training and social welfare. Cisco staff organized a sequence of workshops for college kids 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 know-how. 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 Offers EMEA chapter organized a digital volunteering occasion with the Psychiatry Analysis Belief. Workers from across the globe attended and realized concerning the group’s groundbreaking analysis, in addition to the significance of each resilience in our communities and the worth of lowering psychological well being stigma.
“Cisco’s $10 match per volunteer hour added a particular dimension to our partnership with the Belief,” stated Meraki Offers International Co-lead Racha Tfaili. “By getting their time matched with donations, staff not solely realized concerning the vital work this group is doing, in addition they raised greater than $3,500 to maintain this important analysis going.”
At all times-On Alternatives
Our always-on Neighborhood Impression Portal is a digital instrument that permits staff each to arrange volunteer occasions for others to affix and to join volunteering. Volunteering might be in-person, digital, or team-based. Our staff volunteer for the whole lot from native meals kitchens to worldwide assist organizations to digital camps that assist youngsters study know-how.
“In FY24, our buyer engineering group had 100% participation in volunteering” says Buyer Supply Chief Monica Huerta Castillo. “Cisco’s Neighborhood Impression Portal helped us determine volunteer alternatives. We’ve completed the whole lot from digital volunteering to on-site actions to going out to volunteer on initiatives within the subject. 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 once we volunteer collectively. If we will affect the world as a group, think about what we will do inside Cisco!”
In 2025, we’re making it simpler for workers to search out and be a part of volunteer occasions by way of our new companywide quarterly International Week of Giving. Began organically by certainly one of our enterprise models, we acknowledged the facility of a centered week that brings our staff collectively. That’s why we’re increasing this system to be out there to all staff. We companion with group teams in focus areas equivalent to training, sustainability, meals safety, and poverty.
Paid Time Off for Volunteering
One other manner we assist worker volunteerism is thru our Time2Give profit, which offers every worker as much as 10 days of paid time without work per yr to volunteer. Some staff have taken a two-week block to journey on worldwide volunteer missions. Others unfold their day trip with common volunteering in colleges. Nonetheless others have used their time to present specialised abilities to nonprofits equivalent to coding and professional bono authorized work.
Stella Au, an govt 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 received my palms soiled—mixing cement, chopping metal wires, and laying bricks,” stated Au. “One of many new owners burst into tears overwhelmed with pleasure that she 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 attainable for me to do that.”
It All Provides Up
In FY16, we set a purpose to have 80% of staff give again to their communities not less than as soon as within the yr 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 whole lot 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 also can contribute to our 80% purpose by way of Cisco Citizen, a program that acknowledges volunteer efforts not lined by different packages.
In FY24, we as soon as once more hit our 80% purpose with 70,000 Cisco staff world wide appearing 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,” stated Digital Advertising Supervisor Vivien Chia, who can also be the APJC Lead for Cisco’s Inexperienced Workforce Community. “For my part, giving again has the facility to unite folks to come back collectively to make larger impacts. Much more vital and significant impacts might be made when there’s assist from companies. By means of the Matching Presents Program, Time2Give, and the Cisco Citizen volunteer monitoring program, we will increase extra consciousness and expedite pressing change.”
Making a Collective Impression
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 permits us to donate extra to nonprofits, reply to extra crises, enhance volunteering assist, and do extra good for the world.
Throughout International Volunteer Month, we acknowledge and have a good time all of the methods our staff make a optimistic affect.
To study extra concerning the affect Cisco staff are making, try our ‘What We Achieved’ eBook about how now we have supported our staff’ giving again efforts and reworked our collective contributions within the course of.
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