By Kelly Petrich
In 1991, the US established April as National Volunteer Month. Today, that scope has expanded, and it’s recognized as Global Volunteer Month. Since Cisco’s founding 40 years ago, giving back to our communities has been a part of our tradition.
Giving back as a habit is part of what it means to work at Cisco today. It’s an important aspect of our culture and supported by a variety of programs. Simply put, our employees love to help their communities and Cisco supports their efforts.
Employees Volunteer, Cisco Donates
Our industry-leading Matching Gifts Program matches eligible employee cash and stock donations dollar-for-dollar up to $10,000 each year—but it’s not just monetary donations that are eligible for matches. Through the program, employees can also get their volunteer time matched with a $10-per-hour donation from Cisco to the organization where they gave their time.
In FY24, employees gave 720,000 hours in volunteer time and used the Matching Gifts Program to get their eligible hours matched with a donation from Cisco.
For example, in Kraków, employees recently partnered with Hearty Foundation, a local organization that supports children’s education and social welfare. Cisco employees organized a series of workshops for students focused on cyber security, programming, and other essential digital skills. They also developed a full-day Future STEM Heroes event designed to ignite an interest in science and technology. Altogether, employees volunteered 36 hours of their time to help students resulting in a Cisco donation of $3,600 to the foundation.
In London, our Meraki Gives EMEA chapter organized a virtual volunteering event with the Psychiatry Research Trust. Employees from around the globe attended and learned about the organization’s groundbreaking research, as well as the importance of both resilience in our communities and the value of reducing mental health stigma.
“Cisco’s $10 match per volunteer hour added a special dimension to our partnership with the Trust,” said Meraki Gives Global Co-lead Racha Tfaili. “By getting their time matched with donations, employees not only learned about the important work this group is doing, they also raised more than $3,500 to keep this critical research going.”
Always-On Opportunities
Our always-on Community Impact Portal is a digital tool that enables employees both to organize volunteer events for others to join and to sign up for volunteering. Volunteering can be in-person, virtual, or team-based. Our employees volunteer for everything from local food kitchens to international aid organizations to digital camps that help kids learn about technology.
“In FY24, our customer engineering team had 100% participation in volunteering” says Customer Delivery Leader Monica Huerta Castillo. “Cisco’s Community Impact Portal helped us identify volunteer opportunities. We’ve done everything from virtual volunteering to on-site activities to going out to volunteer on projects in the field. We do it because it’s part of who we are. We also find that our team culture—which includes our values of trust, humility, empathy, and curiosity—is strengthened when we volunteer together. If we can impact the world as a team, imagine what we can do inside Cisco!”
In 2025, we’re making it easier for employees to find and join volunteer events through our new companywide quarterly Global Week of Giving. Started organically by one of our business units, we recognized the power of a focused week that brings our employees together. That’s why we’re expanding the program to be available to all employees. We partner with community groups in focus areas such as education, sustainability, food security, and poverty.
Paid Time Off for Volunteering
Another way we support employee volunteerism is through our Time2Give benefit, which provides each employee up to 10 days of paid time off per year to volunteer. Some employees have taken a two-week block to travel on international volunteer missions. Others spread their time out with regular volunteering in schools. Still others have used their time to give specialized skills to nonprofits such as coding and pro bono legal work.
Stella Au, an executive assistant in New York, traveled to Vietnam where she was joined by six Cisco colleagues from Australia. Together, they used their Time2Give benefits to help build a home for two sisters in Thai Binh. “I traded my laptop for shovel and trowel and got my hands dirty—mixing cement, cutting steel wires, and laying bricks,” said Au. “One of the new homeowners burst into tears overwhelmed with joy that she no longer has to run to a neighbor’s house every time it rains. That’s when it really hit me: this was more than just a house—we were building security, hope, and a brighter future. Cisco’s Time2Give made it possible for me to do this.”
It All Adds Up
In FY16, we set a goal to have 80% of employees give back to their communities at least once in the year by 2020. We achieved this milestone and have sustained it each year since.
One of the ways we did this was by recognizing that giving back takes a lot of different forms. Organized volunteer efforts have value, but so can doing something good for a neighbor in need. That’s why employees can also contribute to our 80% goal through Cisco Citizen, a program that recognizes volunteer efforts not covered by other programs.
In FY24, we once again hit our 80% goal with 70,000 Cisco employees around the world acting in service of people, planet, and society.
“I feel very fortunate to work for a company that cares for not only employees’ wellbeing, but also our communities and environment,” said Digital Marketing Manager Vivien Chia, who is also the APJC Lead for Cisco’s Green Team Network. “In my opinion, giving back has the power to unite people to come together to make greater impacts. Even more significant and meaningful impacts can be made when there is support from businesses. Through the Matching Gifts Program, Time2Give, and the Cisco Citizen volunteer tracking program, we can raise more awareness and expedite urgent change.”
Making a Collective Impact
Our collective actions have contributed to building a culture where serving communities in need has become part of our DNA. Engaging at scale enables us to donate more to nonprofits, respond to more crises, increase volunteering support, and do more good for the world.
During Global Volunteer Month, we recognize and celebrate all the ways our employees make a positive impact.
To learn more about the impact Cisco employees are making, check out our “What We Accomplished” eBook about how we have supported our employees’ giving back efforts and transformed our collective contributions in the process.
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