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Community enablement

At Cisco, our Purpose to Power an Inclusive Future for all is fueled by our belief in justice, equity, opportunity, access to technology, and rights for all.

At Cisco, we believe we have the ability-and the responsibility-to leverage the unique strengths of our company and our ecosystem to create a better world by making it more just and equitable. In 2020, we transformed our longstanding advocacy for community enablement into a five-year journey to explore new ways to address systemic challenges, create opportunities for communities to thrive-and Power an Inclusive Future for All.

Guided by our beliefs and backed by a US$300 million commitment, we are working to improve enablement at all levels within Cisco and our partner and supplier ecosystem, support critical legislation and advocacy for marginalized communities, advance fair pay, promote investments in startups, and break down barriers to equitable access to education, technology, and opportunity.

Our beliefs

Our community enablement beliefs were created to inform and guide our business in taking innovative steps to create opportunities for inclusion and to improve people's lives, everywhere.

These six beliefs serve as a constant for Cisco. They inspire us to take on longstanding challenges and to bridge gaps of inequity by using our technology, extended ecosystem. and the expertise of our people.

Technology for good

Technology connects us. It makes the world better. We’re committed to building technology that encourages people to create new possibilities. And we defend against any misuse of our technology to censor, oppress, or bring injustice against anyone.

Proximity

We educate ourselves by getting closer to people who have lived—and are living—through injustice, hatred, prejudice, or discrimination simply for being who they are. It’s that empathy and understanding that drives us to act boldly.

Coalescence

We’re creating a culture that brings our employees, suppliers, communities, and partners together to take action and drive meaningful change.

Equity

These beliefs are not political. It's a call for fairness and solutions that confront injustice and create economies, cultures, and communities where everyone can thrive.

Security of being

We stand for the most fundamental of human rights—the security of being—to protect people who are targets of prejudice, hate, and violence.

Full-spectrum diversity for all groups

We believe in justice for all groups, including gender identity, age, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability status, nationality, religion, military status, and all different backgrounds, cultures, experiences, strengths, and perspectives.

In 2020, Cisco made a five-year US$300 million commitment to attracting talent, diversifying our partner and supplier ecosystem, providing access to education, and supporting community partnerships, legislation. and advocacy.

Highlights from fiscal 2024

Partnering for success

Procellis Technology, a small, managed security service provider located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, provides technical services to state and local government. To grow their business, they set their sights on becoming a contractor with the State of Minnesota, which is no small feat for a small business. Procellis attempted to secure a contract with the State of Minnesota but was unsuccessful, in part because they lacked support from a large manufacturer. ln 2021, Procellis joined Cisco's partner ecosystem. Soon after, an opportunity to bid on another state contract came along.

The Cisco sales and engineering teams helped Procellis secure the necessary volume discounts and required specifications to be able to effectively respond to the RFP and fulfill the requirements of the contract.

ln November 2023 Procellis received word they had been awarded the contract. As a result, they are projected to grow their annual revenue exponentially while expanding their Cisco partnership.

Procellis supports Cisco's commitment to preserving the legacy and sustainability of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) through Cisco's HBCU IT modernization effort. To date, Procellis has supported over 30 cybersecurity assessments at HBCUs and Minority Serving Institutions, impacting over 70,000 students and staff.

Supporting foster kids' transition to college

Imagine the challenge of starting college without the support and essentials many take for granted-such as bedding, toiletries, and school supplies-all white trying to navigate the overwhelming transition to college life. This is the harsh reality for hundreds of young adults aging out of the Foster Care system every year. Move-in Day Mafia assembles a “mob” of volunteers to fill that need by providing a room makeover for these students and providing a monthly care package to take care of their essentials.

Through Cisco's engagement with Morehouse College, Shaunya Ishmael, a program director at Cisco, learned there was a need for funding. The program received 130 applications from students looking for help transitioning from the Foster Care system to college, and they only had the capacity to accept 44 students. This meant they had to turn more than 80 students away, leaving them to navigate the daunting and often scary task of entering college and dorm life on their own. Shaunya was able to assist in securing a US$15,000 grant to assist the "mob” in transitioning the incoming 44 students to 22 different colleges across the country.

Cisco's engagement is more than financial. It's become personal for Shaunya, who, in addition to becoming a member of the Move-in-Day Mafia -mob/ is now a program advisor and has assembled a team of Cisco employees to help students at colleges across the country make the transition a little less daunting this fall.

A quantum leap toward a more inclusive future

Dr. Prineha Narang never set out to be an entrepreneur. When the university professor's students started asking if quantum networking was ready for commercialization, she realized the time was right to dive into a new world.

Today, Narang is the founder and chief technology officer at Aliro Quantum, which runs

advanced secure networks using quantum networking and is working to develop a commercially viable way to deliver the world's first advanced secure networks.

Of all the challenges in leading a tech startup, she never imagined that attracting the right kind of investors to partner with would be one of them. That was never a question with Cisco Investments' Aspire Fund, which makes direct investments in startups led by women founders and founders of color who have historically struggled to raise venture capital funding.

Cisco Investments launched the Aspire Fund in 2020 with an initial commitment of US$50 million over five years. The Aspire Fund helped to bring the partnership to life as Cisco looked to expand to quantum networking. While the market is currently in its early stages, Cisco and Aliro Quantum are looking ahead to the day when quantum computing and networking services and solutions will be offered alongside those for traditional networking.

Through the Aspire Fund, Aliro Quantum is set to deliver on that promise. As interest in the company ramps up, the team is accelerating its roadmap and looking forward to more product announcements later this year.

Supplier engagement

Our suppliers are an extension of Cisco. We care not only about inclusion throughout our supplier base, but also about the inclusion efforts within their workforce. One of the goals in our supplier engagement program was to double the amount Cisco spent with inclusive suppliers by the end of calendar year 2023. Both our Global Procurement Services (GPS) category owners and Cisco business functions contributed to help us achieve this goal ahead of schedule, with a 172% increase in inclusive supplier spend between fiscal 2020 and fiscal 2024.

Cisco doesn't only consider our own spend with suppliers, but also encourages our suppliers to do the same with our newly launched supplier diversity Tier 2 direct program. To date, we have requested 52 key suppliers to report their spend with diverse suppliers on Cisco's behalf, and 42 have committed to do so. Ultimately, this will increase our diverse supplier spend and help numerous companies be positively impacted by our business as well.

We continue our executive sponsorship program that pairs suppliers with Cisco executives for an 18-month program, including one-on-one meetings, curriculum sessions, customer feedback, and risk mitigation. To date, 56 businesses have graduated from this program in three countries (United States, United Kingdom, and India). In fiscal 2024, we launched our newest cohort with 12 suppliers from the United States and Canada and will kick off our next class in South Africa in fiscal 2025. Our graduates regularly grow their Cisco business, increase their customer satisfaction, and lower their risk. Several graduates have also been nominated and won awards at GPS' Annual Cisco Supplier Day.

Additional progress

  • Included diverse suppliers in 99% of U.S. competitive sourcing opportunities, and 94% of U.S., U.K., and India competitive bids included diverse suppliers in fiscal 2024
  • Expanded our pay fairness program to include analysis on promotion and stock participation, in addition to the analyses we run annually on base pay, bonus, and stock grant value
  • Distributed millions of dollars donated by Cisco and employees to nonprofits
  • Received workforce diversity reports from 100% of our targeted fiscal 2024 preferred suppliers