Final month, Cisco introduced we exceeded our ten-year aim to positively influence one billion lives – a couple of yr early. The 1.1 billion lives we’ve modified for the higher characterize roughly one-eighth of the world’s inhabitants.

The announcement was simply step one in our dedication to share the tales inside our journey to at least one billion lives, and to share our strategy and learnings to empower organizations of any dimension in driving actual change and lasting social influence in communities world wide.

See how we met our One Billion Lives aim video (1:24)

Cisco Government Vice President and Chief Individuals, Coverage, and Objective Officer Fran Katsoudas illuminates this tenet in Cisco’s FY23 Objective Report. “After we outlined our Objective, to Energy an Inclusive Future for All, we operationalized the work of our groups to co-innovate with companions leveraging connectivity; handle the digital expertise hole; drive sustainability, inclusivity, and social justice; and assist new concepts with partnerships and influence grants.”

To realize our aim to positively influence one billion lives, Cisco solid over 100 partnerships and invested in tons of of initiatives in practically 200 nations, in each area of the world. We put individuals on the heart of our work and targeted on optimistic influence within the areas of disaster response, studying and digital expertise, and financial empowerment.

We additionally created what we name “the Blueprint for One Billion” to align our partnerships and our initiatives with the guiding ideas that intersect our enterprise, know-how, and innovation along with our Objective, and permit us to focus the place we might have the deepest influence.

We imagine that our guiding ideas may be utilized to organizations of any dimension to drive elevated and lasting social influence.

The Blueprint for One Billion: Aligning objective and partnership to drive influence

Begin with “why”

Begin with defining your “why.” For every firm, that is going to look a bit totally different­––and that’s a great factor. Root your “why” within the services for which your organization has experience­, and within the areas of Objective which are passions on your individuals.

Cisco services energy the Web, together with networking, safety, collaboration, cloud administration, and extra. So, our “why” was deeply rooted in connecting the world and discovering a solution to a seemingly easy query, “what number of lives might we alter?” It was rooted to find out what was doable if we pushed ourselves and our firm in new methods, leveraging our core enterprise of connection and innovation, and investing in partnerships and progressive options.

We had been pushed to attach longstanding challenges with new prospects to beat and to deepen our understanding of how you can create lasting change. Alongside this journey, we articulated our firm’s Objective, to Energy an Inclusive Future for All.

Clearly outline your supposed impacts

There are numerous methods to outline influence, so it’s essential to get clear about how your organization will outline and measure it.

We labored with our nonprofit companions to develop a shared definition of optimistic influence. Collectively, we agreed that optimistic influence happens when a person has gained entry to a vital useful resource, discovered one thing, or participated in a significant means.

For instance, for job seekers, optimistic influence is achieved by finishing a coaching program and acquiring a job that gives secure and enough revenue. For college students, it’s gaining data and demonstrating proficiency in the subject material. And for a group in want of water, it’s having a dependable, reasonably priced supply of unpolluted ingesting water that’s out there to all individuals inside the group.

Construct a rigorous monitoring methodology

Monitoring and validating influence is a fancy however essential course of. That is vital for transparency and correct reporting, and figuring out whether or not you’re having the specified influence.

Our methodology targeted on discovering a steadiness between rigor to make sure consistency and accuracy and assembly the wants of our nonprofit grant companions.

Along with validating optimistic influence, our methodology ensures every individual counted is exclusive, and that they’re solely counted as soon as over time. For instance, some individuals might profit from a number of applications inside a yr or might profit from the identical program over a number of years – they’re solely counted as soon as inside the timeframe of our One Billion Lives aim.

We acknowledged that we couldn’t at all times precisely quantify the influence of some classes inside our Social Impression investments. To handle this, we didn’t embody a few of our social influence grants the place the nonprofit accomplice didn’t have a solution to rely distinctive people positively impacted. This was the case, for instance, with a few of our nonprofit companions who handle meals insecurity – as they don’t observe distinctive people who obtain assist.

Cisco engaged PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to conduct an unbiased restricted assurance of our progress towards our aim and our accompanying methodology and validation processes between FY16-FY22, making certain our path to at least one billion was sound. We utilized the identical strategy and methodology in FY23.

Spend money on potential

With an audacious aim, clear definitions of influence, and a rigorous methodology in place, we turned our consideration to executing in opposition to our funding mannequin.

Cisco focuses on getting in early – offering vital seed funding to promising nonprofits to ideate, create, and check tech-enabled options. Whereas investing in confirmed options responds to speedy wants, figuring out and investing in new and progressive options might help scale and amplify your influence over time.

Our technique of investing in tech-enabled options stems from who we’re. As a know-how firm, we imagine within the energy of know-how to attach the unconnected, and likewise to have influence at scale.

We assist our nonprofit companions past money grant funding. We donate our know-how to allow our companions to ship their choices extra securely and successfully and join them to material consultants throughout the corporate, and to key organizations, companions, and funders. We do that to make sure that our companions can have sustained influence properly past the lifecycle of our engagement with them.

Our Social Impression Grant companions get the time, house, funding, and adaptability to check their options. As these options are validated, we offer continued assist to assist our companions replicate these options to new geographies and scale to succeed in extra individuals. Cisco good points a greater understanding of the problem they’re fixing and what it takes to drive true influence. All of us develop from innovating – collectively.

What’s subsequent?

As we speak, we’re sharing with you our Blueprint to One Billion. As we ponder our subsequent impressed aim, we’re dedicated to sharing extra about what we’ve discovered in positively impacting one billion lives and to understanding extra concerning the challenges confronted by communities world wide. We are going to share tales of our companions, the work they do, the options now we have funded, and the lives which were impacted in consequence.

• Discover the inspiring tales inside our aim to positively influence One Billion Lives
• Go deeper in understanding all that Cisco is doing to convey the facility of objective to life inside Cisco’s FY23 Objective Report
• Hear from Brian Tippens and Man Diedrich how we’re persevering with to develop our strategy to optimistic influence in The subsequent one billion lives

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