How Cisco elevated social impact with Benevity
Cisco is one of the world’s largest technology companies, providing software and services that many businesses and people use to keep their computer networks running safely and smoothly.
The challenge
Cisco’s purpose is to power an inclusive future for all, and that applies to their community impact program, too. They wanted to maintain their impressive 80% employee participation rate and dial in on what was needed to engage even more people — by creating an even more global program — with a partner who thought just as innovatively as they did.
The solution
A more global (and local) experience
Cisco partnered with Benevity to centralize their community impact program and unlock access to over 100,000 Cisco-approved global nonprofits (from Benevity’s database of 2 million+), instead of just 7,000 with their previous vendor. Plus, their people could browse giving and volunteering opportunities in 22 languages, and receive tax receipts in nine countries, instead of two.
Better tech and features
The Benevity app made it easy for people to participate in Cisco’s program on the go, whenever they were most motivated. New features like Peer Matching (matching a coworker’s donation) and Challenges (small, impactful micro-actions) made getting involved even more inclusive and easy.
Enhanced vetting
Cisco is all about security, and their people could now give with even more confidence knowing that all nonprofits in their program were monitored on a regular basis via Benevity's due diligence processes including fraud prevention, watchlist and sanction monitoring, and rigorous nonprofit vetting.
The result
Since partnering with Benevity, Cisco has seen:
- A nearly 60% increase in volunteer time tracked*
- 15% more global nonprofits supported*
- 85% program participation rate — its highest engagement rate yet!
- $27 million USD donated through its program in their fiscal 2023 year
* when compared to an equivalent time window with previous vendor
Kelly Petrich, Director & Global Leader of Community Impact at Cisco, won Benevity’s BUFFY Award in 2024! A true corporate purpose leader who exemplifies what we call the “Benevity Unicorn Factor", Kelly spearheaded a deep dive into Cisco’s data to show the impact of their program while getting creative with campaigns and digital nudges to help turn employee giving into a habit.
