In 2021, the Cisco Basis made a dedication to deploy $100 million in grants and influence investments over ten years to spice up local weather resilience and sustainability. Constructing on the Basis’s legacy of innovation and group influence, our leaders acknowledged each the necessity to strengthen our communities towards extreme climate and the chance to assist construct a extra secure, resilient, and affluent future.
4 years later, having deployed almost half of our funding, we’ve discovered that significant work requires not solely dedication but additionally flexibility and continuous studying. We just lately refreshed our influence funding arm, and we’ve additionally been aggregating essential reflections and classes from our position as grant funders. In a quickly altering panorama formed by AI improvements and evolving challenges, we stay targeted on the unique intention of the portfolio whereas adapting to new realities.
Lesson 1: Financing instruments ought to fill gaps deliberately
Philanthropy can do what conventional capital can’t: fund early-stage innovation and de-risk investments in new approaches and options, a lot of that are essential components of the roadmap for international local weather resilience. Guided by this lens, our local weather resilience grants portfolio focuses on 4 pillars that span each direct motion and systemic levers of change:
- Nature Preservation & Restoration – Supporting communities to enhance ecosystem administration and broaden efficient restoration options.
- Regenerative & Resilient Agriculture – Serving to smallholder and household farmers transition to regenerative practices that enhance soil well being, improve yields, and improve financial resilience.
- Local weather Finance – Catalyzing capital flows towards communities with the best wants and enhancing transparency and effectivity in how local weather finance strikes.
- Training & Motion – Empowering people and communities with the information, expertise, and instruments to construct local weather resilience and take collaborative motion.
These 4 pillars type our compass to bridge the hole between the roadmap and the way these options are financed, scaled, and sustained.
Lesson 2: Measurable influence is essential to realizing our imaginative and prescient
Guided by our Objective to Energy an Inclusive Future for All, we monitor what’s altering on the bottom and the way these modifications add up throughout the broader panorama. Every group that we assist selects a number of Key Efficiency Indicators (KPIs) most related to their work, guaranteeing each native relevance and portfolio-wide comparability. These metrics align with international targets similar to defending 30 p.c of land and water by 2030 or multiplying local weather mitigation funding fivefold by 2030.
For instance, a associate in our “Nature Preservation and Restoration” focus space might report on the quantity of land mapped, monitored, or restored, or a “Regenerative and Resilient Agriculture” grantee might report on the variety of climate-smart practices adopted. Proof reveals these actions are linked to verified outcomes in carbon storage, biodiversity enchancment, and livelihood enchancment. We additionally emphasize storytelling to seize what information alone can’t: like ingenuity, native information, and relationships which assist make change final.
Lastly, as an early-stage funder, we see every grant as an invite for others to affix in. By way of clear measurement, storytelling, and relationship constructing, we goal to elicit extra funding and strengthen collective influence.
Lesson 3: Know-how as a solution to scale
At Cisco, we see expertise as key to driving our Objective and local weather resilience work ahead. One among our distinctive roles as a funder is supporting tech-enabled, tech-delivered options that improve connectivity, broaden attain, and enhance effectivity throughout sectors. For instance:
AI enhances every of those efforts by streamlining information assortment, enhancing analytics, accelerating information harmonization, and powering adaptive studying platforms. When deployed responsibly, AI can allow quicker, extra knowledgeable motion.
Lesson 4: Local weather resilience as an intersectional theme
Local weather resilience is deeply interconnected to social and financial wellbeing. Reasonably than focusing solely on environmental influence, our work additionally prioritizes social and livelihood wellbeing. Local weather resilience and Cisco’s different group influence areas reveals how deeply interconnected these programs are:
The place Do We Go from Right here?
Because the tempo of change accelerates, we stay aligned with Cisco’s The Plan for Potential and the Cisco Basis’s imaginative and prescient of inclusive, resilient, and empowered communities the place everybody can thrive. By way of strategic grantmaking, we assist organizations that assist us attain this imaginative and prescient. The 4 classes shared listed below are the muse for what comes subsequent. As we glance forward, we stay grounded in humility, guided by studying, and impressed by the collective risk of a future we are able to construct collectively and thru expertise.
Photograph credit score for featured picture on the prime: One Acre Fund