Four years in: Lessons from Cisco Foundation’s climate resilience grants

[ad_1] In 2021, the Cisco Basis made a dedication to deploy $100 million in grants and impression investments over ten years to spice up local weather resilience and sustainability. Constructing on the Basis’s legacy of innovation and group impression, 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 in addition flexibility and continuous studying. We just lately refreshed our impression funding arm, and we've additionally been aggregating necessary reflections and classes from our position as grant funders. In a quickly altering panorama formed by AI improvements and evolving challenges, we stay centered 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 not: fund early-stage innovation and de-risk investments in new approaches and options, lots of that are necessary elements of the roadmap for world 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, enhance 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 data, abilities, 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.

Photograph Credit score: Reconnecting Northland Lesson 2: Measurable impression 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 adjustments add up throughout the broader panorama. Every group that we help selects a couple of Key Efficiency Indicators (KPIs) most related to their work, making certain each native relevance and portfolio-wide comparability. These metrics align with world objectives comparable to defending 30 p.c of land and water by 2030 or multiplying local weather mitigation funding fivefold by 2030.

For instance, a accomplice 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 exhibits these actions are linked to verified outcomes in carbon storage, biodiversity enchancment, and livelihood enchancment. We additionally emphasize storytelling to seize what knowledge alone can not: like ingenuity, native data, and relationships which assist make change final.

Lastly, as an early-stage funder, we see every grant as an invite for others to hitch in. By way of clear measurement, storytelling, and relationship constructing, we intention to elicit extra funding and strengthen collective impression.

Photograph Credit score: International Forest Era 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 in all our distinctive roles as a funder is supporting tech-enabled, tech-delivered options that enhance connectivity, broaden attain, and enhance effectivity throughout sectors. For instance:

AI enhances every of those efforts by streamlining knowledge assortment, enhancing analytics, accelerating knowledge harmonization, and powering adaptive studying platforms. When deployed responsibly, AI can allow quicker, extra knowledgeable motion.

Photograph Credit score: Kara Photo voltaic Lesson 4: Local weather resilience as an intersectional theme Local weather resilience is deeply interconnected to social and financial wellbeing. Moderately than focusing solely on environmental impression, our work additionally prioritizes social and livelihood wellbeing. Local weather resilience and Cisco’s different group impression 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 Attainable 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 help organizations that assist us attain this imaginative and prescient. The 4 classes shared listed here are the muse for what comes subsequent. As we glance forward, we stay grounded in humility, guided by studying, and impressed by the collective chance of a future we will construct collectively and thru expertise.