Many nonprofits know they should embrace AI, and most are already feeling the stress to maneuver quicker than their sources enable. AI is advancing at a pace that’s onerous for them to maintain tempo with, not to mention undertake responsibly. For mission-driven organizations with lean groups and restricted sources, the query isn’t simply tips on how to implement AI. It’s tips on how to do it ethically and in ways in which assist the long-term wellbeing of the communities they serve.
At Cisco, we imagine that technological experience, deployed with function, is without doubt one of the strongest sources we will supply our nonprofit companions. Past monetary funding and entry to know-how, what many nonprofits want is direct entry to individuals who perceive this AI second deeply and will help them translate that information into apply.
That conviction formed our first annual Tech for Social Good Hackathon. In early 2026, greater than 160 Cisco consultants volunteered to type 27 groups and spent one week constructing AI-powered options for seven Cisco Basis nonprofit companions working throughout local weather resilience and financial alternative. Every group began with an precise downside assertion submitted by the nonprofit group and a mandate to unravel the issue responsibly.
Contained in the construct to develop moral AI options for nonprofit companions
Throughout all 27 groups, the simplest options shared one thing in frequent: they had been constructed by volunteers who thought as a lot concerning the individuals implementing the instruments as the issues the instruments had been fixing. As Venkata Naga Rajesh Badveti, a Cisco engineer who designed a workflow resolution for Era’s curriculum growth group, which creates classes for hundreds of learners worldwide, put it: “AI is a multiplier, not a standalone resolution. It really works greatest when it amplifies human experience quite than changing it.”
That mindset prolonged to how groups thought concerning the communities their options would finally serve. Sathwik Kothapalli labored with Farmers for Forests on an AI device to automate the verification of handwritten paperwork in a number of regional languages, a prerequisite for farmers becoming a member of the nonprofit’s reforestation program in India. His group constructed for pace with out sacrificing accuracy, embedding human evaluation at each step with a clear-eyed understanding of what was at stake for every individual within the course of. “Understanding {that a} farmer in rural Maharashtra might get verified quicker and be part of a reforestation program sooner due to code I wrote made this essentially the most significant undertaking of my profession,” Sathwik shared.
“The Tech for Social Good Hackathon jogged my memory that the abilities we hone and develop day-after-day at Cisco could be genuinely life-changing for communities which have by no means had entry to them.”
– Sathwik Kothapalli, Cisco engineer
Abhishek Kumar, who helped construct a donor prospect platform for Alternative Worldwide, introduced each hands-on engineering depth and the systems-level pondering that comes from managing technical groups. “These are the sorts of operational bottlenecks I assist my very own groups clear up day-after-day, and seeing that very same sample at a nonprofit bolstered how transferable our abilities actually are.” Greater than the technical output, although, he noticed the Hackathon as a logo of what partnership with Cisco seems like: “An occasion just like the Hackathon alerts that we see our companions as organizations with actual operational challenges that deserve the identical caliber of engineering we deliver to our prospects.”
“Monetary contributions and company donations matter, however constructing a working AI resolution {that a} nonprofit can really deploy — that’s a basically completely different type of partnership.”
– Abhishek Kumar, Cisco engineer
For Cisco volunteers, the expertise was significant. They deepened their AI experience, collaborated throughout groups, and noticed rapid affect from their work, all of which strengthened each particular person ability and organizational tradition.
Deployable instruments, lasting affect
The suggestions from collaborating organizations was equally constant: the volunteers got here able to pay attention and supply tailor-made options, and left their companions energized about what else was attainable. “You not solely discovered nice one-stop-shop options for a number of points we’re attempting to unravel,” says Maja Cimpric, Digital Product Lead at Era. “This whole expertise can be triggering nice follow-up conversations on our group about our workflows and different potential for automations, which we’re assured will result in extra thrilling tasks down the highway.”
That sample, an answer that solves the issue and reframes what’s attainable, confirmed up throughout organizations. Jennifer Wolford, Operation Hope‘s Chief Innovation Officer, mirrored: “Working with Cisco’s group made it clear how shortly the best technical experience can flip concepts into actual, usable options that enhance how we serve our shoppers. That type of collaboration is what permits us to undertake rising know-how in a approach that truly scales affect.”
For some nonprofits, the Hackathon represented one thing extra basic: an opportunity to maneuver previous the guide, resource-intensive methods of working which have traditionally restricted their attain. Jessica White, Director of Knowledge Analytics and Methods Integrations at Alternative Worldwide, described it in concrete phrases: “They took a course of that was beforehand inconsistent and onerous to scale and turned it into one thing actionable. That shift from guide effort to strategic motion has actual potential to extend fundraising and develop our affect for the shoppers we serve.”
The case for skills-based volunteering as a social affect technique
Cisco has lengthy invested in its nonprofit companions by offering funding and know-how, however skills-based volunteering, at this degree of rigor and technical depth, represents one thing additive: a possibility for the type of engaged, purposeful experience that helps organizations construct actual AI functionality from the within out.
“As we live and evolving within the AI period, we at Cisco have a singular alternative to make a right away affect with nonprofits by means of our state-of-the-art know-how,” stated Tim Barnes, Cisco engineer who labored with NESsT. “Think about if we did this for all of society’s challenges? We might streamline and improve nonprofit operations, releasing funds for them to elongate attain, widen scope, and allow them to higher assist these in want.”
The Tech for Social Good program will continue to grow. We’re bringing extra volunteers and companions into this mannequin — our subsequent cohort will develop into Disaster Response and Training sectors — as a result of the outcomes counsel it’s price scaling. In a second when AI fluency is changing into a prerequisite for nonprofit effectiveness, that is another approach Cisco will help shut the hole.
