Just last week Cisco IT leaders came together to discuss priorities and strengthen alignment with the goal to accelerate our success in FY15.   We also used this time to celebrate the outstanding achievements of some top performers, and most importantly, to give back to the community.

When these 500 IT leaders come together, one thing is true, we are a force!  Representing 30 countries globally, we are united and passionate when it comes to our commitment to community service.  With so many recommendations to consider, we have to take a vote to narrow down the number of charities we will focus on as a team.

Together, we wanted to underscore our commitment to educators in our community, as well as to help those who simply need a helping hand in finding permanent housing.  With those criteria, this year we selected two deserving Bay Area organizations, Resource Area For Teaching (RAFT) and Home First.

Loving some healthy competition, we divided into two teams to challenge each other to work as fast and efficiently as possible in the time we were given.  Together we built 7,000 hygiene kits to support homeless individuals for the Home First charity and assembled 2,000  hands-on learning kits for the RAFT charity. Cisco is such a big supporter of giving back that our combined volunteer hours of 1,250 (2.5 per person X 500) as employees equated to$12,500  of matching donations to the charities. 

This activity ended up being Cisco's largest giving back event in Cisco's history! I have always been very proud of the phenomenally talented and generous individuals inside Cisco IT, and this day was no exception!  One person summed it up by saying, "This is far more meaningful than just donating money," while another said, "This is a fun way to connect with my peers while giving back."  To hear those words as a leader, it doesn't get any better than that!

I'm looking forward to supporting our Global Hunger Relief Program next!