Cisco eligibility criteria and guidelines

To qualify for participation, an organisation must:

• Be pre-approved by Connecting Up.
• Total annual revenue must be less than AU$20 million.
• Must predominantly serve the economically disadvantaged.
• Have a legal charity designation.
• If it is a federation, have no more than 20 affiliate organisations.

Cisco Restrictions

• Quantity: If eligible, your organization may request any number of products for a total of up to USD$8,000 in administrative fees per fiscal year (July 1 to June 30). You can place as many requests as needed each year, as long as the total administrative fees for all of your requests do not exceed the maximum.

• Budget: Organizations with annual operating budgets of $20 million or less are eligible to apply for products in this program.

• Existing customers: Organizations that have purchased Cisco products within the last six months or that plan to purchase Cisco products in the next six months are not eligible for products in this program. This applies to purchases made directly from Cisco or through resellers or retail channels.

• Nonprofits only:
o Products in this program are available only to qualifying nonprofits. Branches that share an ABN with the main organization may not place separate requests.
o All Cisco requests are subject to a secondary eligibility review to verify that the organization meets Cisco's philanthropy guidelines. In particular, an organization must be able to show that its focus is on serving economically disadvantaged people. If an organization does not meet these guidelines, Cisco reserves the right to deny a donation request at any time. TechSoup will not process payments for denied requests and will return submitted checks to the organization.

• Organization types:
o Eligible: The following organization types are eligible to apply for products in this program. Direct-service organizations that primarily serve economically disadvantaged people are eligible to receive Cisco donations. Please make sure that your organization's primary mission and services correspond to one of the following organization types:
Organizations that supply money, goods, or services to the poor
Job training, counseling, or assistance organizations
Organizations that provide rehabilitation to convicts, ex-convicts, alcoholics, drug abusers, or compulsive gamblers
Educational services and remedial reading and encouragement organizations
Organizations that provide aid to persons with disabilities
Certain community service organizations that mainly serve the poor
Low- to moderate-income housing assistance organizations
Organizations that provide care and housing of children, work to prevent cruelty to children and combat juvenile delinquency
Organizations that provide care and housing for the aged
Community health planning organisations
Patient and family support organisations
Mental Health care organisations
Environmental organisations that focus on conservation or preventing pollution
Rescue and emergency services organisations
Organisations working toward the improvement of conditions of workers
Community centres
Youth development organisations and youth centres and clubs
Community service organisations
Organisations defending human and civil rights
Organisations working toward the elimination of prejudice and discrimination
Legal aid organisations
Emergency and disaster aid funds
Veterans' organisations

Ineligible: The following organization types are not eligible to receive donations through this program:
Affiliates of a national organization, including the YMCA, Goodwill Industries, and the American Red Cross, that has more than 20 locations, even if those affiliates are considered separate entities and are not funded by the national organization
Religious organizations without a secular community designation. To have a secular designation, an organization must provide services to people regardless of their religious beliefs and must not propagate a belief in a specific faith. It must also have a tax ID (EIN) separate from that of the church or religious organization.
Foundations, lending organizations, grantmaking organizations, or organizations that provide scholarships or other funding to individuals and other organizations
Sports, athletic, recreational, and social activity organizations
Camps
Non-direct service organizations or referral services
Schools, colleges, and related organizations
Cultural and historical organizations
Publishing, radio and television, film production, discussion, non-scientific study and research, and information giving and opinion organizations
Hospitals, fire departments, and nursing homes
Health clinics, rural medical facilities, hospices, blood banks
Day care centers or child care activities
Organizations that offer Cisco Networking Academy training programs (even if they were previously accepted for Cisco grants) or those that teach the Networking Academy curriculum as a single or separate component of their overall mission or services
Research organizations
Business and professional organizations
Farming and related activity organizations
Legislative and political activity organizations
Credit counseling services or financial education
Advocacy organizations, including Planned Parenthood organizations
Libraries and museums

• Substitutions: Cisco may substitute functionally equivalent products in a request.

• Terms of service: Organizations that request Cisco products must agree to any applicable terms of service.

• Cisco products only: Cisco requests may not include non-Cisco products. Organizations must request products from other programs separately so they are not subject to the Cisco processing delay.

• Anti-discrimination policy: Organizations that advocate, support, or practice discrimination based on age, ethnicity, gender, national origin, disability, race, size, religion, sexual orientation, or socioeconomic background are not eligible to participate in this program. Organizations must be willing and able to attest that they do not discriminate on any of these grounds in order to receive products in this program.

• Case study: Recipient organizations must be willing and able to provide information to Cisco for the purposes of creating a case study or testimonial on this program.

• Product distribution:
o Products will be distributed under this program to qualifying organizations only, not to individuals.
o Recipient organizations may not transfer or resell Cisco products.