Making Cisco Employees’ Philanthropic Dollars Go Further

When Conrad Clemson, senior vice president of strategy for the Cisco Service Provider Video Technology Group, was

Conrad Clemson, Cisco VP

looking for unique ways to maximize and make his philanthropic dollars go further, he did not have to look far.

The Employee Product Donation Program (EPDP) enables Cisco employees to purchase most Cisco equipment at a 75% discount for donation to qualified nonprofit organizations and schools in the United States.

The program enables individual employees and teams to provide up to $40,000 of Cisco list price equipment annually.

Why the Employee Product Donation Program Worked for Conrad

Conrad came to Cisco from BNI Video, where he led as CEO for three years. BNI Video was acquired by Cisco in October of 2011. Conrad learned about the Employee Product Donation Program (EPDP) and TechSoup through Cisco’s benefits page.

Asked what made him decide to participate in the program, Conrad said: “I am always looking for ways to maximize my philanthropic dollars. Sometimes I give appreciated stock; sometimes I use the dollar matching programs. Cisco’s EPDP is unique in helping charitable organizations maximize their IT objectives in a way that is aligned with Cisco and employee gift giving. It’s quite cool.”

“EPDP is a remarkably flexible program,” Conrad continued. “It allows employees or groups of employees make a huge difference to organizations trying to build world-class IT infrastructure. It triples the net buying power of the recipient organization. It’s very powerful. It’s a wonderful combination of Cisco and employee charity.”

Supporting Knowledge and Lifelong Learning Through Donated Technology

Conrad has given multiple donations to two schools, Phillips Exeter Academy and Bancroft School. Phillips Exeter Academy is a private high school which originated the system of instruction known as Harkness teaching in 1931. In the spirit of its charter to foster both goodness and knowledge, Exeter offers free education to any admitted student whose family income is $75,000 or less.

Conrad worked with the school’s IT department on improving the school’s core network for the first year. In the second year, he worked with the computer science department to improve its computing infrastructure by 10 times — a huge impact for the school.

Bancroft School’s mission statement is to provide a “comprehensive, caring, and creative curricular and extracurricular program” that fosters an experience of excellence for students pre-kindergarten through high school. The school emphasizes helping students “discover their passion in life” and so that they become lifelong learners and good global community members.

The Bancroft School IT department has Conrad on speed dial, and together they were able to map out a five-year infrastructure plan. At the beginning of the school’s fiscal year, the department was able to send him a shopping list. The school’s infrastructure is now based entirely on Cisco components.

To date, the two schools have received a total retail value of $124,000 in equipment through the EPDP program. Through his donations, Conrad is acting as a global problem solver; preparing students with the technology to learn and thrive in today’s digital economy. And when students from both schools graduate, they’ll have the networking know-how to someday fill the growing IT skills gap.

If you’re a Cisco employee, learn how you can donate to nonprofits or schools by visiting TechSoup today!