CISCO: Customized Connectivity Product Grants

Sponsor: Cisco Systems Inc.

Customized Connectivity Product Grants are all other grant requests including equipment that exceeds $20,000 list price and/or requests for products not supported at Techsoup such as Linksys, IP Telephony or Large Campus Switches, etc. The typical Customized Connectivity Product Grant averages $30,000. There is no preset maximum for this type of grant.

It is necessary that a Cisco technical volunteer (preferably a Cisco Sales Engineer - systems engineer) is engaged, willing, and available to work directly with the nonprofit that is applying for the grant. The Cisco technical volunteer will work with the nonprofit to help identify your networking needs. The name and contact information of the Cisco technical volunteer is required as part of the application. If no Cisco employees are currently involved with your organization, we encourage you to apply for a Cisco Volunteer with our newly developed Volunteer Connection Tool.

Apply now for a Customized Connectivity Product Grant

Please note that organizations can only receive a product grant for one program per fiscal year. Additional programs within the same organization are not eligible during that same fiscal year. Cisco Systems' fiscal year runs from August 1st - July 31st.

Organizations that have never been funded by Cisco should not request more that $50,000 of list price Cisco equipment.

Organizations requesting Voice over IP Telephony must have a Voice certified person involved in the creation of the requested product list, the network design, installation and maintenace. This can be an employee of the organization, a technical volunteer, or a Cisco Certified Partner. (To find a Cisco Certified Partner, go to the Partner Locater, click Advanced Search, and select "IP Communications" or "IP Communications Express" in the Technology Specialization selector.)

Maintenance and Support

Cisco Product grants include FIVE FREE YEARS of Cisco's "SMARTnet" support service. Your Cisco "SMARTnet" contract entitles you to:

FREE next day product replacement due to failure (provided that the request is received before 3 p.m. local time)

FREE 24x7 access to Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) via phone, email or through Cisco.com

FREE Registered access to Cisco.com and all online service and support tools

FREE Major and minor maintenance releases of Cisco IOS® Software via Cisco.com or media (upon request) for your Cisco product

Deadline: Grant applications are accepted on an ongoing basis.

For further information, please visit: http://www.cisco.com/web/about/ac48/pgp_programs_guidelines.html