Cisco Foundation Pledges $1 Million to American Red Cross Disaster Relief Efforts.

Business Editors

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 3, 2001

The Cisco Foundation has pledged its support of American Red Cross disaster relief efforts over the next three years with a $1 million gift.

As the newest member of the Red Cross Annual Disaster Giving Program, the Cisco Foundation joins other corporations who have made leadership commitments to ensure the American Red Cross is ready and able to immediately respond whenever a disaster strikes.

The gift will help individuals recovering from major disasters across the country as well as less visible disasters such as house fires that strike closer to home. The Cisco Foundation has designated a portion of their gift to chapters in two of their local communities: San Jose, Calif., home to the organization's world headquarters, and Raleigh, N.C., location of a major research, development and marketing operation.

The Santa Clara Valley Chapter (San Jose, Calif.) will use the gift to purchase an emergency response van and to support the Red Cross Fire Recovery Program and their Kids' Safety House. The Kids' Safety House is a mobile facility that travels to local schools and community events where volunteers teach basic life saving, injury and fire prevention techniques to children. The program touched the lives of over 2,000 children and their families and friends in 1999 alone.

The Foundation gift to the Triangle Area Chapter (Raleigh, N.C.) will enable the expansion of Health and Safety training in that community and provide for the purchase of a new Disaster Services Vehicle. The new specially-equipped vehicle will be used during response to disasters throughout the region as well as to transport volunteers and blood donors.

Cisco Systems employees are also active supporters of the American Red Cross and were a catalyst in this growing relationship, which will include in-kind as well as cash support. Employees volunteer with their local Red Cross chapters and support blood donation drives at their facilities. Blood donations from Cisco employees in the past year have meant the gift of life for nearly 3,000 people, making Cisco Systems one of the Triangle Area Chapter's largest blood drive sponsors. The individual gifts of Cisco employees in support of disaster relief operations around the world are also matched by the Cisco Foundation.

"As a new member of our Annual Disaster Giving Program, the Cisco Foundation has demonstrated its support of the American Red Cross and our commitment to assisting families and individuals affected by disasters," said Jennifer Dunlap, senior vice president of development for the American Red Cross. "By establishing an ongoing financial gift and through supporting the voluntary efforts of their workforce, Cisco has assumed a leadership role in helping the American Red Cross achieve our humanitarian mission."

The American Red Cross is dedicated to helping make families and communities safer at home and around the world. A humanitarian service organization currently operating on a budget of $2.7 billion, the American Red Cross annually mobilizes relief to the victims of more than 63,000 disasters nationwide and has been the primary supplier of lifesaving blood and blood products in the United States for more than 50 years. The American Red Cross also trains more than 11.7 million people in vital lifesaving skills, provides direct health services to 2.5 million people, provides more than 24 million locally relevant community services, assists international disaster and conflict victims in more than 50 countries, and transmits nearly 1.4 million emergency messages between members of the U.S. Armed Forces and their families. Dr. Bernadine Healy is president and CEO of the American Red Cross.