Contact: Franziska Marks, 415-633-9336, fmarks@compumentor.org

SAN FRANCISCO, May 10 /Standard Newswire/ -- Cisco will be hosting TechSoup's NetSquared Conference May 29-30 for the second consecutive year, renewing its commitment to further the adoption of Web 2.0 tools in the global nonprofit community.

Daniel Ben-Horin, Founder and President of TechSoup, the nonprofit behind NetSquared, commented: "TechSoup's partnership with Cisco goes back to 2002, when Cisco started to get involved in our TechSoup Stock (www.techsoup.org/stock) program, allowing us to distribute their technology product donations to nonprofits in the U.S. Over the past years, we were able to extend this very popular program to Europe, Africa, and Australia. And last year, Cisco hosted the first-ever NetSquared conference. Their enthusiastic support on all levels helped us pull off a professional event that helped build the strength of today's NetSquared community. We are honored that Cisco agreed to also host this year's event and to participate in our efforts to help the global nonprofit community make the most of social Web tools."

At this year's event, 21 social Web projects will compete for in-kind and financial support. The 21 finalists were chosen from a field of 152 entries by the vibrant NetSquared community of people who are active at the intersection of nonprofits and the social Web. During the event, 350 conference participants - including venture capitalists, philanthropy experts, web developers and social activists - will scrutinize the projects for financial sustainability, Web-based technological innovation, and social impact. The three top projects, as decided by a vote of conference participants, will divide most of the $100,000 Technology Innovation Fund. Remaining funds will be split among the rest of the participating projects. In addition to cash grants, finalists will also receive in-kind support from developers and consulting services firms such as San Francisco-based marketing consultancy Citizen Agency.

"We are very pleased to host the NetSquared conference again this year at our headquarters in San Jose. We are also very proud of our long term partnership with TechSoup, which enables global nonprofits to enhance services for their clients by leveraging the Internet," noted Theresa Silveira, Program Manager, Cisco Product Donation Program.

About Cisco:

Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO), is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com.

About NetSquared:

NetSquared's mission is to spur responsible adoption of social Web tools by social benefit organizations. Nonprofits and NGOs thrive on relationships, which means the social Web holds tremendous potential to transform their effectiveness and impact.

At this year's NetSquared Conference, 21 social benefit technology projects, which were chosen from a pool of 152, will compete for the $100,000 TechSoup Innovation Award in a "wisdom of crowds" scenario. The first NetSquared event quickly sold out last year; attendance at this year's Conference is by invitation. Those interested in participating in NetSquared should contact netsquared@techsoup.org.  

The NetSquared initiative is spearheaded by the nonprofit technology Web resource TechSoup, which offers a wealth of information on products, applications, best practices, online forums, and ideas on nonprofit tech topics from networking to open source and Web 2.0. It also gives its 400,000 unique monthly visitors access to the TechSoup Stock service, which offers hundreds of hardware and software products donated by leading providers such as Cisco, Microsoft, Symantec, Intuit, and Adobe. Since its inception in January 2002, the service has distributed more than 2.7 million products to nonprofits in North America, Europe, Australia, and Africa, and freed up over $600 million for other uses.