April 2025 – March 2026
2025 was a uniquely challenging year for the sector, experiencing a 53% drop in global humanitarian funding over three years. Yet, in this landscape, we have expanded accessibility to NetHope’s resources to a broader range of organizations, strengthening more nonprofits’ digital infrastructure.
We're thankful to Cisco and their generous partnership for all that we’ve been able to achieve together. Below are major highlights from year four as well as a brief look ahead to what year five brings.
Connecting Communities
The new Connectivity+ Subgrant allowed four Members (Acted, CRS, GOAL, and Oxfam) to implement projects bringing satellite connectivity to Haiti, transforming disaster management in The Gambia, enhancing health services in fragile contexts, and piloting community-based emergency connectivity hubs.
The Humanitarian Emergency Assessment and Response Tool (HEART) was refined, tested with Members, and scaled into a full toolkit available sector-wide, allowing organizations to cut down their response time for new emergencies. NetHope supported Member responses for the Myanmar earthquakes, Hurricane Erick, and Hurricane Melissa, providing coordination, cash grants, and information sharing on the ground.
Connecting the Global Aid Chain
NetHope deepened its commitment to nonprofits by creating new spaces to deepen collaboration and learning for humanitarian organizations. This was the driving force behind the launch of NetHope Connected, a public platform connecting national and sub-national nonprofits with peer learning, resources, and digital guidance. A partnership with the Start Network brought local organizations into the ecosystem, with free platform access.
“I've learned that building trust in a digital world is just as important as the work itself... using digital tools to support people, not just processes.”
- NetHope Connected Participant
Additionally, the Localization of Digital Transformation course, launched in 2024, grew to over 2,240 registered participants from 68 countries, spanning Africa, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, and Latin America.
Lighting the Way on AI
AI was part of every conversation this year, with NetHope helping set the agenda. The NetHope AI Lighthouse launched as a resource of practical tools, frameworks, case studies, and ethical guidance for the nonprofit sector.
The AI Working Group, now over 330 individuals from 58 Member organizations, met monthly to discuss everything from the EU AI Act to in-house LLM development.
As governments start AI governance conversations, civil society is being left behind. NetHope is working to fill the gap and elevate Member voices in that space. AI isn’t new and NetHope continues to lead the way on ensuring responsible use.
Protecting the People Who Protect Others
NetHope’s annual State of Humanitarian and Development Cybersecurity Report was published finding that most organizations are affected by phishing, core protections like MFA are still far from universal, and budget cuts are making cybersecurity risks worse. The survey for the 2026 report was deployed and its findings will be shared in August; stay tuned!
The virtual CISO program delivered over 447 hours of advisory services to 48+ Member organizations. A fourth cohort of 30 staff received SANS cybersecurity scholarships. The Global Humanitarian ISAC grew to 150 participants from 63 Members, sharing real-time threat intelligence.
Amplifying Community Voices on Climate
The Climate Intersections program partnered with Ushahidi and YARN to collect 5,000 community voices on climate change in Nigeria. Surpassing the target by 90%, we gathered 9,506 stories that were shared with communities and local governments to inform climate adaptation planning.
“The data you are giving back to us will help us know what to prioritize, as these are community voices.”
- Ondo State, Nigeria Official
Looking Forward
As we enter Year 5, the final year of this Initiative, we aim to close this chapter stronger and more vibrant. In order to continue being a bright beacon of digital excellence for the nonprofit sector we are focusing on:
We are deeply grateful for Cisco's continued commitment, flexibility, and belief in what is possible when technology and purpose align.
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