Posted on March 1, 2025
Donations spotlight: Support Americans for Tax Fairness in its fight to make the wealthy pay their fair share
Note from the CREDO Mobile team: This March, Americans for Tax Fairness is among three amazing groups that will receive a share of our monthly grant. Funding from the CREDO Mobile community will be vital to the nonprofit as it fights to build an economy that works for all of us by making the wealthy and big corporations pay their fair share in taxes.
Read this important blog post from Americans for Tax Fairness, then visit CREDO Donations and cast your vote to help send much-needed grant money to the group to assist its efforts—and the efforts of our other outstanding March grantees.
Should billionaires and big corporations get even more tax cuts? And should we slash healthcare, housing and education to pay for them?
We’re in the middle of a generational fight. President Trump wants to extend his 2017 tax cuts and funnel over $5 trillion to, largely, the ultrawealthy and large corporations. To pay for those cuts, he plans to dismantle essential programs that working-class and middle-class families rely on. At Americans for Tax Fairness, we’re fighting back. We’re a tax-reform coalition of over 400 national and state endorsing organizations with a track record of successfully shaping public opinion on taxes throughout our 13-year history.
Let’s be clear. Trump and his cronies have crafted a tax code—and an economy—that benefits the elite at the expense of working people. Since 2017, the wealth of billionaires has soared to record heights while working-class and middle-class families have fallen behind. The goal of the wealthy now is to entrench this unfair system, further fatten their bank accounts and tighten their grip on our democracy and our economy.
Make no mistake. Working families will pay, one way or another. Wealthy people won’t. Trump, his billionaire co-president Elon Musk and their ideological partners in Congress are trying to cut trillions of dollars from public services, including Medicaid, climate response, education and food assistance.
A massive redistribution of wealth
Another way the Republicans plan to fund their tax cuts for the wealthy is by adding to the national debt. This sort of deficit-spending is a smart strategy during recessions or other national emergencies, when it’s needed to support the economy and working families. But running up huge debt just to fund tax cuts for the rich is a disgraceful waste. Higher national debt tends to drive up interest rates, which makes anything consumers buy on credit—from houses to cars to appliances—more expensive.
All told, the GOP’s fiscal plans represent a massive redistribution of wealth upward from the middle class and working class to the richest people in our country. At ATF, we’re dedicated to making sure the American people recognize, understand and remember the grand larceny that’s happening before our eyes and hold accountable those who are responsible.
We have the tools and experience to accomplish this goal. Our broad coalition includes labor unions, think tanks, women’s organizations, civil rights groups and many other representatives of the progressive movement. For over a dozen years, we’ve been educating Congress, the media and the general public on the real-world impact of tax policy.
Working with our coalition members and allies over the past year, we’ve met with the staff of all the Democratic leaders in Congress and the tax-writing committees—150 Capitol Hill meetings in all—to press the proven case that the American people want corporations and the rich to pay more in taxes, not receive more tax cuts.
We released a dozen full-scale national reports in 2024, most of them focused on tax-dodging and other financial misbehavior by hyper-wealthy people and big corporations. Our social media messaging continues to shine, racking up tens of millions of impressions across platforms while often setting the tone and framing for progressive economic messaging.
In traditional media, last year we reached a potential audience of 7 billion people. This includes over 1,500 digital and print articles across five different languages in major national outlets like ABC, CNBC, the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and Axios.
A plan for resistance
The American people are understandably overwhelmed by the chaotic aggressions of the Trump administration. Americans for Tax Fairness is singularly well-positioned to fight back against the largest single piece of that punishing agenda: GOP plans to cut taxes further on the rich and big corporations and make the rest of us pay for it. Working with allies old and new, we’ll make sure the American people know what’s happening. Working together, we will resist and we will win.
To learn more, please visit us online at Americans for Tax Fairness.
Posted on February 19, 2025
Fake news is everywhere—and it’s dangerous. Here’s how to know it when you see it
In the good old days, fake news was funny. “I married Bigfoot.” “Computer virus spreads to humans!” We saw stuff like that at the supermarket checkout counter and we laughed.
Now, fake news is everywhere—and it’s no joke. Sometimes it’s dangerous. As it was in 2016, when a North Carolina man drove to a Washington, D.C., pizzeria with an assault rifle to “investigate” the Pizzagate conspiracy theory, which claimed (falsely) that Hillary Clinton’s inner circle was running a pedophilia ring out of the restaurant.
Since then, it’s gotten a lot worse. Misinformation dominates the national conversation. It’s online, on the radio, on TV. It’s all over social media. Often, it’s not obviously fake. It’s believable, it’s shareable—and it has the power to cause not only societal damage but individual harm.
Fake news warps your brain (yes really)
Truth is a virtue, fake news is a virus—and it spreads just as fast. A few years ago, researchers measured the speed and scope with which fake news propagates on social media. They followed over 125,000 “rumor cascades” on Twitter and found that fake news reached far more people than the truth, with the top 1% of rumors spreading to between 1,000 and 100,000 people, while the truth rarely reached more than 1,000 people. Rumors also spread much faster than the truth, driven by the emotions (usually anger) they’re designed to provoke.
Mainstream media outlets have fact-checking procedures to guard against fake news (for now, anyway). Social media platforms have no such protections. Elon Musk dismantled X’s content-moderation system several years ago. At the start of 2025, Mark Zuckerberg followed suit, killing the content moderation at Meta and replacing it with a “community” system similar to X’s.
So, it’s mostly up to you to check the veracity of the “news” you read or hear or watch on the internet. Do you really need to? For your mental health, yes. Research shows that even a few minutes of exposure to fake news can subconsciously rewire your brain. Without you even realizing it, fake news will provoke an emotional reaction, implant false memories and reinforce existing biases. It will stick in your brain and continue to affect your thinking, whether you like it or not.
Let’s say you read a false and defamatory story about a political candidate. Research shows that, even though you know the story is false, the information will linger in the back of your mind and trigger a negative emotion anytime you hear about the candidate in the future.
Take these steps to spot fake news
Mike Caulfield is a digital literacy expert who focuses on fake news and how to detect it. He’s the author of Verified: How to Think Straight, Get Duped Less and Make Better Decisions About What to Believe Online and he’s the creator of the SIFT method for evaluating online content.
These are the four steps of SIFT. They’re easy and they’re well worth applying as you make your way around the internet.
- Stop. When you come across a piece of content, read the headline, then pause and take note of your emotional response. Headlines are written to grab your attention (they’re clickbait) and they do it most effectively by triggering an emotional reaction. Before you read, watch or share the content, think what you already know about the topic.
- Investigate the source. Google the publisher of the content and see what the internet says about it. Is there a lot of information on the publisher or very little? Also question the publisher’s motivation. Does it have a vested interest or financial motivation? Remember those conservative influencers who last year were being paid millions to spread false information that promoted Kremlin interests.
- Find better coverage. Check any content published by an unestablished platform against an outlet you know and trust. If a claim is controversial, odds are it’s been looked into already by online fact-checkers. Many of them are nonprofit, nonpartisan websites. Good ones include FactCheck.org, Snopes.com and PolitiFact. There’s also Google Fact Check, which searches only fact-checking sites. If you want to check the trustworthiness of an image, you can run a reverse image search at sites like TinEye and Yandex.
- Trace claims to their original context. If you see a claim that’s controversial or surprising, try to find out where it originated. Your goal is discover if the claim was taken out of context to create an emotional response and grab attention. Images, for example, can have many different meanings depending on their context. The same goes for quotes.
CREDO Mobile is your true connection
Looking for a phone company that shares your progressive values? There’s only one: CREDO Mobile.
We support the same causes you do. Causes like equal rights, climate stability and a fair economy. To date, we’ve donated over $95 million to nonprofit groups dedicated to these progressive values and many others. Groups like Friends of the Earth, Black Voters Matter and the National LGBTQ Task Force.
Join us and you’ll get all you want from your mobile service: competitive plans, great deals on new devices and the nation’s top-rated, most reliable network.
And you’ll get much more. You’ll get an easy, effective way to make a difference in the world. CREDO Mobile generates much-needed donations for progressive nonprofits dedicated to the causes you care about.
Switching is simple. You can bring your current device and your current number. Go to CREDOMobile.com to learn more.
Posted on February 11, 2025
A Valentine’s Day message about love, hope, hard work—and how we can win in the end
Love conquers all, it is said. Not really, of course. And especially not now, it seems, as authoritarians around the world fan the fire of hate and ride it to power.
And yet all is not as it seems. Because, over time, with hope, passion and hard work, those of us who believe in love, who care about our planet and the people we share it with—we can win.
We know we can because we’ve done it before. Marriage equality is one example—and a good one, on this Valentine’s Day. It’s now the law of the land. But there was a time, not so long ago, when it seemed marriage equality would never happen. In 2004, an election year, conservatives were so confident in the anti-gay bias of voters that they put same-sex marriage bans on the ballot in 13 states—and won in all 13.
And yet look now. Marriage equality is the law nationwide and enjoys at least a plurality of public support in every U.S. state. Two-thirds of Americans are in favor of marriage equality.
Working together, we did it
Here at CREDO Mobile, we’ve been fighting for marriage equality since our founding, in 1985. Long before the Supreme Court’s 2015 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which made same-sex marriage legal across the U.S., hundreds of thousands of CREDO Mobile customers took action for the cause. In the years prior to Obergefell, we fought for and won the freedom for all to marry in dozens of states.
We also donated millions of dollars to groups working for marriage equality, including the National LGBTQ Task Force, Freedom to Marry, Courage Campaign, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Campaign and the ACLU.
The campaign was long and it was difficult. But in the end we won. And we proved that individuals working together can overcome immense challenges, change millions of minds and win for causes that improve the lives of many people, not just the powerful few.
So what else can we do?
In 2004, 60% of Americans opposed same-sex marriage. Today, 69% of Americans support it. This didn’t happen by chance. It happened because those of us who have always believed in marriage equality worked hard for a lot of years and made it happen.
In that 2004 election, bans on marriage equality won in all 13 of the states where they were on the ballot. Today, bans on marriage equality would undoubtedly be defeated in all states but a few. The only way now for religious extremists to overturn the Obergefell precedent would be by decision of the Supreme Court. So yes, given the court’s current makeup, we can’t let our guard down.
But we can get our hopes up. Even now, as the cloud of a vengeful political movement casts darkness across the country, we can keep our dreams alight, knowing that if we have patience and work hard we can win for the causes we care about. We did it on marriage equality. And we can do it again—on climate change, reproductive rights and any other issue we put our collective shoulder to.
We recently celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day. We should remember what he once said: “The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.” We should also remember that it only bends if people put in the effort to bend it.
Join the phone company that shares your values
One phone company puts in that effort. One stands with you in support of marriage equality and other progressive values: CREDO Mobile.
To date, we’ve donated over $95 million to nonprofit groups dedicated to the causes you care about. Groups like Friends of the Earth, Reproductive Freedom For All, Social Security Works and Family Equality. Causes like climate action, equal rights and reproductive freedom.
Join us and you’ll get all you want from your mobile service: competitive plans, great deals on new devices and the nation’s top-rated, most reliable network.
And you’ll get much more. You’ll get an easy, effective way to make positive change by generating donations for nonprofits that fight for a better world. These donations cost you nothing extra—but they mean everything to the groups we support.
Switching is easy. You can bring your current device and your current number. Go to CREDOMobile.com to learn more.
Posted on February 7, 2025
For trans people: CREDO Mobile makes a difference
Recently, we sent a contribution to Advocates for Trans Equality, which fights to shift government and society toward a future in which trans people are no less than equal.
CREDO Mobile is a committed supporter of A4TE and our funding has powered many of the group’s campaigns. In this time of increased extremism against transgender people, we’ll continue working with A4TE to ensure that trans voices are not only heard but embraced in places where they’ve long been ignored and, finally, to realize a world in which trans people can live their lives joyfully and without barriers.
Countering anti-trans extremism
Many in the trans community now have intensified fear and uncertainty about the future—and for good reason. With funding from CREDO Mobile, A4TE is strengthening its capacity to counter the rising anti-trans sentiment, which threatens the rights, safety and dignity of trans individuals.
Together, we’re building a landscape of equality that welcomes the full participation of trans individuals in public life. We’re not just resisting harmful laws, we’re helping shape a society in which trans people are visible, valued and fully empowered to contribute to our nation’s future.
Working on many fronts
A4TE helps members of the trans community navigate the realities of law and policy by providing legal tools, legislative knowledge and useful services. In partnership with CREDO Mobile, A4TE has built strong advocacy programs in many areas.
- Legal advocacy. A4TE targets cases that will set precedence and have far-reaching impact, delivering immediate relief to individual clients while at the same time bolstering the legal framework that protects the broader trans community. For example, in a major recent victory we convinced the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit to rule in favor of our clients in Kadel v. Folwell. This was the first federal court of appeals to rule that trans health exclusions violate the constitutional guarantee of equal protection under the law.
- Policy advocacy. A4TE is committed to securing robust anti-discrimination protections for trans people in state and federal policy arenas. As it advances these protections, it also is actively countering a wave of harmful anti-trans legislation through strategic advocacy, education and coalition building. Almost 700 anti-trans bills were introduced in states in 2024, which demonstrates the urgency of A4TE’s state-level work. While its federal work remains indispensable in shaping long-term nationwide protections, it’s at the state level where the most immediate and consequential battles are being fought.
- U.S. Transgender Survey. A4TE fields the largest survey of transgender individuals in the United States: the U.S. Transgender Survey.
- Congressional Champions List. In October, A4TE unveiled the 118th Congressional Champions List, which recognizes the elected officials who show a steadfast commitment to advancing the rights and dignity of trans people across the U.S. These champions are crucial allies in the fight against the many anti-trans bills in state legislatures.
Connecting with CREDO Mobile
Advocates for Trans Equality was able to do all these things because our customers do one thing: use our service. When they do, they raise much-needed donations for progressive nonprofit groups like A4TE. These donations cost our customers nothing—but they mean everything to the nonprofits we fund.
If you’re a CREDO Mobile member, thank you for your support. If you’re not a member, please join us now. You’ll get all you want from your mobile service: the nation’s top-rated, most reliable network, competitive plans and great deals on new devices.
And you’ll get much more. You’ll get a powerful way to support your values whenever you use your phone.
Switching is easy. You can bring your current device and your current number. Go to CREDOMobile.com to learn more.
Posted on February 7, 2025
Donations spotlight: Take Back the Court Action Fund fights for a Supreme Court that serves the people, not the powerful
Note from the CREDO Mobile team: This February, the Take Back the Court Action Fund is among three amazing groups that will receive a share of our monthly grant. Funding from the CREDO Mobile community will be vital to the nonprofit as it works to inform the public about the danger that the Supreme Court poses to democracy.
Read this important blog post from Take Back the Court Action Fund, then visit CREDO Donations and cast your vote to help send much-needed grant money to the group to assist its efforts—and the efforts of our other outstanding February grantees.
In 2016, the right-wing movement stole the Supreme Court. In an unprecedented power grab, Mitch McConnell and his Republican cronies refused to hold a vote for President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland. In doing so, they shrunk the court to eight seats for more than a year. But they weren’t done.
In the fall of 2020, they reversed course entirely and rammed through Trump nominee Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation in record time—even though 63 million people had already cast their ballots in the election that would fire Donald Trump.
With those two insidious moves, Republicans took the Supreme Court hostage, enshrining a right-wing extremist supermajority of six justices, five of whom were appointed by presidents who lost the popular vote.
And last spring, those right-wing justices—several of whom are reportedly entangled in a massive web of corruption—returned the ultimate favor to the right by declaring that Trump is immune from prosecution for any “official” criminal acts committed while in office.
Republicans stole the Supreme Court with the goal of imposing the dark reality we now live in: a version of America where they call the shots and get a rubber stamp on their most regressive, radical policies and most anti-democratic impulses.
The Supreme Court is stripping us of fundamental rights and freedoms
Take Back the Court Action Fund was established to counter this existential threat to our democracy. We’re fighting to reform and rebalance the court, freeing it from the clutches of a few corrupt oligarchs robbing us of our rights and freedoms and returning control to its rightful place: the hands of the American people.
We are watching the court strip away more and more of our fundamental rights and freedoms each and every year. Already, we’ve seen the court’s radical justices overturn the right to abortion, gut the Voting Rights Act, roll back crucial protections for workers, Black, Latino, Indigenous and LGBTQ+ people, hamstring our government’s ability to fight the climate crisis, open the floodgates to more gun violence and effectively anoint Donald Trump king.
Only reforming the court will protect us from its attacks
So what are we doing about it? We’re building a movement to reform and rebalance the Supreme Court.
Our country was founded on a principle of checks and balances, and it’s the job of Congress to check the court’s power. Democratic leaders had a window to solve the problem of our broken court when they held both houses of Congress and the presidency. They could have added four new justices to restore balance to the court and fix what Mitch McConnell broke—but they didn’t step up.
That window for reform has slammed shut for now but not forever. Next time the Democrats take power, they’ll have an opportunity to redeem themselves by reining in this out-of-control court. And we’re making sure they’re ready to do whatever it takes.
We cannot create a future that works for all with an unbalanced and compromised Supreme Court that ignores the will of the people, rolls back our rights and freedoms, and dismantles our democracy piece by piece. Everything we care about—restoring the right to vote, ensuring reproductive freedom, protecting workers, halting our climate emergency, passing new progressive legislation and more—all of it depends on reforming this rogue court and curbing the unprecedented corruption around Trump’s rogue right-wing supermajority.
Together, we can take back the court
This court isn’t going to police itself. The justices embroiled in ethics scandal after ethics scandal are not going to voluntarily check their own power or miraculously wake up and decide to “do the right thing.” And the court’s right-wing supermajority won’t stop its crusade to rule over us like a panel of demigods, stripping away our freedoms and deciding who dies, who lives and how.
So it’s up to us—all of us—to stop them. We’re making sure all Americans and our representatives in Congress know exactly how dire is the threat that this court poses to our lives and futures, and what we can and must do about it.
We’ve all seen the deadly consequences of the Supreme Court’s unchecked power. We’ve seen the devastation that follows just one term. We cannot withstand 40 more years of this court rolling back a century of hard-won progressive advancements.
Taking back the court means having a government that works for us and a court that is accountable to us. Together, we can reclaim our power and rebuild our democracy. Join us at Take Back the Court.
Posted on February 6, 2025
Donations spotlight: Support Abortion Care Network in its work to defend independent abortion providers
Note from the CREDO Mobile team: This February, Abortion Care Network is among three amazing groups that will receive a share of our monthly grant. Funding from the CREDO Mobile community will be vital to the nonprofit as it works to support independent abortion providers and ensure access to safe, compassionate abortion.
Read this important blog post from Abortion Care Network, then visit CREDO Donations and cast your vote to help send much-needed grant money to the group to assist its efforts—and the efforts of our other outstanding February grantees.
Experience tells us that we are facing four years of devastating blows to our human rights and public health, and that the harm will extend for decades. The 2024 election also made it crystal clear that abortion is popular and people want access to comprehensive reproductive healthcare in their states. But this is only possible when independent abortion clinics are open, well-supported and thriving.
Independent abortion clinics are the leading providers of abortion care in the United States but they’re often under-resourced and under-recognized for their work.
Ensuring a future for abortion access
Abortion Care Network is a nonprofit network of independent abortion clinics and their allies. We are dedicated to building a sustainable future for abortion access by resourcing, connecting and celebrating independent abortion clinics and their allies. We do this by:
- Supporting independent providers: We equip clinics with the tools and resources they need to offer dignified, respectful care and keep their doors open.
- Changing the conversation: Abortion stigma is prevalent. With support from Abortion Care Network, abortion providers are telling their stories and shifting the conversation on what it means to provide abortion care in increasingly hostile conditions.
- Cultivating a strong community: We ensure that independent clinics have a network of solidarity, support and resources to draw from.
Today there are unjust, politically imposed abortion bans and restrictions in 41 states. In 14 of those states, bans are so severe that every abortion clinic has been forced to close or stop providing abortion care, particularly in the South and Midwest. Independent abortion clinics provide the majority of abortion care and are the only clinics providing abortion care after 26 weeks of pregnancy.
You can learn more in our Communities Need Clinics report, which details the role that independent abortion clinics play in ensuring abortion access in the U.S., the barriers they face and how you can take action to support these essential providers.
Supporting Independent Abortion Clinics
In addition to providing the majority of abortion care in the U.S., independent providers operate the majority of abortion clinics in those states that are most politically hostile to abortion access. Wherever they’re located, independent clinics are centers of care in their communities, often delivering a breadth of sexual and reproductive health services and working with abortion funds and practical support organizations to ensure that services are available to those with the fewest resources. They are bold advocates in their states—often fighting for and ensuring the legal right to access abortion.
Because of abortion bans, anti-abortion violence and increasing financial challenges, clinics have been forced to close their doors, uproot and lay off staff and stop providing trusted, community-based abortion and other healthcare.
Across the U.S., indie clinics are often the last line of defense, providing care when and where others do not, helping people navigate an increasingly confusing and sparse landscape of care and challenging abortion bans in the courts. Entire regions depend on independent clinics for care. And these clinics are facing increasing pressure as anti-abortion extremism, abortion bans and financial challenges increase.
Being there for each other
The road ahead will be hard and it will be unfairly hard for those who are already marginalized—including trans people, Black and Indigenous people, people of color, immigrants and anyone experiencing state violence. But we do know this: we will be there for each other. We will find new, bold ways of taking care of one another and we will stand together, even when the path forward is unclear.
Independent abortion clinics are the backbone of the movement for abortion access. They were built for these times—showing up every day to provide essential care and support to their communities, even in the most difficult circumstances. Supporting these providers and keeping clinic doors open is critical if we want to protect and expand access to abortion care in the U.S.
Together with independent clinics and their allies, we are resolute. We won’t stop fighting, we won’t stop caring. But we need you with us. Learn more and sign up to stay connected at Abortion Care Network.
You can still get an abortion in the U.S. Find a clinic and get help accessing care at I Need an A or text 202 883–4620 to find a clinic near you.
Posted on February 4, 2025
In February, CREDO Mobile is supporting Abortion Care Network, Right to Be and Take Back the Court Action Fund
Now more than ever it is important to support progressive organizations. This February, CREDO Mobile is supporting 3 amazing nonprofits working for a better world. We will allocate the donations at the end of the month based on the number of votes for each organization. You can vote for 1, 2 or all 3 nonprofits at www.credodonations.com.
Abortion Care Network
Abortion Care Network is the only national membership organization for independent abortion clinics – who provide the majority of abortion care in the United States. We support their sustainability and ability to provide dignified abortion care. When you support independent abortion clinics, you make providers feel less alone. Thank you for supporting the people who make abortion access possible.
Right to Be
Right To Be (formerly Hollaback!) is building a world filled with hope and free of harassment, for good. Right To Be works to end harassment in all of its forms by transforming the culture that perpetuates hate and harassment. We carry out this mission by building the power of everyday people to create safe and welcoming spaces for all. “Too many people face harassment and discrimination simply for being who they are. We can work together to change that, creating a world where everyone has the right to feel safe in public space. Thank you for making that world possible.”
Take Back the Court Action Fund
Take Back the Court Action Fund fights for a Supreme Court that will serve the American people, not try to rule us. We’re fighting to protect the things that matter most — voting rights, reproductive freedom, workers’ rights, the climate, and more — by reforming this out-of-control court and reining in corruption around Donald Trump’s right-wing supermajority. “Thank you for joining us in this fight. Together, we can reclaim our power and reform the Supreme Court to ensure it works for us — rebuilding our democracy, protecting our freedoms, and putting people before corporate profits.”
These donations are funded by our CREDO Mobile customers. If you are a CREDO Mobile customer, thank you. If you are not, check out CREDO Mobile and see how your mobile phone can make a difference in the world.
Posted on February 4, 2025
Black History Month Events
You’re invited to Black History Month events. These events are nationwide, some in person and some virtual.
Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action and Year of Purpose | DC Educators for Social Justice (A project of Teaching for Change) | 2/3 – 2/7 | Various Locations
https://www.dcareaeducators4socialjustice.org/black-lives-matter-week-action
The goal of the Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action and Year of Purpose is to spark an ongoing movement of critical reflection and honest conversations in school communities for people of all ages to engage with critical issues of social justice.
FREEDOM WAS IN SIGHT – A conversation with Author Kate Masus | Busboys and Poets Books | 2/6 6pm ET | Busboys and Poets Washington DC
Busboys and Poets (14th & V location) is hosting author Kate Masur to share about her book, Freedom Was in Sight: A Graphic History of Reconstruction in the Washington, D.C., Region, narrating the hopes and betrayals of a critical period in American history.
Reconstruction Robbery: The Rise and Betrayal of the Freedman’s Bank | Zinn Education Project | 2/10 7pm ET | Online
https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/the-rise-and-betrayal-of-the-freedmans-bank/
Historian Justene Hill Edwards, in conversation with Teaching for Black Lives co-editor Jesse Hagopian, will discuss Edwards’ book, Savings and Trust: The Rise and Betrayal of the Freedman’s Bank, a comprehensive account of the Freedman’s Bank and its depositors.
Douglass Day | 2/14 | Various (online and virtual)
Frederick Douglass never knew his birth date, but he chose to celebrate every year on February 14th. Douglass Day is an annual program that marks his birth. This year Douglass Day is transcribing Black history with the Library of Congress. There will be a crowdsourcing project on Black history, a live broadcast, a Great Douglass Day Bake Off, and special guests. Celebrate this date as a moment for creating Black history together.
Virtual Postcard Party | Black Voters Matter | 2/20 6pm ET | Virtual
At this postcard party, we will focus on the power of Black Women. Volunteers will create personalized messages to remind individuals of the POWER that they hold in their communities. We will provide training and the platform for you to submit your message.
Black Voters Matter x The Atlanta Black Expo | Black Voters Matter | 2/22 – 2/23 | Atlanta, GA
We are celebrating Black History month by connecting with the community at the Atlanta Black Expo! Volunteer with Black Voters Matter as we table on Saturday, February 22nd and Sunday, February 23rd to connect Atlanta residents with BVM’s mission of building permanent, progressive Black Power.
SNCC Legacy Project Organizing Tradition Community Conversation | SNCC Legacy Project | Multiple Dates and Times | In person and Online
https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/seminar-series-on-sncc-and-grassroots-organizing/
The SNCC Legacy Project is offering a SNCC and Grassroots Organizing: Building a More Perfect Union discussion series on SNCC’s grassroots community organizing and its relevance to ongoing efforts to build a more just, inclusive, and sustainable society. The series, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, is focused on six themes that are at the heart of SNCC’s history of grassroots organizing: the organizing tradition, voting rights, Black Power, women and gender, freedom teaching, and art and culture in movement building.
Texting Tuesdays | Black Voters Matter | Tuesday(multiple) 6pm ET | Virtual
https://bit.ly/BVMTextingTuesday
Last year, during a pivotal presidential election year, we sent an incredible 25 MILLION messages to educate residents on local elections, environmental justice, police reform, and much more! During the session, we’ll provide training, discuss our latest texting campaign, and take action together.
Solidarity 2025: Public School Strong Training Series | Heal Together | Wednesdays (multiple) 7-8:30pm ET | Virtual
https://www.mobilize.us/raceforward/event/747449/
Solidarity 2025 is a training series equipping activist educators, school board members, students, parents, and allies to unite against attacks on public education outlined in Project 2025.
How To Take Action | ACLU | Various Days | Virtual
https://www.aclu.org/news/civil-liberties/how-to-take-action-on-inauguration-day-and-beyond
The ACLU has created a non-exhaustive guide for how to take action and join the effort to create a more perfect union. Our civil liberties and civil rights are on the line. This guide helps to connect you with ways to advocate for our freedoms.
Posted on February 1, 2025
Donations spotlight: Power Right To Be in its effort to build a world free of harassment
Note from the CREDO Mobile team: This February, Right To Be is among three amazing groups that will receive a share of our monthly grant. Funding from the CREDO Mobile community will be vital to the nonprofit as it works to build a world that’s free of harassment and filled with humanity.
Read this important blog post from Right To Be, then visit CREDO Donations and cast your vote to help send much-needed grant money to the group to assist its efforts—and the efforts of our other outstanding February grantees.
Right To Be (formerly Hollaback!) works to end harassment in all of its forms by transforming the culture that perpetuates hate and harassment. Our partnership with CREDO Mobile brings together a community of people working for social change and actively making a difference.
There are two ways that we’re inviting you into action today. One, skilling up in bystander intervention. And two, supporting the young people in your life through the 5Ds for YOUth.
Bystander intervention: How to help
Right To Be is dedicated to ending harassment and discrimination in public spaces. One of the strongest tools we have to stop harassment in its tracks is bystander intervention.
Too often we see acts of discrimination and aren’t sure what to do. But what if we could act? What if we could check in with the person experiencing harassment, distract the aggressor or even safely call out the behavior?
These are skills you can learn through bystander intervention training. To help you learn, Right To Be offers free digital bystander intervention trainings, which are made possible by supporters like CREDO Mobile. These tutorials are for people facing harassment and their allies to learn more about the histories of discrimination, understand why many of us “freeze” or don’t act when we see harassment and practice how to safely intervene.
This is an important moment to stand in community, stepping up to learn proven, safe and effective methods that keep each other safe. 76% of the people who Right To Be trains will actually use bystander intervention to support a friend, family member, colleague or stranger on the street who’s facing harassment. With their bravery and learned skills, they’ve deescalated the situation many times and directly supported someone facing hate.
You can join these leaders by signing up for a free training or accessing our resource page to learn more about how you can recognize, respond to and heal from harassment.
5Ds for YOUth: A program to end bullying
We know that 1 in 5 young people report that they face bullying in school. This bullying has long-lasting impacts on their self-esteem, anxiety and sense of safety. At the same time, young people are facing an increase in digital harassment and mis/disinformation, which is fueling discrimination and identity-based attacks.
If you have young people in your life, we invite you to learn more about bullying online and offline, and help us build responsive tools for young leaders during Respect for All Week (February 10 – 14, 2025).
During Respect for All week, Right To Be will host daily events, including an activation toolkit, open workshops and story-sharing hours for everyone to share their insights, learn about youth bullying and gain tools to take action.
You can sign up now for events at Right To Be You(th), including the following trainings: Bystander Intervention for Youth: How to Show Up for Others on February 11 at 1pm Eastern Time or Bystander Intervention for Youth: How to Show Up for Others on February 13 at 7am Eastern Time.
With the support of CREDO Mobile, Right To Be has been able to train 3.2 million people in bystander intervention, a best practice in deescalating violence. As a CREDO Mobile community member, you’re making this critical work possible, creating safe and welcoming spaces for all.
Together, we’re working to build a world that’s free of harassment and filled with humanity, where everyone has the right to be their full selves. Thank you for building that world with us.
Posted on January 17, 2025
How to digitize printed photos with your phone
Photographs—on paper. Remember those? If you’re old enough, you’ve probably got an album or shoebox full of them, stuck away in a closet somewhere. You get them out now and then, look through them, feel happy (or sad), depending on your mood (and your age).
But maybe you want to do more with those old photos. Email them to friends or family, or post them to your social media accounts. To do this, you’ll need to digitize your printed photographs. Here’s how.
Get organized
Step one is to sort your photos into categories—by date, subject, whatever. It may sound unnecessary but you’ll be storing your newly digitized photos in the cloud, on your computer or an external drive and it’ll be a lot easier to search your pictures if you’ve got them in some sort of order.
This done, you’re ready to start scanning. You just need an app to do it with.
Choose an app
The easiest way to digitize a photo is to put it down flat and take a picture of it with your phone or tablet. Easiest but not best. A better way is to download a photo-scanning app to your phone or tablet and use that.
There are dozens of photo-scanning apps available but many are not free. Here are three apps that are free and will do a good job of scanning your photos. All three are available for iPhone and Android. All three will perform better if you first clean your lens and use natural light if you can.
- Google PhotoScan: Simple and intuitive to use but it requires time because you must take four images of each photo. The app then blends the four together to produce one high-quality digital picture.
To begin, hold your phone directly over the photo and position the photo within the PhotoScan frame. When you’ve got it in position, tap the shutter button. Four circles will appear, one in each corner of the photo. Hold your phone over each circle and, each time you do, PhotoScan will snap an image. The app minimizes glare and fixes imperfections in the original.
User review: “This app is straight up awesome. There are other good scanner apps out there but this is by far the best photo-scanner app I have ever used.”
- Microsoft Lens: Like a lot of scanning apps, Lens advertises itself as a document scanner, primarily, but it also works well for photos. If you’re a Microsoft subscriber, the app will upload images directly to OneDrive. No account creation or sign-in is required.
Lens is easy to use. Just switch it into Photo mode, center your image in the frame and tap the Scan button. There are a few editing tools available so you can fix imperfections.
User review: “One of the best scanner apps. I’m surprised it can do so many things. Document, whiteboard, QR codes, you name it.”
- Photomyne: This app is available in a free and paid version. The free version offers basic functions and includes ads. It’s quick and easy to use and it delivers very good quality, with vibrant colors and accurate skin tones. It includes basic editing tools like crop, rotate and filters. It lets you colorize black-and-white photos, which is pretty neat, and it also scans slides and negatives.
To use Photomyne, just open the app, position your phone over the image, tap and hold the shutter button for a moment. The app will automatically detect borders and crop your photos, then save them to your phone.
User review: “I’m really liking the app so far. Very easy to use, without a lot of the junk that just ends up complicating an otherwise simple and easy process.”
Picture this: a better world
Here’s something else you can do with your phone: make the world a better place. Pretty cool. But it’s a function you’ll find only on phones powered by CREDO Mobile.
When you join us, you get all you want from your mobile service: competitive plans, great deals on new devices and the nation’s top-rated, most reliable network.
And you’ll get much more. You’ll get an easy, effective way to make a difference in the world by generating donations for progressive nonprofits dedicated to the causes you care about.
Switching is easy. You can bring your current device and your current number. Go to CREDOMobile.com to learn more.
