Posted on January 4, 2024
Big banks are funding climate chaos but Rainforest Action Network is fighting back
Note from the CREDO Mobile team: This January, Rainforest Action Network (RAN) is among three amazing groups that will receive a share of our monthly grant. Funding from the CREDO Mobile community will help RAN in its mission to preserve forests, protect the climate and uphold human rights by challenging corporate power and systemic injustice through frontline partnerships and strategic campaigns.
Read this important blog post about RAN’s critical work, then visit CREDODonations.com and cast your vote to help send funding to RAN to support its efforts — and the efforts of our other outstanding January grantees.
There are parts of India, the country where I’m from, that are questioning whether or not humans can survive there anymore because of the weather. In the summer of 2022, heatwaves killed 61,600 people in Europe. In the summer of 2023, going outside for a day in my current home of Washington, D.C., was like inhaling 22 cigarettes because of the Canadian wildfire smoke. Over 20 million acres of wild lands were burning there, 21 times more than the average this decade.
Also last summer, 100 million people in the U.S. were under heat advisories, as dangerous weather burned crops, delivered killing heat strokes and caused power grid failures as people tried to stay cool running their air conditioners all night long. This was on top of the disasters of fire and flood. Death Valley, in California, experienced the hottest temperatures ever recorded on the planet, which also happened in 2020 and 2021.
These events are not random, they’re clearly linked to climate change caused by the burning of fossil fuels. World scientists have issued dire warnings yet fossil fuel companies expand supply, making record profits — and big banks help them. Since the Paris Agreement was signed, banks have poured $5.5 trillion of financing into fossil fuel companies. Last year, banks pumped $669 billion of cash into fossil fuel companies while thousands of people died from flooding in Nigeria, India and Pakistan, in addition to the tens of thousands of people who died in the European heatwave.
One of the worst sources of climate chaos isn’t coal or oil. It’s methane gas — rebranded in recent decades by the industry as liquified natural gas (LNG). What is called LNG is mostly methane, a gas that has 80 times more warming power than carbon dioxide. Not only is methane gas a dangerous climate pollutant, it is also a bad business bet. It faces a money-losing glut amid competition from renewables: Europe is aiming to have 45% of its energy from renewables by 2030 and Asian environmental organizations like CEED Philippines reject the idea that their region must switch from coal to gas and then to renewables. Instead, they present the proof that renewables can — and must — scale now.
A methane gas pipeline explodes every two days in the U.S., on average. The build-out of methane gas facilities is also happening in Black, Brown and Indigenous communities in the Gulf South that have for decades been dealing with the toxic impacts of petrochemicals. Methane gas is not a transition fuel, it is a fossil fuel that we cannot afford to expand.
Despite the deaths and explosions, banks continue to fund this fossil fuel, with 25-plus export projects being proposed in the U.S. Gulf alone, up from the four currently operating. One of the most dangerous facilities — the Rio Grande Valley Project by NextDecade — just announced that due to support from banks like JP Morgan Chase it has enough financing, despite French banks pulling out. JP Morgan Chase has showered the methane gas sector with $8 billion since the Paris Agreement.
While the Esto’k Gna people of the Comecrudo Carrizo Tribe in Brownsville, Texas, can’t go outside because of the heat, they are fighting to stop this project on their sacred ancestral lands, which are also at risk of falling debris from SpaceX explosions. Yet banks and the government decided that a methane gas project that’s 984 acres and bigger than New York City’s Central Park should be built on the last deepwater port that is free from oil and petrochemical shipping on the Texas Gulf coast.
How many people have to die before banks understand that no more fossil fuel projects can be funded? When will they heed the world’s call for financing for climate mitigation, transition and adaptation instead of fossil fuel foolishness? What 1,000-year storm, flood or fire will happen before they move as fast as the world needs them to? How many times will they be complicit in violating Indigenous sovereignty and human rights before listening to the people who are dying from the heat and extreme weather?
Banks must urgently realign their financing toward a future that doesn’t kill tens of thousands of people all over the globe and put a third of the U.S. under a death wave of heat. They should first stop financing any fossil fuel expansion, especially deceptive methane gas projects. They should instead be part of the solution and finance the renewables the world needs to survive.
Learn more about the vital work Rainforest Action Network does at RAN.org.
Posted on January 3, 2024
Our December grantees thank you for your support
Each month, CREDO members vote on how we distribute funding to three incredible nonprofits. In December, CREDO members voted to distribute our monthly donation among the Center for Biological Diversity, the Center for Disaster Philanthropy and Common Cause.
These donations are made possible by CREDO customers and the revenue they generate by using our services. The distribution depends entirely on the votes of CREDO members like you. And for that, our December grant recipients thank you.
Center for Biological Diversity
“Thank you for helping the Center with your vote for nature. Together, we can save our wildlife, wild places. Thanks to you, we’ll fight hard against corporate interests who want to pollute our oceans, log our forests or drill for dirty fossil fuels.” – Kierán Suckling, Executive Director, Center for Biological Diversity
To learn more, visit www.biologicaldiversity.org.
Center for Disaster Philanthropy
“We appreciate CREDO, its subscribers and the many donors who have contributed to CDP for putting their trust in us to do what we can to support equitable long-term disaster recovery.” – Patricia McIlreavy, President and CEO, Center for Disaster Philanthropy
To learn more, visit disasterphilanthropy.org.
Common Cause
“Thank you so much for your engagement and support…we’re grateful. CREDO members like you fuel our work to defend and nourish our most valuable asset — our democracy — and protect the will of the people.” – Marilyn Carpinteyro, Interim Co-President, Common Cause
To learn more, visit www.commoncause.org.
Now check out the three groups we are funding in January, and cast your vote to help distribute our donations.
CREDO members who use our products are the reason why we are able to make these donations each month. Learn more about CREDO Mobile, the carrier with a conscience.
Posted on January 2, 2024
Vote for Public Counsel, Rainforest Action Network and She Should Run this January
Every month, CREDO members vote to distribute our monthly grant to three incredible progressive causes – and every vote makes a difference. This January, you can support Public Counsel, Rainforest Action Network and She Should Run.
Public Counsel
Public Counsel seeks justice through direct legal services, promotes healthy and resilient communities through education and outreach, and supports community-led efforts to transform unjust systems through litigation and policy advocacy.
Funding from CREDO members will help Public Counsel provide free legal services to a wide range of low-income individuals and communities, including women, immigrants, veterans, foster youth, people experiencing homelessness, and micro-entrepreneurs.
Rainforest Action Network
RAN challenges corporate power exploiting forests, the climate, and human rights, through campaigns based on meticulous research, creative strategy, direct action, and fierce solidarity with communities fighting for justice all over the world.
RAN takes on the world’s biggest banks, insurers, and brands, to fight for policy shifts ending finance for fossil fuels and forest-risk commodities destroying rainforests, and centering the demands of Indigenous and frontline communities.
She Should Run
She Should Run is a nonpartisan nonprofit working to drastically increase the number of women considering a run for public office. We serve women from all walks of life who don’t see the potential of their political power but should.
Funding from CREDO Mobile will enable She Should Run to reach women in the places and spaces where they are already leading, and build programming for the top-of-the-funnel consideration that our research has proven women want and need.
Your vote this month will determine how we divide our monthly donations among these three progressive groups. Be sure to cast your vote to support one, two or all three by January 31.
CREDO members who use our products and services everyday are the reason we are able to make these donations each month. Learn more about CREDO Mobile and join our movement.
Posted on January 1, 2024
She Should Run works to increase the number of women considering a run for public office
Note from the CREDO Mobile team: This January, She Should Run is among three amazing groups that will receive a share of our monthly grant. Funding from the CREDO Mobile community will help She Should Run in its mission to build a community of women who are curious about the possibilities of public leadership.
Read this important blog post about She Should Run’s critical work, then visit CREDODonations.com and cast your vote to help send funding to She Should Run to support its efforts — and the efforts of our other outstanding January grantees.
In November, we released The State of Women: 2023 Multiplier Report and Roadmap, a comprehensive guide drawing on insights from extensive data gathered from a wide-ranging network of women nationwide. Utilizing data collected from She Should Run participants and research conducted between 2020 and 2023, we found that most women — across demographics and ideologies — need multiple points and types of encouragement over several years in order to consider running for office.
“The women running today did not wake up yesterday or even last year and decide they were going to run for office,” said She Should Run founder and CEO Erin Loos Cutraro. “2018’s ‘Year of the Woman’ was an anomaly. We haven’t seen that type of momentum for women’s representation since. In order to see more women running in the next election and beyond, we need to engage in the long-game work of planting seeds to inspire women now, to push them to consider putting themselves on the ballot in the future.”
Most of the women who are on the ballot in 2024 were inspired to run for office years ago. To see more women running in the future, our report calls on the U.S. to ditch traditional recruitment models and gatekeeper rhetoric that dictate only wealthy people, political insiders and those who have been planning a run since 1st grade have what it takes to lead.
The State of Women: 2023 Multiplier Report and Roadmap outlines the critical need to meet women where they really are, in communities and workplaces across our nation, and the four steps we must take to see more women running in future elections:
- Make it obvious and commonplace: Persistently deliver our message to women with vast leadership potential who are overlooked in traditional political recruitment.
- Make it easy and approachable: Dismantle perceptions around what it takes to become an elected official by offering honest resources and simple steps that allow a woman to dip her toe in the water.
- Make it relatable and compelling: Provide a wide range of resources that adapt to the interests and needs of women, focusing on their leadership development rather than candidate training.
- Make it inspiring and infectious: Mobilize passionate leaders to multiply the number of women considering elected office through honest, open connections.
You can download the Multiplier Roadmap here. You can learn more about She Should Run’s vital work at SheShouldRun.org.
Posted on January 1, 2024
Public Counsel empowers communities and advances justice
Note from the CREDO Mobile team: This January, Public Counsel is among three amazing groups that will receive a share of our monthly grant. Funding from the CREDO Mobile community will help Public Counsel in its mission to advance civil rights and racial and economic justice, and to amplify the power of its clients through comprehensive legal advocacy.
Read this important blog post about Public Counsel’s critical work, then visit CREDODonations.com and cast your vote to help send funding to Public Counsel to support its efforts — and the efforts of our other outstanding January grantees.
Public Counsel, a nonprofit law firm headquartered in Los Angeles, has been at the forefront of advancing civil rights and fostering economic and racial justice for more than half a century. Our dedicated team of attorneys, social workers, paralegals, organizers and volunteers work tirelessly to ensure justice is not just a privilege for the few but instead is accessible to all.
Our approach to creating change is unique and multifaceted. We believe in the power of coordinated advocacy, where our one-on-one legal services inform — and are amplified by — our impact litigation, policy advocacy and community education. This synergy helps to ensure that we tackle the most pressing systemic injustices harming our communities.
For example, this past year, we won groundbreaking tenant protections for Los Angeles residents and stepped up to defend these protections in court. We also upheld the largest affordable housing ballot initiative passed in the city’s history, joining with community partners to ward off multiple legal challenges. In addition, we held the State of California accountable for mishandling its COVID-19 Rent Relief program, partnering with community groups to secure fair access to the program for tens of thousands of applicants.
Another crucial aspect of our work is power building. We align our legal advocacy with grassroots movements to enact change, challenge unjust laws and achieve lasting results. We also focus on being accountable to our clients, making sure our legal work prioritizes their needs, goals and personal expertise.
For example, for over a decade we have worked to amplify the power of street vendors to legalize sidewalk vending across California and, more recently, to challenge unlawful vending restrictions that criminalize and harm their livelihoods. Across California, we partner with community groups to advocate for a more equitable education system that leaves no student behind. This approach to our work helps uplift the agency, dignity and power of the communities we serve.
Finally, our organization was founded on a pro bono legal service model and volunteer mobilization is at our core. With the support of thousands of volunteers, Public Counsel can annually provide legal representation to more than 10,000 individuals, families, nonprofits and small businesses. For instance, at our most recent National Adoption Day — with the help of dozens of pro bono attorneys — we finalized nearly 60 adoptions and ensured that each of the children left the foster care system connected to the services they need to thrive.
Being selected by CREDO Mobile is a significant honor for us. It’s an opportunity to expand our reach and deepen our impact. Your vote and support can help us continue our critical work. Together, we can create an equitable society where justice is not just a promise but a lived reality for all.
Thank you for considering Public Counsel as your choice for CREDO’s monthly grant. Your support means the world to us and to the communities we serve.
You can learn more about our work at PublicCounsel.org.
Posted on December 27, 2023
5 ways to be a more conscious consumer in 2024
There are times (like now) when hope gets hard. When it feels that our individual actions—ethical and consistent as they may be—are not enough to turn our world in the right direction. This is understandable. Certainly we’ve got a lot of challenges ahead of us. But, working together, we can address them and solve them. Numerous actions by individuals can collectively make a difference.
Consider for example, plant-based eating. It’s hugely beneficial for the environment. Recent research shows that a vegan diet cuts emissions, water pollution and land use by 75% compared to diets that include over 100 grams of meat per day. A plant-based diet reduces wildlife destruction by 66% and water use by 54%. Now consider that the number of vegans in the U.S. tripled from 2004 to 2019, and that 1.5 billion people worldwide avoid foods made with meat.
The takeaway is this: individual choices do matter. The decisions we make as consumers—whether it’s the foods we eat, the clothes we wear or the cars we drive—do make a difference.
Here are five ways you can be a more conscious consumer and change the world for the better with your purchasing power in 2024.
Avoid Amazon
It’s not easy. The ecommerce giant dominates online shopping. A quarter of Americans now shop at Amazon at least once a week and half of Americans have an Amazon Prime account.
But options do exist and they’re worth looking for, especially when you learn about Amazon’s impact on the planet. It produced 71 million metric tons of CO2 emissions in 2021, up a whopping 40% from 2019. Also in 2021, Amazon generated enough plastic waste to cover the Earth in 800 layers, despite the fact that the company “would have no problem” switching to plastic-free packaging, according to former Amazon executive Rachel Johnson Greer. “It’s really a question of will.”
If you find information like that ethically suffocating, there are other ecommerce sites that offer a wide range of products and do it in an ecofriendly way. They usually pack with less plastic or with sustainable alternatives, offset their shipping emissions and focus on earth-conscious items and brands. Their prices might be a little higher but they don’t inflict a large hidden cost on our planet.
DoneGood has clothing, bags and totes, home accessories, kitchenware, jewelry, self-care and a lot more. Its team vets every brand to make sure it pays decent wages, empowers communities and has ecofriendly practices.
There is eBay, where you can shrink your shopping footprint by purchasing secondhand. Check out eBay Refurbished, which sells reconditioned products up to 50% off the list price, with warranties as good or better than the original warranties. Also Etsy, the global marketplace that supports independent creators of crafts, housewares, art, soap, T-shirts and much more. In 2020, it generated almost $4 billion in income for small businesses.
For books, there’s Bookshop.org, where you’ll find just about any book you can find at Amazon—and the community feeling that makes your local bookstore such a joy, albeit in virtual form. Bookshop.org supports independent booksellers around the world. It knows local bookstores are vital hubs that foster culture, curiosity and a love of reading, and it’s committed to helping them. Since 2020, Bookshop.org has raised more than $28 million for independent bookstores. Plus, we have a CREDO Mobile Bookshop on the site which showcases recommendations from our grantee partners, the 2023 Book Award winners, and more. When you make a purchase at the CREDO Mobile store, you’ll also help generate donations for the progressive nonprofits we fund. (We receive a commission on every book purchased at our affiliate shop.)
Do your research
You can’t know all that’s involved in the making of every item you buy. But you can Google the products you buy often to see if the companies that make them behave in a responsible way.
Chocolate, for example. You might enjoy a chocolate candy made by Mars, Hershey or Nestle. If you do a little searching, you’ll discover that chocolate companies like these have a dark secret: child slavery. Seventy percent of the world’s cocoa comes from West Africa and many of the cocoa plantations there use child slaves. So companies that source cocoa from West Africa can be linked directly to child slavery. Instead, choose an ethical brand. There are a lot of them on the market now.
Check the label
Labels can help you make ethical choices, especially when you’re buying clothes and food. Avoid fast fashion brands like Zara, H&M and Forever 21. They have an enormous footprint. Fast fashion is the world’s second-most-polluting industry, after oil and gas. It produces around 10% of global carbon emissions, which is more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined.
As for food, many of the labels on it mean little. For example, there are no formal FDA regulations governing use of the word “natural.” The term “free range” is meaningless, as Vox reported recently. An undercover investigator at Tyson Foods, the largest chicken company in the U.S., called conditions at one Tyson farm “a living nightmare.”
But there are some food labels that can tell you a lot. Here are a few you see often at the market and what they mean.
Fairtrade Certified indicates the product is certified by the worldwide monitoring group Fairtrade International and means it was made according to strict standards that protect the lives and livelihoods of farmers, fishers and other producer communities, as well as the environment.
USDA Organic shows that an agricultural product was made in accordance with USDA organic standards that require production methods to “integrate cultural, biological and mechanical practices that foster cycling of resources, promote ecological balance and conserve biodiversity. Synthetic fertilizers, sewage sludge, irradiation and genetic engineering may not be used.”
Non-GMO Project Verified means a food meets the standards of the Non-GMO Project, which is dedicated to helping consumers avoid GMOs. It doesn’t guarantee that a product is free of GMOs—it can’t, because the risk of GMO contamination is ever-present today—but it does ensure that a product is made according to best practices for GMO avoidance.
Use ethical-shopping apps
You can use your phone when you go shopping to make more conscious choices—and there are a number of apps that can help you. Here are a few:
Buycott is an app that scans barcodes and provides details on products and manufacturers so that you can make an informed decision.
Ethical Barcode scans the barcodes on supermarket items and gives you information on the companies that make them. It provides ratings so you can learn if the products you’re buying do damage to the environment or animals.
Good on You scores over 3,000 fashion brands according to their impact on people, animals and the planet. It researches companies extensively and gives you an easy-to-understand rating, from “Great” to “We avoid.”
Switch to CREDO Mobile
The phone company you choose matters too. Join CREDO Mobile and you can make real change in the world just by using our service. Because when you do, you’ll raise vital funding for nonprofit groups fighting for the causes you believe in, groups like Earthjustice, Planned Parenthood and Social Security Works.
To date, we’ve donated over $95 million to these and hundreds of other progressive groups. The donations cost our customers nothing extra—but they mean everything to the nonprofits that rely on us.
Switch to CREDO Mobile and you’ll get the good feeling that comes with knowing you support the causes important to you, simply by using your phone. You’ll also get all you want from a phone company: competitive rates, great deals on new devices and nationwide coverage on the top-rated, most reliable network.
Posted on December 11, 2023
Funding from CREDO Mobile supports KIND in its work to provide unaccompanied migrant children with the help they desperately need
Every month, thousands of unaccompanied children arrive at the U.S. border. Most are teens, some are toddlers. Many have suffered horrific trauma and abuse. A report by Doctors Without Borders on the Central American countries of El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala stated that “the violence experienced by the population is not unlike that of individuals living through war. Citizens are murdered with impunity, kidnappings and extortion are daily occurrences. Non-state actors perpetuate insecurity and forcibly recruit individuals into their ranks and use sexual violence as a tool of intimidation and control.”
When these unaccompanied children get to the U.S. border, they need care and protection. They need help and they need hope.
Kids in Need of Defense gives it to them. KIND works to safeguard the rights and well-being of children as they migrate alone in search of safety and supply them with the legal representation they desperately need after they arrive in the United States. It also maintains a comprehensive psychosocial support program that connects children with medical care, mental-health care, access to education and crisis intervention.
To do all this, KIND needs support—and CREDO Mobile provides it. In April, our customers and community members voted to send a significant grant to KIND. This funding will enable KIND to continue its mission to protect migrant children and ensure that unaccompanied children on the move have access to protection, due process and critical social services.
Here’s a brief report from our friends at KIND that describes the many ways our donation is making a difference.
Recent victories
With funding from CREDO Mobile, KIND has substantially improved our support of children on the move seeking safety. From October 2022 to September 2023, we represented more than 7,000 children across the U.S., connecting them to KIND lawyers or KIND-mentored and trained pro bono partners to address their immigration-related legal needs. Despite court backlogs and other challenges that make obtaining legal relief a multi-year process, our dedication to our clients is strong at each step. In that one-year period, we secured 402 green card approvals, 40 grants of asylum, six T visa approvals for victims of sex or labor trafficking, one U visa approval for a victim of violent crime and 1,052 work permit approvals.
To expand our reach beyond the scope of our in-house attorneys, we built a network of more than 800 law firms, corporations, law schools and bar association partners, who are matched with children in need of representation. These volunteer attorneys receive training and mentorship from KIND for the duration of their cases. During the time period stated, KIND added 54 organizations to our network of pro bono partners. To ensure quality representation, our in-house attorneys provided 249 pro bono trainings across our U.S. offices for over 2,900 attendees.
In addition, our social services team provided trauma-informed programming and worked to ensure that our clients were connected to educational opportunities, healthcare and other critical services. KIND provided 1,524 clients (1,374 in the U.S. and 150 in Mexico) with individual psychosocial services during the stated timeframe, employing a strengths-based, holistic and preventative approach focused on basic needs, stabilization and empowerment. Across the U.S., KIND welcomed 4,855 child attendees (2,511 in the U.S. and 2,344 in Northern Mexico) to therapeutic programming events. These events included toy drives, art workshops and virtual social gatherings. We held back-to-school drives in September to give children the supplies they needed for the school year. Altogether, these child-centered, culturally responsive offerings mitigate any potential for re-traumatization that our clients might experience as they integrate into their new communities. KIND complements these in-house services with client referrals to partner service-providers for mental health, medical and academic support. During the yearlong period referenced, we also expanded our network of providers in the U.S. One example of KIND’s outreach is our Northern Virginia field office, where we now partner with Dream Project VA to make sure our child clients have equal access to educational opportunities, scholarships and mentors.
The challenges faced by children on the move is not limited to those crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. In recognition of this, we advanced our efforts internationally. We protected children in Mexico, confronted the root causes of migration in Central America and connected children on the move in Europe to needed legal services. We also strengthened the capacity of our partners in the U.S. and around the world who work with our vulnerable client population through trainings and other activities.
KIND’s work changes the trajectory of our client’s lives and our services are needed now more than ever. We will continue to advocate for the rights of unaccompanied children, working at both the individual and systems levels to transform the policies, programs and processes that fundamentally shape children’s immigration experiences. CREDO Mobile’s support has made tangible positive changes in the lives of many children.
New initiatives
KIND has a number of important new projects in progress.
Keeping Kids Safe Campaign. Immigration reform needs to be addressed at the systemic level to ensure lasting impact on vulnerable children. To that end, we’re working diligently to provide immigration relief for our clients and to improve the U.S. immigration system as a whole. This spring, we initiated our Keeping Kids Safe Campaign, which is aimed at building public support for legislative reform in immigration court. The campaign is currently focused on the Immigration Court Efficiency and Children’s Court Act of 2023. If passed, this legislation would allow for separate children’s dockets in immigration court to alleviate the severe backlog in the current system, which serves both adults and children and has wait times up to seven years. The specialized children’s dockets would feature specially trained personnel, child-participation protocols and coordination with legal services organizations to put children’s best interests first.
Central American Minors Refugee and Parole Program. We’re extremely proud of our progress in the Central American Minors (CAM) Refugee and Parole Program. Through the program, parents and legal guardians in the U.S. can apply for their qualifying children in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras to join them in the U.S. with refugee status or via humanitarian parole. Since our CREDO Mobile grant, we hired two Guatemalan attorneys to accompany and orient eligible children in their CAM processes in April-May 2023. As of September 30, 2023, KIND has worked with 72 individuals, including 45 qualifying children and 27 family members. By providing information about the U.S. refugee process to children and helping prepare them for their interviews, we’re ensuring that children know how to share critical insights in their CAM interviews, thereby increasing their chance of obtaining U.S. refugee status. We’re currently working to expand the program in spring 2024 by recruiting law clinics to provide direct representation to children during CAM interviews under KIND mentorship.
If you’d like to learn more or get involved with KIND, please visit SupportKind.org. And follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Posted on December 4, 2023
Common Cause fights to ensure that government works for all Americans, not the wealthy few
Note from the CREDO Mobile team: This December, Common Cause is among three amazing groups that will receive a share of our monthly grant. Funding from the CREDO Mobile community will help Common Cause in its mission to build a democracy that works for everyone and ensure that our government serves all the people, not just the wealthy and partisan special interests.
Read this important blog post about Common Cause’s critical work, then visit CREDODonations.com and cast your vote to help send funding to Common Cause to support its efforts—and the efforts of our other outstanding December grantees.
First, thank you. Thank you so much for staying engaged throughout all the chaos and for investing your time, energy and money in so many worthy fights. Thank you for embracing our wins (big and small) and refusing to let go of hope.
We’re approaching a fiercely contested election amid a landscape rife with threats to our democracy: the rising tide of authoritarianism and violence; political insiders rigging electoral maps that shut people out; expanding disinformation fueled by unaccountable social media platforms and turbocharged by unregulated AI; and relentless assaults on voting rights by state legislatures and right-wing courts.
Despite the darkness we have been through and continue to dig out of, there is light. Together with our 1.5 million members and supporters across the country and with our activists in every Congressional district, we’ve achieved a year of victories that many thought were impossible.
How did we do it? For 53 years, Common Cause has married federal, state and local democracy work to win, building deep on-the-ground power through our 25 state offices: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin.
We remove barriers to the ballot box, especially for people of color and marginalized communities, and push back against bad legislation and bad actors who want to suppress or thwart the vote. We run year-round election-protection programs, combat democracy disinformation, work to end partisan gerrymandering and more. Want to help? Join our pro-democracy movement here and volunteer.
Read on to learn more about how Common Cause is working around the clock to protect the will of the people and defend and nourish our most valuable national asset: our democracy.
State actions
We pass pro-democracy laws and block or blunt the impacts of bad voting bills proposed by Republican-controlled states aiming to suppress the votes of communities of color, young people and others whose voices are frequently marginalized.
Texas: We defeated dangerous bills that would have created harsh enforcement of suppressive election laws, allowed election judges to carry guns in polling places, banned voting on campuses and ended the countywide voting program.
Pennsylvania: We stopped a Republican group’s attempt to purge the state voter rolls.
Michigan: We passed key bills that expand early, in-person voting, require state-funded absentee-ballot drop boxes and postage for absentee applications and ballots, and require that only election officials can conduct post-election audits.
New York: We passed a permanent vote-by-mail bill.
Colorado: We pushed through a bill to make Colorado the first state in the nation to expand automatic voter registration to tribal nations.
New Mexico: We passed a historic voting rights package and have strengthened protections for our frontline election workers.
Ohio: We delivered a historic win as Issue 1 went down to defeat, saving people-led ballot initiatives from a power grab by state legislators.
Election protection
As co-leader of the National Election Protection Coalition, Common Cause oversees strategic vision and planning in 40-plus states. Our work includes recruiting, training, mobilizing and debriefing tens of thousands of volunteers each election.
Field: We recruited 50,000 Election Protection Volunteers in 40 states between 2020 and 2022.
Tech: We built a mobilization tool that managed 20,000 volunteer sign-ups in 41 states in 2022. We’re on track to more than double that in 2024.
Education: In a rapidly evolving environment, with new voting and election laws and changing district lines, we serve as a trusted nonpartisan source of information that voters need to participate with confidence.
Policy reform: There are hundreds of policy choices every election cycle that make it harder or easier for voters to participate. Our priorities include:
- Making it easier for voters to register and stay registered to vote.
- Expanding access to the ballot.
- Protecting voters and our elections from political violence, election sabotage/subversion, cyberattacks, natural disasters and other threats.
Combatting democracy disinformation
We play the key intel-gathering and messaging-dissemination role within the democracy disinformation ecosystem. We’re the only organization leading this type of communication and rapidly disseminating it to the states. We recruited and trained over 2,000 social media monitors during the past midterm elections.
Redistricting and representation: In order for people to hold elected officials accountable, elections have to be run by rules that are fair, using district maps that don’t preordain winners. Common Cause is committed to securing redistricting reforms and fair maps through movement building, legislative changes and litigation.
Media and democracy: We protect a free and open internet and an independent press by restoring net neutrality, blocking media mergers that would drown out local journalism and expanding access to broadband. We set a groundbreaking FCC precedent by successfully defending local news from what would have been one of the largest hedge fund media takeovers in our country’s history by stopping Standard General and Tegna from merging. We pressured AT&T/DirecTV and Verizon to drop far-right, pro-Trump One America News (OAN).
Justice and democracy: Common Cause restores voting rights to justice-involved citizens and works to end prison gerrymandering. We won back voting rights for 50,000 Minnesotans with past felony convictions who are still on parole, probation or have not completed some components of their sentences.
Youth and democracy: We’re building a pipeline of democracy activists with a focus on HBCUs in Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, Mississippi and Maryland. We train students in campus organizing, GOTV and the nuances of voting in their state.
Thank you for all that you do year-round in service of a better, more inclusive democracy. We hope your holiday season is spent with family and friends, recharging your batteries, and full of celebration, reflection and recommitment to enter 2024 with strength and grace.
Learn more about Common Cause and the work we do at CommonCause.org.
Posted on December 1, 2023
Landmark news – we’ve raised $95 million for change
Most companies are in business to make money. We’re different. We’re in business to make change.
We do it by funding nonprofit groups working for progressive change through a unique—and uniquely effective—donations program.
Every time our customers use our service, they generate donations for nonprofit groups working for a better world. These donations cost our customers nothing extra. But they mean everything to the groups we fund. We’ve now raised over $95 million for nonprofits dedicated to causes like climate justice, a fair economy and equal rights for everyone.
That’s a lot of money. And it’s made a lot of change. In recent years alone, the nonprofits we support have won numerous victories for the progressive causes you care about.
- Amazon Watch pressed President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to veto a right-wing attempt to restrain the rising strength of Indigenous peoples in Brazil. This is a critical win for Indigenous rights and for the Amazon rainforest.
- Social Security Works shared the truth about new House Speaker Mike Johnson. He’s an enemy of Social Security who wants to raise the retirement age, cut benefits and force women to have babies so the ultra-wealthy can continue avoiding their fair share of Social Security contributions.
- Stand.earth stopped or delayed 21 fossil fuel mega-projects, from bitumen pipelines to oil train terminals to natural-gas fracking. If we are to avoid climate catastrophe, it’s crucial that projects like these be halted now.
- March for Our Lives organized nationwide protests following the horrific mass shootings in Buffalo, NY, and Uvalde, TX, to demand that elected officials take action. Soon after the protests, bipartisan gun reform legislation was passed and signed into law by President Biden, the first major gun safety legislation by Congress in nearly 30 years.
- Equal Rights Advocates drove workplace-justice reforms in California to protect half a million domestic workers and garment factory workers from unsafe conditions and wage theft.
- The ACLU educated and energized voters to go to the polls in November and played a key role in winning election victories in Ohio, Kentucky and Virginia that bolster the right of women to make their own decisions about whether and when to have a child, without interference from judges and politicians.
- The Brennan Center for Justice developed bold solutions to ensure that every eligible American can cast a ballot and worked across the U.S. to defend democracy by making voting more free, fair and easy.
Our customers powered all these successes and many more just by using their phones. Yes, it really is that simple. And it’s enormously impactful, raising real money and driving real victories for progressive causes.
We make a difference—and that’s why we’re different. Our passion is not dollars, it’s change. And we operate a donations program robust and effective enough to make it happen.
If you’re a CREDO Mobile customer, thank you. It’s because of you that we’ve been able to reach $95 million in donations and give it to nonprofits working for the causes you believe in. That’s a good feeling. If you’d like to share it, tell your friends about us.
If you’re not a CREDO Mobile customer, please think about joining. It’s easy to do. You can bring the phone you have now. You can choose from a variety of affordable plans to suit you—same as the other carriers. And you can enjoy service on the nation’s top-rated network.
Climate crisis, hate, species vanishing, democracy under attack. Our world is full of challenges. But we’re working on them. We look forward to working with you.
Posted on December 1, 2023
Join the movement: Save life on Earth
Note from the CREDO Mobile team: This December, the Center for Biological Diversity is among three amazing groups that will receive a share of our monthly grant. Funding from the CREDO Mobile community will help the Center for Biological Diversity in its mission to secure a future for all species hovering on the brink of extinction and preserve a world where the wild is still alive.
Read this important blog post about the Center for Biological Diversity’s critical work, then visit CREDODonations.com and cast your vote to help send funding to the Center for Biological Diversity to support its efforts—and the efforts of our other outstanding December grantees.
There has never been a time in human history when so many animals and plants were disappearing so rapidly from our planet. In October, 21 species of animals were declared extinct in the U.S. All of these wild beings had a beating heart and now it has been confirmed they’re gone forever.
Left unchecked, the wildlife extinction crisis could steal a million more species in the coming decades. It’s gut-wrenching to ponder a world without bears, wolves, butterflies, sea turtles, birds, frogs, trees, flowers and many other irreplaceable animals and plants.
The Center for Biological Diversity works on the front lines of this deadly crisis, leading innovative and uncompromising campaigns aimed directly at ensuring every species gets a shot at survival. We take an unrelenting approach that combines science, groundbreaking legal work and on-the-ground organizing to advocate for every species that is facing extinction – no matter the size, no matter the place.
Over the past three decades, the Center has secured protection for more than 750 animals and plants in the United States and around the globe. Our work has also helped preserve more than half a billion acres of wildlife habitat, including rivers, forests, deserts, mountains and oceans.
Will you join this fight to save the wild?
We’re proud to raise our voice to preserve species, save our climate and fight for a safer future for all life on Earth.
And we’re compelled, because there isn’t a moment to lose in confronting the biodiversity crisis. We lose one species every hour. Scientists tell us 41% of amphibians, 27% of mammals, 36% of corals and 13% of birds are today threatened with extinction.
We’ve already suffered heartbreaking losses, including colorful Carolina parakeets that once lived in the Midwest, sea minks that swam off the coast of Maine and, most recently, eight unique honeycreeper birds that lived only in Hawai’i.
Right now, there are fewer than 15 red wolves in the wild in the eastern U.S. Meanwhile, North Atlantic right whales have dwindled to fewer than 350 and, just south of California, the population of the world’s smallest porpoise is fewer than 10.
These animals, and hundreds more, desperately need help – and fast. Extinction is forever, so it’s critical we get this right.
With your help, we can save species from extinction
The good news is that the Center’s unrelenting approach has been paying off. Time and again, we’ve gone toe to toe with polluters, politicians and greedy corporate profiteers. More than 90% of our legal cases end in favor of the wild. Our work has tangible, on-the-ground results, including forests protected from chainsaws, deserts spared from bulldozers and clean air protected from pollution.
But we need you with us. By joining our movement, you can help the Center:
- Stand up to fossil fuel companies gunning to drill in the heart of polar bear habitat;
- Defend and protect old-growth forests like the 1,000-year-old redwoods in California that are currently at risk;
- Protect sea turtles, whales, seals and other ocean animals from plastic pollution;
- Rise up to stop the senseless destruction of our planet and call for an end to fossil fuels;
- Ensure a real future for all species, great and small, that need our protection.
Our hard-hitting campaigns combine litigation and activism to protect biodiversity hotspots. Right now, in the U.S. alone, we’re defending Georgia’s primordial swamps in the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, longleaf pine forests in North Carolina and old-growth forests in Southern California’s Los Padres National Forest. And we’re advancing fierce litigation and powerful media campaigns to end all offshore drilling in California, the Arctic and the Gulf of Mexico. Our coral reefs, ice seals, coastal birds, sea turtles and whales must be protected from inevitable oil spills.
This is the work we’re called to do
Every day, we’re reminded of the urgency of this moment, as wild plants and animals vanish before our eyes. Right now, we’re mourning the loss of 21 species. Their names are known to us: Kauaʻi ʻōʻō, Bachman’s warbler, Little Mariana fruit bat, green-blossom pearly mussel. And we won’t forget them.
The extinction crisis isn’t inevitable. It’s a moral and political choice. Every day we can choose to save life on Earth – but it can only happen with the help of people like you.
Please join our movement at BiologicalDiversity.org. And vote for us today at CREDODonations.com.
