Posted on August 1, 2023
Fighting for a world where you’re free to be you: National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund
Note from the CREDO team: This August, the National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund is among three amazing groups that will receive a share of our monthly grant. Support from the CREDO community will help the Task Force Action Fund in its effort to build political power, take action and create change to achieve freedom and justice for LGBTQ people and communities.
Read this important blog post about the National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund’s critical work, then click here to visit CREDODonations.com and cast your vote to help send funding to the Task Force Action Fund to support its efforts—and the efforts of our other outstanding August grantees.
This year has been tough. The rights of LGBTQ+ people, women, drag artists and young people are being threatened repeatedly. As a bisexual, transmasculine person and the father of a toddler, I’m increasingly concerned about the anti-LGBTQ+ ideologies seeping into the fabric of our country and making hatred the main characteristic instead of love.
My partner and I worry, honestly, about the country our child is growing up in. But in my time working for the National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund, I have consistently been encouraged by our mission to build a world where all people can feel free to be their most authentic selves, away from hatred and bigotry.
The National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund was founded to advocate for the rights, equity, health and safety of our LGBTQ+ community. Now in our 50th year, we continue to build the political power of LGBTQ+ people and protect against attacks on our liberties and fundamental human rights. One way we do this by training and mobilizing grassroots activists around progressive, LGBTQ-affirming initiatives, giving voice to supporters of LGBTQ+ equity.
Over the past several years, we’ve seen an increasing wave of anti-LGBTQ+ bills advance through local, state and federal legislatures, further marginalizing LGBTQ+ people through political hostility. These relentless efforts have given rise to previously unseen levels of LGBTQ+ harassment, physical violence and online hate. It’s more important now than ever to push back against the hate and intolerance we began fighting 50 years ago.
To meet this political moment, the Task Force Action Fund is making a difference through the work of our staff and supporters. Here are some of the initiatives we’re currently working on:
- Building Queer Power training series: This training series equips organizers with the tools they need to create change in their local communities. With programs like Direct Action 101, Driving the Narrative: Combatting Anti-Queer Propagandaand Organizing 101-Base Building + Outreach, our focus is on building a firm foundation for young people who are just entering the political sphere and helping them find ways to exercise their voice.
- Creating Change 365 (CC365): As a year-round extension of our annual Creating Change Conference, CC365 aims to build the knowledge, skills and power of the LGBTQ+ movement, emphasizing interactivity and participant engagement for a diverse audience of activists, movement leaders, students and service providers. Join us for robust political discussions and explorations of queer culture and joy.
- Ban the Repro Binary: After the historic reversal of Roe v. Wade, in June 2022, the Task Force Action Fund initiated a public education campaign to expand the LGBTQ+ community’s understanding of reproductive justice and encourage cis men to support the fight for reproductive rights. Our Ban the Repro Binary campaign consists of several powerful short videos from a diverse set of male-identified voices in the LGBTQ+ community.
- Queer Faith in Action: The Task Force Action Fund works directly with faith leaders who are committed to facilitating a paradigm shift to make churches welcoming and affirming places for all people, regardless of sexual and gender identity. These partnerships directly upend dominant narratives that have often divided people of faith on LGBTQ matters.
- Spanish-language speakers training: We are building and training a pipeline of Spanish-speaking canvassers and media surrogates who are prepared to speak on a broad range of topics related to LGBTQ+ people and are qualified to defend our issues publicly. The Task Force Action Fund’s Spanish-language media ambassadors have already appeared on networks like CNN en Español and Univision, and they have been featured on local radio stations that have high reach in our target districts.
Change is possible! Access to democracy, for everyone, depends on full representation of our communities through voter protections. The enforcement of LGBTQ+ civil rights depends on federal nondiscrimination protections provided by legislation like the Equality Act. We have a pathway toward liberation. All we must do is act!
Today and always, we fight to better the lives of LGBTQ+ people, especially those most marginalized in our community. We believe in the power of centering the voices and experiences of Black and Brown people, transgender and non-binary folx, people with disabilities and people living in poverty. Together we are stronger because an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us.
You can learn more about our work at TheTaskforceActionFund.org and vote for us today at CREDODonations.com!
With encouragement and gratitude,
Reese Rathjen Amyx (He/They), Digital Fundraising Manager, National LGBTQ Task Force
Posted on July 31, 2023
Indigenous land rights now: Amazon Watch is protecting the rainforest
Note from the CREDO team: This August, Amazon Watch is among three amazing groups that will receive a share of our monthly grant. Funding from the CREDO community will help Amazon Watch defend this Earth-critical ecosystem and protect the Indigenous peoples who have stewarded this land for centuries.
Read this important blog post about Amazon Watch’s critical work, then click here to visit CREDODonations.com and cast your vote to help send funding to Amazon Watch to support its efforts—and the efforts of our other outstanding August grantees.
For over 25 years, Amazon Watch has worked effectively to protect the rainforest—and our climate—in solidarity with Indigenous peoples. A longtime partner of CREDO, Amazon Watch carries out campaigns for human rights, corporate accountability and the preservation of the Amazon’s vital ecological systems. These campaigns are founded on trust-based relationships built over decades of partnership with Indigenous, forest and traditional peoples throughout the Amazon Basin.
We are at a unique moment for the Amazon. Threats posed by mega-development, extractive industries, agribusiness, and more have brought the ecosystem to its tipping point. Thanks to long-term resistance and organizing by Amazonian peoples, we still have the chance to build momentum for a turning point.
Indigenous peoples’ message is clear: now is the moment for each of us to step up in international solidarity with Indigenous Earth Defenders. So what can this solidarity accomplish today?
¡Demarcação já! Demarcation now!
With the recent change in Brazil’s administration, new opportunities are opening up for the demarcation of Indigenous territories. Demarcation is Brazil’s process of officially recognizing Indigenous lands and, in 2023, President Lula da Silva has demarcated more than 620,000 hectares. Amazon Watch is working closely with its partners to demarcate as many Indigenous lands as possible in this window of opportunity, with the goal of permanently protecting the remaining 80% of the rainforest by 2025.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recognizes Indigenous peoples’ vital role as forest guardians who are integral to the solution of our climate crisis. In Latin America, deforestation rates in Indigenous territories are up to 50% lower than in other lands. Indigenous peoples also protect over 80% of the planet’s biodiversity. So the demarcation of Indigenous lands is essential to protecting the rainforests that Indigenous peoples have stewarded for centuries and, in turn, protecting our climate.
Demarcation sets a precedent. It requires that Brazilian authorities defend Indigenous territories and gives Amazonian communities legal recourse to expel industries and illegal invaders that harm their lands, waters and people. With Sonia Guajajara leading the newly created Ministry of Indigenous Affairs, there are now 14 territories advancing toward demarcation and 25 more territories to be declared. Amazon Watch is playing an important part in this process and supporting the Indigenous communities who are carrying out territorial monitoring and mobilizing for demarcation.
Demarcation in Sawré Muybu, Munduruku Territory
Sawré Muybu is a highly preserved area of rainforest in the Tapajós River Basin of Brazil. Covering over 178,000 hectares (more than half the size of Rhode Island), it is the ancestral territory of the Munduruku people and a keystone of the entire region’s ecological integrity. The Munduruku currently face intense threats to their lands and personal safety from illegal mining and logging, and from industrial development. They have documented repeated, violent land invasions and have carried out territorial monitoring and boundary-marking activities in an effort to advance demarcation in Sawré Muybu.
Amazon Watch is a close partner of the Munduruku people and has supported their autonomy and self-determination processes for years, starting with the movement against the Belo Monte mega-dam in 2011. In 2017 and 2023, Amazon Watch installed solar grid systems in Munduruku territory to provide clean, consistent power for territorial monitoring. Over the past 12 years, Amazon Watch has also provided solidarity funding for community health initiatives, Indigenous leadership, convening, security and organizing, all of which are essential to the self-demarcation process.
Since 2018, CREDO’s support has empowered Amazon Watch’s solidarity work with the Munduruku. This support has included direct funding for their self-demarcation process in Sawré Muybu and has amplified the pan-Amazon movement to permanently protect Indigenous territories.
With the Indigenous movement’s growing power to organize and with President Lula da Silva as an ally, now is the moment to secure Indigenous land rights and avert the Amazon’s tipping point. The CREDO community is advancing Indigenous rights and defending irreplaceable ecosystems through donations to Amazon Watch, supporting:
- Defense of territories against corporate threats: Amazon Watch supports efforts by Indigenous peoples to resist mining in their territories. Currently, it is working to strengthen the Munduruku’s resistance to mining company Anglo American by carrying out campaigns to keep mining out of Indigenous lands. Demarcation is one of the key tools to achieve this.
- Direct solidarity funding: Amazon Watch’s Amazon Defenders Fund supports Indigenous leaders and communities defending the Amazon. It strengthens Indigenous organizations and movements and provides direct support for their assemblies, communications, safety and security, communal economies, well-being and leadership, inclusive of Indigenous women.
- Legal defense, communications and technical support: Amazon Watch develops and supports legal strategies to uphold and advance Indigenous rights and protect Earth Defenders at risk. It amplifies the urgent call for demarcation through its network of over 600,000 international supporters and media connections to overcome political inertia.
Onward for the Amazon
Thanks to CREDO’s solidarity, Amazon Watch will continue advancing Indigenous land rights, resisting ecosystem destruction, and insisting that Indigenous voices and solutions are centered every step of the way. Together we say: Onward for the Amazon!
Posted on July 31, 2023
With CREDO funding, Defenders of Wildlife continue to be the voice for the animals that cannot speak for themselves.
Up to a million species are facing extinction – some within the next decade – unless we take immediate action to save them. Thankfully, our grantee partners at Defenders of Wildlife work tirelessly to identify and implement innovative solutions to protect endangered species and their habitat.
In December 2022, CREDO members voted to donate $33,125 to help Defenders’ scientists, lawyers, advocates and activists protect wildlife in courtrooms and in communities across the nation.
Powered in part by the generosity of CREDO and our members, Defenders of Wildlife had some recent victories and launched some great new initiatives. Here’s a quick report on how your donations are making an impact from our friends at Defenders:
Recent Victories
Since December 2022, Defenders has had several victories and for wildlife, enabled and assisted by the unrestricted funds granted by CREDO:
- Our Red Wolf Recovery program has celebrated the arrival of a new litter of red wolf puppies born in the wild, three females and two males. As of May 2023, this brings the Milltail Pack’s numbers up to 13 wolves. Thanks to Defenders’ legal action that compelled the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to release more red wolves into the wild, the wild population now stands to quadruple in just two years.
- In April, the Southern Environmental Law Center, on behalf of Defenders of Wildlife and the Coastal Conservation League, obtained a major win for threatened red knots. The endangered bird arrives in South Carolina to feed on newly spawned horseshoe crab eggs in the spring, essentially doubling their body weight to survive the grueling migration. The District Court’s order enacts restrictions on horseshoe crab harvest to ensure the protection of the bird’s food source.
- Also in April, Defenders and its allies reached a settlement with the Bureau of Land Management, which will no longer allow large-scale logging of pinyon-juniper forests in the Southwest that are critical for pinyon jays and other wildlife.
New Initiatives
Defenders is always opening new cases and projects to defend threatened wildlife and their habitats. Since we received the CREDO grant, we have:
- Stopped a bill in the Washington state legislature that would delist the gray wolf on the state Endangered Species Act;
- Submitted comments for the Montana State Grizzly Bear Management Plan and Colorado Wolf Management and Reintroduction Plan drafts;
- Hosted in-person workshops on renewable energy in New Mexico, North Carolina, and Wyoming;
- Published multiple reports, videos, print ads, and blog posts to spread awareness of the biodiversity crisis and celebrate the 50th year of the Endangered Species Act; and
- Launched a TikTok channel, as more than 20% of people (30% of millennials) currently get their news from TikTok.
If you’d like to learn more or get involved with Defenders of Wildlife, please visit their website, or follow them on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.
Posted on July 20, 2023
Try this one amazing tip to declutter your phone’s photo library to save space
If your smartphone’s photo library is anything like ours, it’s a total mess. Old selfies, mistaken or duplicate pictures, long videos you saved that you’ll never watch again.
All those files are taking up valuable space and keeping your library too cluttered.
Here’s one quick hack that will easily clean up your camera roll and save a ton of space on your smartphone.
This clever tip comes courtesy of TikTok creator Kayla Kerr, who suggests setting aside a couple minutes every day to look through your photo library to declutter unwanted photos and videos, with one special twist:
@kaylakerr_ it’s also like your own personal TimeHop which is fun
Kayla suggests opening your photo library and searching for the current month and day, which will bring up all the photos and videos that were created on that day in previous years and you can decide which files you want to keep or delete.
This method is a much more manageable and less overwhelming way to clean up the images on your smartphone than trying to tackle your photo library all at once.
One last tip: Set yourself a daily reminder — and your camera roll will be clean in 365 days!
Posted on July 13, 2023
How to Prepare for a Lost or Stolen Smartphone
You never want to think it will happen: Your smartphone — and everything inside it — is missing. Has it been lost or stolen? You can’t find it anywhere. It feels like a catastrophe.
Luckily, with a bit of preparation, you can mitigate the fallout. In this week’s tip, we’ll give you some easy-to-follow steps you can take today to protect the data in your iPhone or Android phone — and hopefully get it back — before it goes missing.
Before we begin: If you have already lost your smartphone, or it’s been stolen, please check out our blog post, “How to quickly find a lost or stolen phone.”
Now, here’s how to prepare, just in case:
For both Android and iPhone users:
- Enable Lock Screen Security
It may seem basic, but the first line of defense is often overlooked. Enable PIN, password, pattern, or biometric (fingerprint or facial recognition) security. This will prevent unauthorized access if your device ends up in the wrong hands. Here’s how on an iOS device and Android.
- Regularly Backup Your Data
Regular backups ensure that your data, including photos, contacts, and files, are safe. Both Android and iOS offer automatic backup services – Google Drive for Android and iCloud for iOS. Make sure you have this feature turned on and your important data is being backed up regularly.
- Know How to Use Your Phone Finder App
Both iOS and Android platforms have built-in phone finder apps – ‘Find My’ for iOS and ‘Find My Device’ for Android. These apps allow you to locate, ring, or wipe your device if it’s lost or stolen. Make sure they’re activated and you know how to use them.
For iPhone Users:
- Enable ‘Send Last Location’
In your ‘Find My’ settings, ensure the ‘Send Last Location‘ feature is turned on. If your battery is critically low, your device will automatically send its location to iCloud, which can be crucial in finding a lost phone.
For Android Users:
- Set Up a ‘Lock Screen Message’
Before you lose your phone, you can set a lock screen message so that it will appear when your phone is locked, enabling anyone who finds your phone to contact you. It could be as simple as “If found, please contact (alternative contact details)”.
Here’s how (this may vary by model): Open the Settings app > Security & location > Screen lock preferences > Lock screen message.
- Secure Your Google Account
Your Google account is the key to much of your phone’s data. Ensure you have a strong, unique password and two-step verification enabled to prevent unauthorized access.
Remember, prevention is better than cure. It’s easy to think, “It won’t happen to me,” but it’s much less stressful to spend a few minutes now to prepare for the worst than it is to deal with the consequences of a lost or stolen phone. Stay safe, stay connected, and, most importantly, stay prepared.
Posted on July 10, 2023
CREDO grantee Take Back the Court is reforming the Supreme Court to preserve democracy, rights, and freedoms
Note from the CREDO team: This July, Take Back the Court is among three amazing groups that will receive a share of our monthly grant. Funding from the CREDO community will help the organization rebuild democracy, protect the rights of women, LGBTQ+ individuals, and people of color, tackle the climate crisis, and mobilize progressive activists to take action.
Read this important blog post about Take Back the Court’s critical work, then click here to visit CREDODonations.com to cast your vote to help determine how we distribute our monthly grant to this organization and our other amazing grantees this July.
In 2016, the right-wing movement stole the Supreme Court.
In an unprecedented political move, Mitch McConnell and his Senate cronies refused to hold a vote for President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland. In doing so, they shrunk the Court to 8 seats for more than a year. But they weren’t done.
In the fall of 2020, they tossed out their own rulebook and rammed through the confirmation of Trump nominee Amy Coney Barrett in record time — even though 63 million people had already cast ballots in the election that would ultimately unseat President Trump.
Without those two insidious moves, the Supreme Court would have a 5-4, narrow liberal majority. Instead, the highest court in the land is being held hostage by 6 right-wing extremist politicians in robes — 5 of whom were appointed by presidents who lost the popular vote. Their radical agenda won’t win at the polls, so they’re imposing minority rule from the bench.
Take Back the Court was established to counter this threat to our democracy — to reclaim for the American people the most powerful legal institution in the country from the radical politicians who spent decades carefully plotting to enact a regressive and anti-democratic agenda against the will of the majority of Americans. Take Back the Court is the only organization dedicated primarily to expanding and rebalancing the Supreme Court to strengthen American democracy and preserve fundamental freedoms for all Americans.
The Supreme Court Is Stripping Us of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms
We are watching the Court strip away more and more of our fundamental rights and freedoms each and every year. In just the 2.5 years since Justice Barrett took the bench, the Court has eviscerated voting rights protections three times. It has gutted rights for working Americans twice. It has defanged the 50-year-old environmental protections that protected our air and water from pollution twice. They have stripped LGBTQ+ people of their right to shop in stores, made our communities more vulnerable to gun violence, blocked student debt relief, ended protections for Black, Latinx, and Indigenous people, and, of course, cut off access to abortion.
Only Expansion Can Rebalance the Court and Protect Us From Its Current Radicalism
So what are we doing about it? We’re building a movement to expand and rebalance the Court. Our country was founded on a principle of checks and balances, and historically, Congress has checked the power of the Supreme Court by changing its size and composition. It’s happened 7 times before, and we can make it happen again to correct the right-wing theft of the Court. By passing a bill, the Judiciary Act, to add 4 seats to the Court, we can create a more balanced institution committed to upholding our rights and freedoms — and unlike other judicial reforms, the current Court could not strike down Court expansion.
In just 4 years, we’ve taken Court expansion from a lofty idea to a blossoming movement and mainstream policy goal with more than 65 supporters in Congress and the endorsement of more than 130 diverse organizations. Groups like Planned Parenthood, NARAL, Color of Change, Black Lives Matter, VotoLatino, March for Our Lives, Greenpeace, Lambda Legal, SEIU, and many others have joined this fight because they know we cannot create a future that works for all with a broken Court attacking our rights and freedoms.
And we’re just getting started. Because of our work, Americans are realizing that if they care about nearly any issue — voting rights, climate change, labor rights, LGBTQ+ rights, racial and economic justice, tribal sovereignty, abortion and reproductive rights, immigration, student debt relief, gun violence prevention, and carceral state reform to name a few — they care about the Supreme Court and what it’s doing. We need a Court that will respect our rights and freedoms rather than standing in the way of progress if we are going to meet the challenges currently facing our country.
Occasional decisions that do not inflict maximum pain on Americans aside, this Court is not going to stop its assault on our more cherished rights, freedoms, and progress.. And 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.” We’re making sure all Americans, their organizations, and their congressional representatives know exactly the threat the Court poses and what we can do about it.
Despite losing the popular vote in 7 out of the last 8 presidential elections, Republicans have held the Court for 50 straight years. Without expansion, we are unlikely to see a liberal majority on the Court until at least 2065.
We’ve seen the harm the Court can do with just one decision. We’ve seen the devastation that follows just one term. We cannot withstand 40 more years of this Court rolling back our rights and freedoms. We must take back the court — today! Join us at takebackthecourtfoundation.org.
Posted on July 10, 2023
The Center for Economic and Policy Research: Full Employment for All
Note from the CREDO team: This July, Center for Economic and Policy Research is among three amazing groups that will receive a share of our monthly grant. Funding from the CREDO community will help fund CEPR’s Full Employment For All campaign, by lifting demands made 60 years ago at the March for Jobs and Freedom to push Congress to fix the nation’s chronic joblessness problem through a national subsidized jobs program.
Read this important blog post about CEPR’s critical work, then click here to visit CREDODonations.com to cast your vote to help determine how we distribute our monthly grant to this organization and our other amazing grantees this July.
The Center for Economic and Policy Research is excited to be a CREDO July 2023 grantee, and we are so grateful to all CREDO members! In the past, your generous support has allowed us to ramp up our fight for economic justice, both in the US and abroad, and we can’t wait to do it again.
This year, CREDO members will help fund CEPR’s Full Employment For All campaign. We are commemorating the August 28, 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom by pushing for Congress to address the joblessness in the country’s “forgotten places” (to paraphrase President Biden). The historically low national unemployment rate is worth celebrating, but it is important to remember that not everywhere is actually experiencing low unemployment. For example, in the first quarter of this year, in Yuma, Arizona, the unemployment rate was 8.5 percent – more than twice the national rate. And for many parts of the country, the reality is even harsher. The unemployment rate was 9.3 percent in Calhoun County, West Virginia, nearly 11 percent in Flint, Michigan and 13.2 percent in the Kusilvak Census Area in Alaska. In Reedley, California the unemployment rate is nearly a whopping 20 percent. We have a lot of work to do.
CEPR’s Director of Race and Economic Justice, Dr. Algernon Austin, is helping to spearhead the effort of a broad coalition of social and economic justice and grassroots advocacy organizations committed to finally actualizing the powerful economic agenda set by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders. The coalition is calling for a national subsidized employment program targeted to high-unemployment areas so that we can achieve full employment for all.
Algernon’s research has revealed that the country has made ZERO progress over the last 60 years in breaking the two-to-one, Black-to-White unemployment-rate ratio. The Black unemployment rate continues to be roughly twice the White unemployment rate, and therefore Black America never truly experiences low unemployment. A targeted subsidized employment program would help us make serious gains in securing full employment for all.
In fact, a targeted jobs program would help all communities, regardless of race, that face persistently high rates of joblessness. While the problem is most acute for the Black and Native American populations, communities facing disproportionately low employment can be found in all states and among all races, including in White rural communities. With this understanding, CEPR is building a multiracial, class-diverse coalition to address the complexities of this enduring, yet underreported, economic crisis.
It is unconscionable that such little progress had been made in the 60 YEARS since Dr. King brought this issue to Congress’ doorstep. At CEPR, we know that economic and racial justice are inextricably linked. We believe in a country where there is full employment for all – not just low unemployment for some. CREDO members can help us force Congress to finally do their jobs and right this wrong. Together, we will work to achieve what Dr. King set out to do 60 years ago.
Posted on July 10, 2023
Thanks to CREDO members, the Zinn Education Project continues teaching our accurate history
Our grantee partners at the Zinn Education Project introduce students to a more accurate, complex, and engaging understanding of history than is found in traditional textbooks and curricula and help equip students with analytical tools to make sense of and improve the world today.
In December 2022, CREDO members voted to donate $27,433 to help the Zinn Education Project double the number of Teaching for Black Lives teacher-led study groups; expand its Climate Justice and Reconstruction education campaigns; and defend the right to teach honestly in the face of anti-history education laws. In total, members like you have helped us donate $138,270 since 2015.
Powered in part by the generosity of CREDO and our members, Zinn Ed Project had some recent victories and launched some great new initiatives. Here’s a quick report on how your donations are making an impact from our friends at Zinn:
Teach Truth Day of Action
We hosted the third annual Teach Truth Day of Action in more than 65 cities across the United States with more than 50 co-sponsors including Color of Change; National Women’s Law Center; Learning for Justice; GLSEN; Red, Wine, & Blue; Human Rights Campaign; the National Education Association; and many more organizations of note.
Teach Banned Books at SXSW
We were invited to co-host a Teach Banned Books installation at SXSW in Austin in March of 2023 — allowing us to reach beyond our typical audience of educators. We traveled with the same installation to Orlando for the NEA Conference on Racial and Social Justice later in June.
New Lesson on Water and Environmental Racism
We released a new lesson for grades 7+ on water and environmental racism. Inspired by the 2016 Democracy Now! documentary Thirsty for Democracy, the lesson introduces students to the struggle of residents to access safe water for drinking, cooking, and bathing in the majority-Black cities of Flint, Michigan; Jackson, Mississippi; and Newark, New Jersey. Thanks to the support of CREDO and other donors, this lesson — and all the lessons at the Zinn Education Project — are free for teachers to download. Read more and access the lesson.
If you’d like to learn more and get involved with ZEP, please visit their website, or follow them on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
Posted on July 6, 2023
Reflect on 2023 so far, and vote now for a very special donation!
Thanks to our amazing CREDO customers, we’ve donated to 18 incredible progressive nonprofit groups so far this year. In celebration, we’ll be giving a special, extra donation of $10,000 to one of the groups we funded in 2023. Read below for a refresher on our grantees from January through June this year (list in alphabetical order), and then cast your vote now, and help send some extra support their way!
Democracy Now!
Grantee in February 2023
Democracy Now! is a daily, independent news hour hosted by award-winning journalists Amy Goodman, Juan González and Nermeen Shaikh. Its reporting includes breaking news headlines and in-depth interviews with people on the frontlines of today’s most pressing issues. Visit www.democracynow.org to learn more.
Action Against Hunger
Grantee in April 2023
Action Against Hunger is a global humanitarian organization that takes decisive action against the causes and effects of hunger. It saves the lives of malnourished children. It ensures everyone can access clean water, food, training and healthcare. It enables entire communities to be free from hunger. Visit www.actionagainsthunger.org to learn more.
Equal Rights Advocates
Grantee in January 2023
Equal Rights Advocates fights for gender justice in workplaces and schools. Since 1974, it’s protected and advanced rights and opportunities for women, girls, and gender-expansive people with free legal services, bold legislation, and community advocacy. Visit www.equalrights.org to learn more.
Evergreen Action
Grantee in February 2023
Evergreen pairs bold policy products with campaign-style communications and advocacy tactics to drive positive change. It fights for a just and thriving clean energy economy through raising standards, catalyzing investment, and centering justice. Visit www.evergreenaction.com to learn more.
Family Equality
Grantee in June 2023
Family Equality’s mission is to ensure that everyone has the freedom to find, form, and sustain their families by advancing equality for the LGBTQ+ community. It is creating a world where everyone can experience the love, safety, and belonging of family. Visit www.familyequality.org to learn more.
Friends of the Earth Action
Grantee in May 2023
Friends of the Earth Action believes that environmental protection and social justice are both part of the struggle for a healthy and just world. It fights for laws and lawmakers that echo that mission, and helps the public join in the battle. Visit www.foeaction.org to learn more.
Futures Without Violence
Grantee in March 2023
For over 40 years, FUTURES has led groundbreaking programs and policy solutions to create safer homes, schools, and communities for women, children, and families everywhere. Its vision is for all individuals to have equitable access to education, safety, justice, and economic freedom. Visit www.futureswithoutviolence.org to learn more.
Global Fund for Women
Grantee in June 2023
Global Fund for Women envisions a world where movements for gender justice have transformed power and privilege for a few into equity and equality for all. Visit www.globalfundforwomen.org to learn more.
Green America
Grantee in April 2023
Since 1982, Green America has worked tirelessly to harness economic power – the strength of consumers, investors, and business leaders across the country – to create a more socially just and environmentally sustainable society. Visit www.greenamerica.org to learn more.
Kids in Need of Defense (KIND)
Grantee in April 2023
KIND’s vision is a world in which children’s rights and well-being are protected as they migrate alone. KIND’s team is made up of global experts on the rights and needs of unaccompanied and separated children and the laws, policies, and practices that affect them. Visit www.supportkind.org to learn more.
Life After Hate
Grantee in February 2023
Life After Hate helps individuals disengage and deradicalize from violent far-right extremist (VFRE) hate groups and hateful online spaces. Visit www.lifeafterhate.org to learn more.
National Domestic Violence Hotline
Grantee in May 2023
For more than 27 years, the National Domestic Violence Hotline has answered the call – over 6.5 million calls, chats, and texts to date – for those affected by relationship abuse. It provides crisis support and hope for a life free from violence. Visit thehotline.org to learn more.
National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA)
Grantee in June 2023
The National Fair Housing Alliance is the country’s only national civil rights organization dedicated solely to eliminating all forms of housing and lending discrimination and ensuring equal opportunities for all people. Visit thehotline.org to learn more.
Paid Leave for All
Grantee in May 2023
Paid Leave for All represents dozens of organizations and tens of millions of workers, families, small businesses, and advocates, and its campaign provides the strategy and coordinated effort to pass a federal law ensuring paid leave for all working people. Visit www.paidleaveforall.org to learn more.
Pesticide Action Network
Grantee in March 2023
Across the US and around the world, PAN works with those on the frontlines of industrial agriculture — farmworkers, family farmers, rural communities, Indigenous people and children — to eradicate pesticide use and build a just, healthy food system. Visit www.panna.org to learn more.
SAGE
Grantee in January 2023
Founded in 1978, SAGE has offered programming and direct services to LGBTQ+ elders and their caregivers for nearly 50 years. It advocates for impactful policy changes, and provide education, technical assistance, and training for aging providers. Visit www.sageusa.org to learn more.
Social Security Works
Grantee in March 2023
Social Security Works knows that the best defense against right-wing lies is a good offense. That’s why it fights every day to expand―never cut―our Social Security system! Visit socialsecurityworks.org to learn more.
Women’s Refugee Commission
Grantee in January 2023
WRC is proud to partner with displaced women, children, LGBTQI+, and people with disabilities to catalyze gender-transformative change, by ensuring their voices are heard – and heeded – by local, national, and global decision-makers. Visit www.womensrefugeecommission.org to learn more.
Posted on July 5, 2023
What You Need to Know About the Latest Attack on Abortion Care: the Mifepristone Abortion Pill
Note from the CREDO team: This July, Planned Parenthood Action Fund is among three amazing groups that will receive a share of our monthly grant. Funding from the CREDO community will help PPAF fight to restore and advance abortion access wherever possible while laying the foundation to reclaim and expand reproductive rights for all
Read this important blog post which was originally published on the PPAF website about the recent attacks on medication abortion, then click here to visit CREDODonations.com to cast your vote to help determine how we distribute our monthly grant to this organization and our other amazing grantees this July.
UPDATE: Access to mifepristone — a safe, effective pill for medication abortion — remains safe for now. The Supreme Court has issued a stay that protects access to mifepristone.
This is good news — but FDA-approved mifepristone should never have been at risk in the first place, and it’s not over yet.
In an yet another attack on abortion care, in early April 2023 a federal judge in Texas ruled in favor of anti-abortion organizations suing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The lawsuit challenges the FDA’s approval of mifepristone — also known as mife, one of two medications used in medication abortions. The court’s ruling means that mife could become unavailable to people who need abortions.
Although this decision came from a federal court in Texas, it doesn’t just apply to patients in Texas — it could apply to people in every state in the nation.
If the ruling stands, it will affect access to mifepristone across the country — but it will not end medication abortions. In states where abortion is legal, medication abortions will remain a safe and effective way to end an early pregnancy.
The supportive, expert staff at Planned Parenthood health centers are dedicated to providing the education and health care patients need, including abortion. Contact your nearest Planned Parenthood health center to learn more and book an appointment or a virtual visit.
What this lawsuit is really about
This case is about controlling the medical decisions of women, trans people, and nonbinary people. Not satisfied with ending the federal right to an abortion in June 2022, a group of anti-abortion activists and organizations asked the federal court in Texas to order the FDA to end its 22-year approval of mife. The judge ruled in their favor — threatening access to mifepristone across the nation.
This case is not about safety.
- Medication abortion is safer than other common medicines like penicillin, Tylenol, and Viagra.
- Medication abortion has a strong safety record — serious complications happen in less than ⅓ of 1% of cases, whether a patient gets their abortion pills in person, at a doctor’s office, or remotely through a virtual visit.
- In 2021, more than half of all documented abortions were medication abortions.
Medication abortions are safe and are still available where abortion is legal, even if the case succeeds.
Lots of people refer to medication abortions as the abortion pill, although medication abortion in the U.S. most commonly involves taking two pills: mifepristone and misoprostol. Both medications are safe and effective and have been used for decades by millions of people to end early pregnancies. Because of the court’s decision, mifepristone may be taken off the market. But misoprostol is — and will be — available as an option to end an early pregnancy.
Misoprostol by itself is a safe and effective way to end an early pregnancy. Reach out to your local Planned Parenthood to talk about your options and what kind of care is best for you.
- Get fast facts on misoprostol-only medication abortion at plannedparenthood.org.
Medication abortions without mifepristone are common around the world.
In the U.S. most people have relied on a combination of mifepristone and misoprostol for medication abortions. But for decades, all around the world, many people have used just misoprostol to safely end early pregnancies when mifepristone isn’t available.
Misoprostol works on its own to empty your uterus.
A few facts about misoprostol:
Misoprostol is, on its own, a safe way to end an early pregnancy.
- Respected medical organizations like The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Ipas, and the World Health Organization agree that misoprostol-only abortions are a safe alternative.
- Using misoprostol pills to have an abortion is legal in states where abortion is legal.
- Misoprostol has been around for more than 30 years. Besides abortion, misoprostol has other medical uses — like miscarriage management and preventing and treating ulcers.
Planned Parenthood health centers are here for you.
Planned Parenthood health care professionals will do everything we can to make sure you can get abortion care, where it’s legal. Contact your local Planned Parenthood health center to learn more about your options.
