Posted on May 2, 2023
Amidst efforts to restrict teaching about race and identity, Facing History & Ourselves connects young people to factual history
CREDO grantee Facing History & Ourselves provides training, teaching strategies, and classroom resources that help teachers engage young people in connecting factual history—in all its depth and complexity—with their own lives and identities.
In September 2022, CREDO members voted to donate $23,625 to support Facing History’s work to help educators across the country nurture students’ analytical skills, empathy, academic engagement, and civic agency—even amidst efforts to restrict teaching about race, identity, and other vital aspects of American history and life. 
Powered in part by the generosity of CREDO and our members, Facing History & Ourselves had some recent victories and launched some great new initiatives. Here’s a quick report on how your donations are making an impact:
Recent Victories
Since receiving the CREDO grant, we have continued to expand our powerful Teaching for Equity and Justice (TEJ) professional learning series. For example, we designed and launched a new TEJ workshop specifically for school leaders and instructional leadership teams. Data from 2022 post-TEJ workshop surveys showed that 97% of respondents felt empowered to create more equitable learning environments in their schools.
Funding from CREDO and other donors has also enabled us to continue producing and disseminating timely and relevant lessons on current events. Each lesson suggests activities teachers can use in the classroom right away to address specific events and issues in the news, and includes articles to read, videos to watch, or other materials.
Since receiving the CREDO funds in September 2022, we have published the following lessons on our website:
The Supreme Court, Trust, and Political Partisanship (October): https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/supreme-court-trust-political-partisanship
When Online Speech Has Real Consequences (November): https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/when-online-hate-speech-has-real-world-consequences
Influence, Celebrity, and the Dangers of Online Hate (November): https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/influence-celebrity-dangers-online-hate
The World Cup: Activism, Upstanding, and Free Speech (December): https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/world-cup-activism-upstanding-free-speech
Responding to the Earthquake in Turkey and Syria (February): https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/responding-earthquake-turkey-syria
The Ethics of Generative AI in the Classroom (March): https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/ethics-generative-ai-classroom
One other highlight has been that regional Facing History Student Leadership Groups (SLGs) have been able to start meeting in person again after a long hiatus during the pandemic, when all meetings were online. This school year, there are active Facing History SLGs in Northern California, Cleveland, and Memphis. While each SLG is unique, they are all extracurricular student groups, advised by teachers, where young people can come together, celebrate their diversity, learn from and inspire each other, build leadership skills, and work together for social change.
New Initiatives
Facing History is in the midst of a multi-year initiative to develop bold, thought-provoking, academically challenging curricular content designed to disrupt dominant narratives in US History and English Language Arts classrooms. These include teaching materials designed to uplift diverse perspectives, and promote deep analytical thinking about history, literature, current events, and civic responsibility. In March, they released a new six-lesson unit, “I Wanted the Whole World to See”: The Murder of Emmett Till. Created in partnership with the Till Institute, this unit focuses on the pivotal choices of Emmett’s mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, and the impact those choices had on a generation of Civil Rights activists.
Our curriculum, informed by our expertise in adolescents’ intellectual and social-emotional development, leads to a strong study of civics by focusing on identity and equity and weaving in opportunities for students to “live civics” through action projects integrated into classroom lessons.
We are currently piloting the model in partnership with the New York City Department of Education to help schools meet the requirements of the New York Seal of Civic Readiness.
If you’d like to learn more or get involved with Facing History & Ourselves, please visit their website, or follow them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Posted on May 1, 2023
Vote for Friends of the Earth Action, National Domestic Violence Hotline and Paid Leave for All
Every month, CREDO members vote to distribute our monthly grant to three incredible progressive causes – and every vote makes a difference. This May, you can support groups fighting for climate justice, survivors of domestic violence, and paid leave by voting to fund Friends of the Earth Action, National Domestic Violence Hotline and Paid Leave for All.
Friends of the Earth Action
Friends of the Earth Action believes that environmental protection and social justice are both part of the struggle for a healthy and just world. The organization fights for laws and lawmakers that echo that mission, and we help the public join in the battle.
A vote for Friends of the Earth Action will help the group bolster progressive leaders who see the importance of intersectionality in progressive issues and who understand the relationship between social justice and environmental protection.
National Domestic Violence Hotline
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. We provide crisis support and hope for a life free from violence.
CREDO’s support will help The Hotline meet the soaring need for services by making critical investments in hiring more advocates and implementing technology solutions to decrease wait times. It will give survivors across the country hope—24/7/365.
Paid Leave for All
Paid Leave for All represents dozens of organizations and tens of millions of workers, families, small businesses, and advocates, and our campaign provides the strategy and coordinated effort to pass a federal law ensuring paid leave for all working people.
Funding from CREDO members will allow the organization to scale its campaign, hold Congress accountable, multiply its partnerships, and grow its power—and ensure paid leave gets over the finish line.
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 May 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 May 1, 2023
The National Domestic Violence Hotline: Serving and Supporting Survivors Since 1996
Note from the CREDO team: This May, the National Domestic Violence Hotline is among three amazing groups that will receive a share of our monthly grant. Funding from the CREDO community will help The Hotline meet the soaring need for services by making critical investments in hiring more advocates and implementing technology solutions to decrease wait times.
Read this important blog post from the National Domestic Violence Hotline, 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 May.
The National Domestic Violence Hotline (The Hotline) is a vital service for millions of people. Our mission is to answer the call to support and shift power back to those affected by relationship abuse — 24/7/365. Established in 1996 and headquartered in Austin, Texas, The Hotline is the only national domestic violence hotline providing compassionate support, life-saving resources, and personalized safety planning via phone, online chat, and text.
Every year, the number of people who reach out to The Hotline seeking support and hope for a life free from violence grows. Demand for our services has soared in the last year. To date, we have answered more than 6.5 million calls, chats, and texts.
The Hotline continually adapts to best support survivors’ evolving needs and put resources into the hands of those who need them. A lot has changed since our phone lines first opened and we made referrals using paper maps. In 2013 we began offering services through online chat, and in 2021 we added text messaging capabilities on The Hotline’s toll-free number (previously they were only available through our healthy relationships and prevention platform, love is respect).
Hotline services are available in English and Spanish and in more than 200 other languages through interpretation. Our professional advocate staff provides high-quality, trauma-informed education, validation, and connection to services that empower victims and survivors to make life-changing decisions with dignity and respect. Our team meets survivors and their loved ones without judgment, no matter where they are in their experience with relationship abuse.
Offering services through phone, chat, and text allows survivors to reach out in the way that is best and safest for them. Even with these options, however, some survivors may still not feel safe reaching out for support from a live advocate. For this reason, we published our entire database of 5,000 vetted local providers and resources online, including shelter and transitional housing, counseling, culturally and linguistically specific programs, and legal services. The directory is available here.
With each person served, we are able to better understand the experience of survivors and the individual and systemic challenges they face in accessing safer outcomes for themselves and their loved ones.
Through The Hotline’s policy advocacy, we build power for survivors so they can fully access the resources and support they need to be free from violence. You can get involved by joining our Action Center and encouraging your elected officials to advance policies that support survivors.
We see everyday that hope can power lasting change for survivors and their loved ones. In the words of one survivor after speaking with a Hotline advocate “You have given me such clarity and hope and tools to make the best decision for myself.”
To join our mission to shift power back to those affected by relationship abuse, please visit our website. You can also follow us on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook.
Posted on May 1, 2023
How CREDO grantee Paid Leave for All is fighting to win paid family and medical leave for all Americans
Note from the CREDO team: This May, Paid Leave for All is among three amazing groups that will receive a share of our monthly grant. Funding from the CREDO community will help the organization’s coordinated effort to pass a federal law ensuring paid leave for all working people by scaling its campaign, holding Congress accountable, growing its power—and ensuring paid leave gets over the finish line.
Read this important blog post from Dawn Huckelbridge, Founding Director of Paid Leave for All, 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 May.
Thirty years ago, the United States Congress passed the Family and Medical Leave Act, a milestone piece of legislation that has allowed hundreds of millions of people to hold onto their jobs while they cared for themselves or their loved ones. But it was meant to be just the first step toward the paid leave the rest of the world takes for granted. Paid Leave for All is here to change that.
FMLA is 30 years old—and now we are one of only six countries in the entire world that still ensures no form of paid leave for its workers. Think about your last 30 years; the babies in your world who have been born. Their first smiles, the sound of their first laugh. The illness and injuries you and your loved ones have sustained, and survived. The rehab and recoveries. The people whose hands you’ve held as they fought, and as they passed.
These are the moments that make up life. The moments that make us human—across political party, race, gender, geography. And uniquely in America, most of us miss them. Today in America, three in four workers have no access to paid family leave through their jobs; one in four women have gone back to work within two weeks of giving birth; one in five retirees have left the workforce earlier than planned to care for an ill family member.
But it does not have to be this way, and the good news is we are on the cusp of change, closer than ever to finally passing paid leave in the United States. In 2019, a group of organizations came together with the idea of launching a collaborative campaign to finally get this policy over the finish line, to become bigger than the sum of their parts. They developed working groups and plans for communications, field organizing, government relations, policy and research. These leaders believed in mission over ego, progress over organizational politics. We launched Paid Leave for All at the end of that year and started building, not knowing that just months later we would be hit by a global pandemic.
However COVID did not slow us down—it put the work into fast forward. While the campaign was still getting off the ground, and many of us were caretaking full time, we knew that lives and livelihoods were at stake in a country without paid leave. And over the last three years we have made more progress together than in decades prior. We passed our country’s first temporary paid leave law of any kind. Our campaign multiplied in size. We grew a powerful community and a new model of advocacy campaign. We developed the first coordinated national field program, the first national cable media campaign, the first national bus tour. Paid leave was core to President Biden’s economic agenda. For the first time, we passed paid family and medical leave in the House of Representatives—and we came within a single vote of making a permanent paid family and medical leave law.
That momentum is growing. Already this year, President Biden released the strongest budget proposal for comprehensive paid family and medical leave in history. There are renewed calls and commitments to paid leave across the Administration, the first ever bipartisan working group for paid leave in the House, new congressional caucuses, and new champions.
And at Paid Leave for All, new groups join every day. We hear from business leaders, elected officials, working families who are demanding action. We’ve formed more partnerships in the last few months than ever before (speaking of which, we hope you will go to glamour.com/paidleaveforall today and sign our petition with Glamour Magazine). Passing paid leave in this country will be transformative. It will save workers billions in wages every year. It will help small businesses compete and working families thrive. It will have a profound impact on public health, economic security, and racial and gender equity. It will foster entrepreneurship, creativity, whole new life possibilities. It will save lives. And it will afford us all peace of mind—the ability to be there for the people we love. It is not a matter of if, it is a matter of when, and with the resources, we will keep turning up the volume, and get this over the finish line now. Please join us at paidleaveforall.org—and let’s make history together.
Posted on April 12, 2023
March For Our Lives is mobilizing young people to vote and protect our communities from gun violence
Born out of a tragic school shooting, our incredible grantee partners at March For Our Lives are leading a courageous youth-led movement dedicated to promoting civic engagement, education, and direct action by youth to eliminate the epidemic of gun violence.
In September 2022, CREDO members voted to donate $28,317 to help MFOL advocate for lifesaving laws at the federal, state, and local levels; advance legal strategies through judicial advocacy in the courts; and turnout young voters in record numbers.
Powered in part by the generosity of CREDO and our members, MFOL had some recent victories and launched some great new initiatives. Here’s a quick rundown from the organization:
Recent Victories
Since we received our CREDO grant in September 2022, March For Our Lives has seen tremendous success, particularly surrounding the 2022 Midterm Election.
Thanks in part to the funding from CREDO, we were able to run an aggressive Get Out The Vote program for our third election cycle in a row, to turn out voters ages 18-29 in the 2022 Midterm. We recruited and trained young people to mobilize their peers to the polls through banner drops and phone and text banks.
Our data showed that our GOTV campaign was very effective, turning out independent voters in particular, to vote based on gun safety. Young people turned out in record numbers in 2022, and the youth vote ended up being the key difference maker in razor-thin elections. Youth turnout crested 31% in the 10 most electorally competitive states, compared to only ~20% in pre-2018 elections. Exit polls showed a pronounced shift in Gen-Z and young millennials towards progressive candidates, with our polling showing that youth voting preferences are driven chiefly by concerns about gun violence, abortion, and climate change.
Bold stances by candidates didn’t lose votes, and in fact did the opposite, driving youth support in difference-making elections. These victories were won in no small part because young people were moved by MFOL to take action and see themselves as part of the civic process.
New Initiatives
Youth Voter Polling
The last few months have been very busy at MFOL. In addition to the GOTV campaign described above, leading up to the 2022 Midterm, MFOL commissioned a poll by Change Research to survey the state of the field among youth voters. We reconfirmed that for young people under 35, gun violence ranked as a top-three priority, and that more than half of them believe that it isn’t a matter of if, but when they or someone they love will be a victim of gun violence. This information was critical for campaigns because as predicted, young voters were the change makers in this last election cycle. It would behoove candidates to listen to young people’s priorities and align themselves with the fight for gun safety legislation.
To view the full results of our poll, please visit our website: https://marchforourlives.com/2022-poll/
Candidate scorecards on gun violence prevention
Also leading up to the Midterm, our youth-led policy team developed a one-of-a-kind criteria around gun violence prevention to rate candidates and their views in key races across the country. We used our Policy Agenda, “It Ends with Us,” and our five policy priority areas within that to identify what was important to us in determining if a candidate should receive a good or bad grade from us. We rated candidates in Georgia, Michigan, Texas, and Wisconsin.
To learn more, please visit our website: https://marchforourlives.com/scorecards/
“Burn Book”
When our Senators failed to enact the Assault Weapons Ban that was previously passed in the House, we decided to leak pages from our “Burn Book,” A play on the Burn Book from the iconic “Mean Girls,” our Burn Book campaign put the faces of cowards hiding behind the gun lobby front and center on social media. We had a clear and simple message: If Senators want to be dishonest and corrupt, we will publicly call them out.
Judicial Advocacy
Additionally, we have been continuing our federal and state legislation as well as our judicial advocacy work. We’ve identified 13 priority states on which to focus our efforts in 2023. In each priority state, we track key legislation that aligns with our policy priorities, meet with legislators, and join and participate in state-based coalitions. Maintaining detailed records and relationships has allowed us to rapidly deploy our volunteers in each priority state so they can testify against dangerous legislation, show up at hearings, phone bank, rally, or participate in advocacy days. We’ve already had over 25 meetings about passing gun safety legislation this year and look forward to at least tripling that this year! Our judicial team has been hard at work filing amicus briefs that shed light on the victims and survivors of preventable gun tragedies. Like our legislative advocacy work, we use our unique position as a youth-led movement to offer a new way of appealing to courts and juries that differs greatly from those of our peer gun violence prevention organizations. We’re bringing survivors’ voices to the fight in the courts and won’t stop until young people no longer have to fear for their lives.
State Gun Safety Advocacy
Our most recent project has been planning for marking the fifth year since our founding. The week of March 24th, we hosted five rallies in five of our priority states to urge elected officials to pass gun safety legislation (CA, FL, MI, PA, and TX). One notable victory from this organizing is the passage of a package of gun safety legislation in Michigan through both chambers of the legislature after we rallied with MSU students and met with state lawmakers. This legislation would close background check loopholes, enact safe storage requirements, and enact Extreme Risk Protection Orders. We have invited thousands of young people to join us across the country as we show up and call out those in power who have done nothing to prevent these senseless gun violence deaths. For those outside of these priority states, we’ve shared resources on school walkouts to further drive national attention to the gun violence epidemic. We are hopeful that these events will lead to policy change and help build momentum for youth civic engagement as we gear up for 2024.
To view our 2021-2022 Impact Report and learn more about our recent projects, please visit our website: https://impact.marchforourlives.com/
If you’d like to learn more or get involved with MFOL, please visit their website, or follow them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Posted on April 12, 2023
Honoring Women Leaders in the Fight Against Hunger
Note from the CREDO team: This April, Action Against Hunger is among three amazing groups that will receive a share of our monthly grant. Funding from the CREDO community will allow Action Against Hunger to continue its rapid response efforts, within 24-48 hours of an emergency including earthquakes, droughts, floods, and others, and deploy resources to where it is needed most to help save lives, empower communities, and end hunger.
Read this important blog post from Action Against Hunger’s Senior Communications Officer Meril Cullinan, 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 April. The following blog post was originally published here and has been adapted for our site.
On International Women’s Day and every day, Action Against Hunger celebrates women change-makers around the world – the sisters, farmers, mothers, scientists, aunts, doctors, grandmothers, and entrepreneurs who are working create a world free from hunger with equal opportunities for all.
We must also spotlight the unique challenges and injustices that women and girls continue to face. They are disproportionately affected by hunger: too often, women and girls eat last and least. The top drivers of hunger – conflict, climate change, and inequity – also hit women hardest. But, at the same time, women are our most powerful allies in the fight against hunger.
- 80% of people who are displaced by climate change are women. There are other impacts of climate change, too: in Kenya, for example, child marriages and teen pregnancies have increased in recent years, in part due to the prolonged drought.
- The gap between the number of hungry women and hungry men in the world has more than doubled in the last three years: Food-insecure women outnumbered men by 126 million in 2021—an increase from 49 million in 2019.
- Women who participate in household decisions produce and earn more – women also reinvest as much as 90% of their income back into their families, helping to improve health, nutrition, and more.
In communities impacted by climate change, women are leading efforts to manage water sources, plant climate-resilient crops, and start new businesses. Around the world, female health workers and humanitarians are changing how hunger is prevented and treated in countless homes, health centers, and Ministries of Health. In so many of the places where Action Against Hunger works, mothers are coming together to support and learn from each other, invest in themselves, and improve food security and nutrition among their families.
Around the world, women are creating brighter futures for themselves, their families, and their communities. Below, find just a few of their stories.
AFGHAN WOMEN SPEAK OUT
After seeing the impact of gender injustice firsthand, one Afghan humanitarian worker switched her career path from medicine to law and now fights for gender equality: “I work to defend human rights, especially women’s rights to receive an education and I help them as much as I can.”
GROWING RICE IN FLOOD WATERS
The water from three years of flooding has not receded in Paguir, South Sudan, but community members are making the most of their new environment – they’ve started growing rice in the flood waters. “My family can benefit from this farm, but it will also be my own,” says Nyaok, a woman rice farmer.
TEACHING EACH OTHER TO SPOT MALNUTRITION
In Kenya, Community Health Volunteer Rose learned how to measure children for malnutrition. She goes door-to-door, checking up on her community’s children and showing their mothers how to do the same.
RESILIENCY AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
In Bangladesh, Shilpi saw her hopes for a brighter future wash away in near-constant flooding. Then, she learned to plant resilient gardens, raise animals, and farm fish. “Now, we eat well,” she says.
Posted on April 6, 2023
5 Amazing Climate Justice Grantees to Follow This April
Here at CREDO, we know that the climate crisis is the existential threat to our planet. That’s why fighting for climate justice has been a core part of our mission since we were founded nearly 40 years ago. In fact, since 1985, our members have helped us donate more than $20 million to organizations protecting our environment and combating climate change.
With Earth Day quickly approaching, we wanted to highlight five incredible groups we’ve recently funded — so please take a moment to learn more about how CREDO donations have helped further their critical work and how you can get involved with these groups to protect our planet.
Amazon Watch (April 2022 Grantee)
Amazon Watch protects the rainforest in solidarity with Indigenous peoples throughout the Amazon Basin. We partner with Indigenous and environmental organizations in campaigns for human rights, corporate accountability, and the preservation of the Amazon.
Since 2018, CREDO members have helped us donate $175,840 to power Amazon Watch’s work to halt and hold accountable the major drivers of Amazon destruction and directly support Indigenous leaders, communities, and organizations in calling for climate justice and permanent protection for the Amazon biome.
To learn more and get involved with Amazon Watch, please visit their website or follow them on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
Earthjustice (March 2022 Grantee)
Earthjustice is the premier nonprofit environmental law organization. The group wields the power of law and the strength of partnership to stand up to polluters, advance clean energy, protect public health, and fight for justice for people and the planet.
A long time CREDO grantee and partner, CREDO has donated $903,909 to help Earthjustice take on the most consequential legal fights of our time, moving urgently to zero emissions and 100% clean energy to address the climate crisis and ensure a healthy environment for all.
To learn more and get involved with Earthjustice, please visit their website or follow them on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or TikTok.
Green America (April 2023 Grantee)
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.
CREDO members have helped us donate $113,951 to the group — with more to come! This month, Green America is on our donations ballot, so please take a minute to vote for Green America and our other great April grantees to help us determine how we distribute this month’s grant.
To learn more and get involved with Green America, please visit their website or follow them on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.
Pesticide Action Network (March 2023 Grantee)
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.
Since 1990, CREDO members have helped us donate $387,005 to help PAN challenge the global proliferation of pesticides, defend basic rights to health and environmental quality, and champion agroecology — a transformative farming system rooted in social justice and biodiversity.
To learn more and get involved with PAN, please visit their website or follow them on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
350.org (May 2022 Grantee)
350.org’s mission is to inspire, train and mobilize people to join a broad and diverse climate movement. They are the backbone of climate action and are co-creating the conditions for its globally coordinated campaigns to succeed.
Since 2011, CREDO has donated $595,040 to enable 350.org to continue to combat climate change by halting fossil fuel projects, promoting renewable energy, passing additional fracking bans and pressuring global financial institutions to divest and divert from fossil fuels.
To learn more and get involved with 350.org, please visit their website or follow them on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
Posted on April 5, 2023
Vote for Action Against Hunger, Green America and Kids In Need of Defense (KIND)
Every month, CREDO members vote to distribute our monthly grant to three incredible progressive causes – and every vote makes a difference. This April, you can support groups fighting for hunger relief, climate justice, and immigrant and refugee children by voting to fund Action Against Hunger, Green America and Kids In Need of Defense (KIND).
Action Against Hunger
Action Against Hunger is a global humanitarian organization that takes decisive action against the causes and effects of hunger. The group works to save the lives of malnourished children. They ensure everyone can access clean water, food, training and healthcare and enable entire communities to be free from hunger.
Funding from CREDO will allow Action Against Hunger to continue our rapid response efforts, within 24-48 hours of an emergency including earthquakes, droughts, floods, and others, and deploy resources to where it is needed most to help save lives, empower communities, and end hunger.
Green America
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.
With CREDO’s support, Green America will leverage consumer and investor voices to persuade corporations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, transition our food system to regenerative practices, and protect socially responsible investing from right-wing attacks.
Kids In Need of Defense (KIND)
KIND’s vision is a world in which children’s rights and well-being are protected as they migrate alone. KIND are global experts on the rights and needs of unaccompanied and separated children and the laws, policies, and practices that affect them.
Funding from CREDO members will help KIND achieve its mission to protect unaccompanied immigrant and refugee children. It will ensure unaccompanied children on the move will have access to protection, due process, and critical social services.
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 April 30.
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 April 5, 2023
Green America’s Commitment to Climate Justice
Note from the CREDO team: This April, Green America is among three amazing groups that will receive a share of our monthly grant. Funding from the CREDO community will help Green America leverage consumer and investor voices to persuade corporations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, transition our food system to regenerative practices, and protect socially responsible investing from right-wing attacks.
Read this important blog post from Green America, 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 April.
Like CREDO and its members, Green America is committed to advancing climate justice! One of the major ways we do this is through our Consumer & Corporate Engagement Campaigns, which harness consumer power and direct dialogue with corporations to create a more just and sustainable economy. Some of our current campaigns include:
HANG UP ON FOSSIL FUELS
This campaign builds on Green America’s 40-year history of campaign successes by calling on Big Telecom companies to add renewable energy to the national grid and ensure their renewable purchases further energy justice.
As Green Americans push these three phone carriers to accelerate renewable energy purchasing, our campaign is also urging the companies to ensure their purchases benefit communities and workers most harmed by fossil fuels.
Want to join our call to #CleanUpWireless? Sign our petition urging these telecoms to accelerate their transitions to 100% renewable energy with new solar and wind installations here!
TOXIC TEXTILES
Green America is also committed to combating greenwashing – defined as the practice of using vague terminology and/or unsubstantiated claims to make consumers believe a company and its products are more environmentally friendly than they really are. In the current era of greenwashing, labor issues are one of many “canaries in the coal mine” that can indicate when a company is merely giving lip service to its environmental and social impact, rather than investing in solutions.
We saw this with Amazon, which – while making strong commitments to renewable energy over the past few years – has been a laggard in ensuring worker safety. For two years, Green America has been calling on Amazon to specifically address toxic chemicals in its apparel supply chains through our Toxic Textiles Campaign. Nearly 40,000 Green Americans added their voices to our demands for Amazon (the largest clothing retailer in the U.S.) to ban hazardous chemicals. In response, Amazon announced in 2022 that its private label apparel brands will comply with AFIRM’s Restricted Substance List (RSL), ensuring that the chemical levels in Amazon clothing are safe for consumers.
Now we’re calling on Amazon to take the next step in its chemical management practices by eliminating the most toxic chemicals from its entire apparel supply chain to protect workers and communities. We invite you to join our call to Amazon to protect workers by adopting a Manufacturing Restricted Substances List (MRSL) that would reduce toxic chemicals in all its suppliers’ factories, not just in the company’s clothes at the time of sale. It’s time Amazon put consumers and workers’ concerns before profit!
COOL IT!
Trader Joe’s is another company that uses greenwashing to make consumers believe it is more sustainable than its competitors. In particular, Trader Joe’s has long ranked poorly among supermarkets in terms of refrigerant management, a major driver of climate change. In 2016, the grocery chain settled a lawsuit the US Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency filed because Trader Joe’s was leaking hydrofluorocarbons (refrigerant gases) at levels so high it was in violation of the Clean Air Act.
After 20,000+ Green Americans urged Trader Joe’s to do better, the company announced in 2022 that all its new stores would use alternative refrigerants much better for the planet than hydrofluorocarbons. However, Trader Joe’s has a long way to go to catch up to its competitors. In 2023, Green America will mobilize concerned consumers to urge Trader Joe’s (along with Kroger and other major grocers) to end their use of high Global Warming Potential refrigerants in all stores.
You can stay up to date on these campaigns and Green America’s full body of work by sharing your contact information with us at www.greenamerica.org/signup. Thank you CREDO and CREDO members for your support and all you do to create a more sustainable and socially just economy!
Posted on April 3, 2023
Our March grantees thank you for your support
Each month, CREDO members vote on how we distribute funding to three incredible nonprofits. Those small actions add up – with one click, you can help fund groups preventing violence against women and children across the world, ending the use of dangerous pesticides and protecting Social Security. In March, CREDO members voted to distribute our monthly donation among Futures Against Violence, Pesticide Action Network and Social Security Works.
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 February grant recipients thank you.
Futures Without Violence
“Thank you for your investment in the safety and well-being of women, children, and families everywhere. You make our work at FUTURES possible — enabling a global web of individuals and organizations to bring healing, hope, and prevention to homes, schools, and communities.” – Esta Soler, Founder and President, Futures Without Violence
To learn more, visit www.futureswithoutviolence.org.
Pesticide Action Network
“With your donation, we are able to push the ball forward on bold climate action that protects people & the planet. Support from CREDO members like you helps ensure we have the best chance at a more livable & equitable future. Thank you.” – Jamal Raad, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Evergreen Action
To learn more, visit www.panna.org.
Social Security Works
“Thank you for your commitment to and support of Life After Hate and its mission. Because of you, we have been able to help individuals leave the violent far-right. More importantly, together we have demonstrated that second chances are possible.” – Patrick R. Riccards, CEO, Life After Hate, Inc.
To learn more, visit socialsecurityworks.org.
Now check out the three groups we are funding in April, 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.
