Posted on October 27, 2022
Is your cell phone company enabling a far-right activist group?
If you’re not a CREDO Mobile customer, your cell phone company could be enabling an extremist, right-wing political action group. Read more about it at Bloomberg News.
In contrast, with CREDO, you can support a company that promotes progressive values, instead of other mobile companies that align themselves with a right-wing agenda.
Our philanthropy to the causes you care about is powered by our members who use our products and services every day. We’ve donated more than $94 million to non-profit groups fighting for climate justice, civil rights and economic justice — groups like the Transgender Law Center, Planned Parenthood, Color of Change, the ACLU, Doctors without Borders and Sunrise Movement.
If you’re not already a CREDO member and would like to switch to the mobile company that shares your values and donates to progressive groups every month, please check out CREDO Mobile here.
Posted on October 20, 2022
Update your iPhone now to get these five new features in iOS 16
Still waiting to update your iPhone to the latest operating system? Or, you’ve updated it but don’t know what the fuss is all about?
Well, have you ever wanted to edit or recall an iMessage you mistakenly sent? Maybe edit a whole bunch of photos all at the same time? Or even track your medication or supplement intake?
Never fear! In this week’s tip, we’ll show you five of our favorite new features in this long-awaited update to the iPhone so you can enjoy your device even more.
First thing’s first: Update your device.
If you haven’t updated your device to iOS 16 yet, now’s the time. Here’s how:
- Make sure to plug in your phone to a power source and ensure you’re connected to the internet through a WiFi network.
- Go to Settings > General > Software Update
- Choose Download and Install (if it’s already downloaded, choose Install Now)
- If you do not see the above options, it is likely your device is already updated to the latest operating system
- It’s also a good idea to turn on Automatic Updates, too.
Unsend or edit iMessages
Hooray! You can now recall and edit previously sent iMessages in iOS 16. The feature works best when you and your recipient are both using iOS 16. If your recipient has a previous iOS version, they are likely to get a notification or message that you edited or recalled your message. If your recipient has a non-Apple device or you sent the message as an SMS, these features will not work.
- To unsend an iMessage, it must be recalled within two minutes of sending. Tap and hold the message bubble you want to recall, then tap Unsend Message
- To edit an iMessage, you can edit the message up to five times within 15 minutes of sending. Open the conversation that you want to edit, then tap and hold the message bubble you want to edit. Note that your recipient will have a notification that the message was edited.
Schedule emails
Hooray times 2! With the iOS 16 Mail app, you can schedule emails in the future to be sent at the perfect time. We love this one because when we’re working late, we want to respect our fellow CREDO colleague’s off time, so we schedule emails bright and early the next morning.
- To schedule email delivery, compose your message in the Mail app, then tap and hold the blue arrow. Select Send Now or choose a time in the future for your email to send.
Unsend emails
We’ve all mistakenly sent an email to the wrong person or before we’ve finished, and since the dawn of the internet, we’ve never been able to take those emails back (don’t get us started on trying to recall an email in Outlook).
- In iOS 16’s Mail app, you can quickly undo a send within a few seconds of hitting send before it hits your recipient’s mailbox. To revoke your email, select “Undo Send” at the bottom of your mail list. You can also change the time to unsend in Settings → Mail → Undo Send Delay
Track medication and supplements
In iOS 16, you can now add, track and schedule your medications and supplements on your iPhone. New features can alert you to potential interactions, and you may be able to connect with your pharmacy, physician or provider to get information about previous medications.
Important note from Apple: The Medications feature is not a substitute for professional medical judgment. Additional information is available on the labels of your medications. Consult your healthcare provider prior to making any decisions related to your health.
- Open the Health app
- Tap Browse at the bottom right, then tap Medications.
- Tap Add a Medication (to start your list) or Add Medication (to add to your list).
- To identify the medication, do one of the following:
- Type the name: Tap the text field, enter the name, then tap Add.
In the U.S. only, suggestions appear as you begin typing. You can select a suggestion, or finish typing the name, then tap Add. - Use the camera: (U.S. only; on supported models) Tap the camera icon next to the text field, then follow the onscreen instructions.
If a match isn’t found, tap Search by Name, then type the name (as described above).
- Type the name: Tap the text field, enter the name, then tap Add.
- Follow the onscreen instructions to optionally create a custom visual of the medication and to optionally set a schedule.
When you set a schedule, you receive notifications from Health reminding you to log the medication.
Edit multiple photos all at once
Have you ever taken a bunch of photos all at the same time and needed to edit them, but it was just so tedious making the same changes to each one over and over? In iOS 16, you can now batch edit all of the photos in one fell swoop. Here’s how:
- Open the Photos app.
- Choose the photo you want to edit, make your changes and choose Done.
- Tap the three dots > Copy edits, then choose the back arrow to see all of your photos.
- Tap Select and choose the photos you want to batch edit.
- Tap the three dots > Paste edits.
If you want to see all the new and fun features in iOS 16, check out the entire list on Apple’s website.
Posted on October 13, 2022
Help get out the vote to make a big impact this midterm election
Election Day is just around the corner — and in many states across the country, the results are going to be extremely close.
The difference could mean electing an anti-abortion, pro-insurrectionist to office who is deadset on overturning the next election, or voting in someone who believes in climate justice, women’s rights and protecting our democracy.
Don’t wake up the morning after the election and wish you had done more to help get out the vote! You can get involved today with a proven, effective, and simple way to turn out the vote by writing letters to voters in competitive races across the country with our allies at Vote Forward — right from your home.
Midterm elections are all about turnout, and handwritten letters have proven to be an effective way to encourage voters to participate in elections.
That’s why our allies at Vote Forward facilitate volunteer letter writing to voters in competitive races across the country on a drop date in late October when receiving a nudge to vote is most powerful.
Vote Forward letters are among the most effective voter contact tactics tested in 2020, and the Vote Forward team is pushing toward a big letter-writing goal for 2022. Your help writing letters to voters asking them to vote can make a real difference!
This year’s letter writing program, “The Big Send,” is a coalition effort powered by volunteers invested in strengthening our democracy, to send millions of letters encouraging voters in key states to make their voices heard in the midterm elections.
It’s not too late to sign up to volunteer to help with this last minute, effective get-out-the-vote effort to make a difference this midterm election.
Visit https://votefwd.org/credomobile to learn more, or register for a new letter writer orientation training to jump right in.
Posted on October 6, 2022
5 Ways You Can Get Involved Right Now in the November Election
This year’s midterm election is one of the most consequential in our lifetimes. So many of the important issues we care about — from reproductive freedom and civil rights, to economic justice, voting rights and climate change — are all on the ballot in one way or another this year.
If you’re interested in getting involved in a substantive way — more than just chipping in $5 to your favorite candidate — here are 5 ways you can help protect and expand the progress we’ve made over the years, because too much is at stake to sit this one out.
#1 — Make a plan to vote
First thing’s first: it’s time to make a plan to cast your ballot on or before Election Day November 8. That means checking your voter registration (or register if you haven’t), learning about early and absentee voting in your state, and locating your polling place or voter dropbox.
Our grantee Vote.org has everything you need to vote in this election, with tools to register to vote, find where you can cast your ballot and a lot more.
Visit https://www.vote.org/ to learn more.
#2 — Write letters to voters in competitive races
Handwritten letters have proven to be an effective way to encourage voters to participate in elections.
Our allies at Vote Forward facilitate volunteer letter writing to voters in competitive races across the country on a drop date in late October when receiving a nudge to vote is most powerful — and your letters to voters could help increase turnout.
Visit https://votefwd.org/credomobile to learn more, or register for a new letter writer orientation training to jump right in.
#3 — Mobilize women voters with Supermajority
Despite the doom and gloom you may see on the news, especially concerning women’s rights, our grantee partners at Supermajority know that there are very specific and achievable things we can do right now to turn things around and make this country work for women
Their 2022 campaign Activate260 is recruiting 1,000 “Women Are Voting Captains” this year who are a dedicated team of women working to mobilize 2.5 million women in our five key states before Election Day.
If you want to help make real progress for women and want an important way to get involved, check out their Activate260 campaign page to sign up and learn more.
#4 — Build power with Black Voters Matter
The mission of our grantees at Black Voters Matter is to increase civic engagement and power building in predominantly Black communities.
Their 2022 campaign and tour is titled “We Won’t Black Down” and will make stops across the country up to November 8 to engage with Black voters, policymakers, faith-based leaders, Black influencers and HBCU students. (Click here to find a stop near you)
They are looking for volunteers who want to join their power building team and make a real impact. Sign up for their virtual training “Intro to the Power Building Team” and learn how you can get involved.
#5 — Talk to your friends and family about voting
According to our friends at the ACLU, friend-to-friend contact can increase voter turnout by up to 8 percent and have up to two times more impact than a cold call, text, or door knock.
That’s why they are asking supporters to talk to friends and family to have a big impact this election to ensure more people head to the polls to protect our rights.
Learn more about their “Friends Ask Friends to Vote” initiative, then pledge to vote for your values to receive updates from the ACLU on more ways you can get involved.
Posted on October 6, 2022
Why Race Matters in Redistricting: Protecting Black Power and Preserving Democracy
Note from the CREDO team: This October, the Legal Defense Fund is among three amazing groups that will receive a share of our monthly grant. Funding from the CREDO community will support LDF’s efforts to expand democracy, eliminate disparities, and achieve racial justice, especially during these perilous times.
Please read this crossposted blog post that LDF shared with the CREDO community about their critical work to fight back against racist voter redistricting efforts, 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 October.
The United States Supreme Court will soon consider a major redistricting case that could have significant nationwide implications. In Milligan v. Merrill (now known as Merrill v. Milligan before the Supreme Court), in which LDF is delivering oral arguments, the Court will determine whether Alabama’s new congressional map violates the Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965 by placing Black voters into legislative districts in a way that dilutes their political power. Critically, the case will also determine whether race can be considered at all in redistricting, including as a means to remedy racially discriminatory maps. The decision could have nationwide implications, impacting redistricting in all states at every level of government from Congress down to local school boards.
When taken at face value, a race-blind method of drawing new maps may sound like a fair way to organize electoral districts. However, prohibiting racial considerations in the redistricting process would actually have a devastating impact on Black representation and political power – and undermine longstanding Supreme Court precedent. Indeed, in light of the Court’s consideration of Milligan, it’s critical to understand the important role that race plays in the redistricting process as a means of ensuring equitable representation and political power, as well as to be aware of how removing race from redistricting would undermine our democratic institutions.
Every 10 years, the federal government conducts a census to collect data that reflect demographic changes and trends from the preceding decade. For example, the 2020 census revealed that people of color drove 95% of Texas’s population growth from 2010-20. It also found that the state has three of the five fastest-growing cities in the country. Data like these are crucial when state lawmakers begin drawing new legislative maps, as it is their responsibility under Section 2 of the VRA to ensure that growing communities of color are fairly represented.
Fulfilling that obligation requires states to look at voting patterns along racial lines to ensure that the voices of voters of color are not being sidelined or drowned out because of the way the district lines are drawn. This can happen in states or localities where voters of color tend to have different candidate and policy preferences from white voters, and where they are relegated to an insubstantial minority in most or all districts. In those circumstances, it becomes virtually impossible for communities of color to influence who gets elected or what policies their elected representatives pursue.
However, despite this reality, many state officials have blatantly ignored this responsibility following the 2020 census, disregarding pleas to adhere to the law and related guidance from civil rights advocates, grassroots organizations, and community leaders. And, on top of this, recent Supreme Court decisions have limited or eliminated protections that were previously in place to prevent lawmakers from drawing racially discriminatory maps. The consequences of these actions could be ruinous for Black political power.
For example, the Louisiana voting age population is around 33% Black and 58% white. Yet, in 2021, state officials passed a congressional map where Black Louisianans are the majority in only one of the state’s six districts. At the same time, Louisiana’s stark polarized voting patterns mean that candidates supported by Black voters have never been elected in a district where they are not the majority. Essentially, this means that Black voters are only able to influence the electoral outcome in around 17% of Louisiana’s districts, while white voters determine the outcome in 83% of them – a striking disparity when compared against Black and white demographic representation.
LDF subsequently sued Louisiana on behalf of Black voters and a district court agreed that the state’s map likely violated the VRA, ordering officials to draw a new map that includes an additional majority-minority district. However, in a summary order that gave no reasoning, the Supreme Court halted this corrective process, allowing the 2022 election to go forward under a map that the lower court found to be discriminatory. The fate of this case is now tied to the Milligan decision.
Sometimes officials also try to perpetuate false or misleading claims about the rationale behind their maps (often pointing to a partisan explanation) in order to justify the dilution of Black votes. In South Carolina, for example, LDF recently challenged the state’s new congressional map that packs the majority of Black voters into one district while dividing (or “cracking”) those who remain in such a scattered way that their electoral influence is severely diminished. State officials recently argued that the map is legal by claiming that it represents a partisan gerrymander rather than a racial gerrymander, but the fact remains: legislators disenfranchised Black voters to achieve this, tactically drawing the map to diminish Black political power and access to representatives who can serve their interests.
Justifying the silencing of Black voters with disingenuous claims of partisan advantage is deeply concerning. It also undermines a core tenet of American democracy: to ensure fair and equal representation for all. At its core, redistricting is a civic engagement process. However, as a result of the cynical and discriminatory manipulation of district lines, Black voters are increasingly unable to select candidates who represent them – continuing the legacy of a political process that is stacked against them.
Ultimately, the Supreme Court’s decision in Milligan will either allow Black voters to have a fair shot at electing candidates of their choice or permit state redistricting committees to pretend that race and the legacy of racial discrimination do not exist, undermining one of the key protections of the VRA and eliminating one of the major purposes of the decennial census. In all three states where LDF is currently challenging racially discriminatory maps, the use of race in redistricting is essential to dismantle and remedy the enduring roadblocks to Black self-determination that have remained ever-present since this country’s founding. At a time where voting rights are under attack at seemingly every level, it is imperative that the Supreme Court preserve the very foundation of our democracy.
Posted on October 6, 2022
Americans for Tax Fairness is ensuring corporations and the rich pay their fair share
Note from the CREDO team: This October, Americans for Tax Fairness is among three amazing groups that will receive a share of our monthly grant. Funding from the CREDO community will help Americans for Tax Fairness continue its work fighting for a fairer tax code, from lobbying Congress and holding billionaires accountable, to reaching millions on social media to engaging with activists like you!
Read this important blog post about the organization’s work to fight for tax fairness, then click here to visit CREDODonations.com to cast your vote to help determine how we distribute our monthly grant to ATF and our other amazing grantees this October.
Hopefully and not without struggle, America has entered a new Progressive Era. But none of the things progressives want to do to make society better—improve access to healthcare, lower housing costs, strengthen our schools, narrow economic inequality, protect our democracy, and much more—are possible without first confronting a central problem: rich people and corporations don’t pay enough taxes.
Until very recently, conservative trickle-down economics dominated the vital question of how we raise and spend public money. Beginning with the Reagan tax and budget cuts of the early 1980s and with only a few exceptions over the next four decades, the debate in Washington and in state capitals around the country has centered on how much to cut taxes on the wealthy and corporations, on the long-disproven theory that the economic benefits would eventually filter down to everyone else.
Americans for Tax Fairness was founded in 2012, in part, to change that false narrative. To do that we have undertaken an aggressive effort to focus attention on the need for the wealthy (and the corporations they largely own) to pay their fair share of taxes so we can narrow the nation’s destabilizing income and wage gaps, invest in people and their communities, and create an economy that works for everyone. We have done extensive polling and message testing to show that the public strands with us, not the richest one percent and biggest corporations. 
Though polls prove it is widely popular across the political spectrum, real tax reform that ensures the wealthy and big corporations pay their fair share can be a challenging issue to organize around and to make central to the political debate. Few people enjoy paying taxes, the IRS can seem scary, the subject involves complicated math.
Even among Democratic politicians there is an erroneous but long-standing fear of being punished for raising taxes. That’s why for the past 10 years, Americans for Tax Fairness—a coalition of hundreds of endorsing national and state organizations—has been leading a successful effort to make progressive tax reform comprehensible, meaningful, central to movement activism and politically attractive.
ATF is the strategic hub between all the forces needed to win this debate: think tanks and academics; unions and national advocacy groups; grassroots groups and digital organizers.
ATF’s small but effective staff executes a broad range of activities in pursuit of the organization’s tax-fairness goals. It digests and simplifies tax research to make the sometimes technical issues relevant and even inspiring to the public. ATF produces original policy research, such as its regular reports on the extraordinary wealth growth of billionaires during the pandemic. 
ATF also engages and coordinates the activities of the coalition’s member organizations; spearheads the lobbying of Congress and the executive branch; mobilizes activists through state partners, email and social media; and promotes tax-fairness issues in the news media.
In 2021 alone, ATF appeared 4,500 times in the media, garnering an audience of over 5.3 billion views. ATF research was cited or representatives of the group were quoted in the Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, CBS News, CNN, Politico, and many other prominent national news sources. Our social media team produces a steady stream of content used by online organizers, organizations and elected officials alike.
The 2020 presidential primary was proof that the debate had been transformed within the Democratic Party, in part through ATF’s efforts. Every candidate—even moderate ones like the eventual winner, Joe Biden—offered tax plans that raised at least $4 trillion in fairer taxes on the rich and corporations to invest in health care, child care, education, housing, infrastructure, clean energy and more. Biden ran and won the general election on that platform. Yet the subsequent resistance to Biden’s bold vision by members of his own party that shrunk his program to the still significant but much diminished Inflation Reduction Act shows how much work remains to be done.
As it enters its second decade, Americans for Tax Fairness stands ready to leverage its experience, reputation and the hard work of its dedicated staff and many coalition partners to continue the journey towards true tax fairness.
Posted on October 6, 2022
Indigenous women defending the Amazon
Note from the CREDO Team: Our grantees at Amazon Watch wanted to make sure you read this important blog post about their work empowering Indigenous women who are defending the Amazon. Thanks to CREDO members, who have helped us donate $175,840 to the organization, they can continue this critical work.
“During the pandemic, many of us almost died, but we didn’t — because we supported each other, because we prepared our medicines from the forest. The forest contains all that we need, our food and our medicines. That is why we take care of the forest and say no to extraction, no to mining, no to logging. That is why we are here as Mujeres Amazónicas. We are not here to negotiate. We are here to unite as women defending the forest.”
– Zoila Castillo, Kichwa woman defender, at the inauguration of Casa de Mujeres Amazónicas
Indigenous women are pushing back at the systems that are threatening their rights and lives across the Amazon Basin.
The Amazon Rainforest is a crucially important ecosystem, one whose impact extends far beyond its borders. It stabilizes the global climate and contains one-third of all terrestrial species on Earth and a large percentage of the world’s flowing fresh water. The Amazon is also home to and stewarded by 511 Indigenous peoples, including 66 groups living in voluntary isolation.
Indigenous women are on the front lines of defending land, water, and life from the multiple crises facing the Amazon biome. In some of the most dangerous regions in the world to be an earth defender, Amazonian women also face gendered violence while defending their territories from extraction and destruction. Deforestation, resource extraction, land grabs, and destructive development projects have pushed the ecosystem to its tipping point.
Averting the tipping point is essential for the rainforest and for the world’s global climate. Now, Indigenous women are bringing global attention to violence against the earth and her defenders, resisting extractive industries, and building a pan-Amazon women-led movement to permanently protect the rainforest and our climate.
Essential to Indigenous women’s self-determination and futures are the following: land back; women’s land ownership; and sacred Indigenous-only spaces for healing, retreat, convenings, and trainings, as well as regenerative agriculture, forest medicine, and a healthier present and future for Indigenous women.
In solidarity with Indigenous women, Amazon Watch and long-time supporter and environmental advocate Lynn Thorenson, in honor and memory of her son Dru, and empowered by donors like CREDO, are supporting the safety, security, and wellbeing of Indigenous women earth defenders. One of the women defenders’ initiatives they will support is the purchase of a house and land for Casa de Mujeres Amazónicas. This vision advances a decolonized space to gather, mobilize, heal, and practice traditional knowledge and medicine, and it can serve as a model for communities throughout the Amazon Basin.
“Extractive violence against the land and violence against Indigenous women go hand and hand. We believe that healing women is also healing the earth.”
– Nina Gualinga, Kichwa women defender and Women Defenders Program Coordinator at Amazon Watch
At a moment where gender-based violence against Indigenous women and girls is increasing, public health support for Indigenous peoples has been absent during the COVID-19 pandemic, and oil spills and floods continue to harm Amazonian communities, supporting frontline Indigenous women earth defenders is a critical act of solidarity and a call of hope for the future we know is possible.
We can still avert the tipping point if we take decisive and immediate action to see Indigenous solutions across the finish line. In solidarity with Indigenous, forest, and traditional peoples, Amazon Watch is working towards the permanent protection of 80% of the Amazon by 2025 via the defense and demarcation of Indigenous territories. We must keep standing forests standing. Supporting Indigenous women’s leadership, healing, and visions is critical to doing so.
“Women are the sacred seeds of existence. We are the resistance! We can no longer accept the disrespect, death, and destruction promoted by the patriarchy and by the governments of the world. We resist violence to protect our lives, rights, and territories. We want our territories demarcated now! That is our constitutional right!”
– Sônia Guajajara, Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil
CREDO’s support uplifts the leadership, knowledge, and solutions of women defenders and Indigenous peoples throughout the Amazon Basin. Thank you for being part of the movement for the rainforest and our collective future!
Posted on October 6, 2022
How CREDO members helped JHU Center for Gun Violence Solutions curb gun violence
Note from the CREDO Team: In March 2022, CREDO members voted to donate $22,700 to help fund the critical work of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions, formerly known as the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence. To date, you’ve helped us donate $101,357 to the organization to help curb gun violence. Here’s a quick update on how CREDO members have helped further their important work.
Gun violence can often feel like an intractable problem in the United States. Mass shootings are taking place nearly every day. Some lawmakers respond to record gun deaths with laws that put more guns on our streets. Supreme Court justices overturn existing gun violence protections.
But even in a year with so much bloodshed and tragedy, the gun violence prevention movement — with the help of contributions from organizations like CREDO — has made significant progress, and laid the groundwork for more successes in the near future.
In the wake of mass shootings in Buffalo, New York and Uvalde, Texas, the Center for Gun Violence Solutions at Johns Hopkins’ Bloomberg School of Public Health worked alongside state partners to pass vital and strategic gun violence prevention laws in New York and Delaware within weeks of those deadly incidents.
In Delaware, funding from CREDO helped sustain around-the-clock pressure on lawmakers to pass an assault weapons ban, impose limits on high-capacity magazines, strengthen background check laws, raise the purchasing age on firearms to 21, and more. In New York, a state that already has some of the strictest gun laws in the country, lawmakers recognized they could do even more, by making it easier for health care providers to seek Extreme Risk Protection Orders which provide a means to remove firearms for those individuals who pose a safety risk to themselves or others, and allowing for the microstamping of bullet cartridges to better identify guns that are used to commit crimes.
The bold, swift action by lawmakers in two states demonstrates the progress that can be made with the right combination of political will and a constant, well-funded pressure campaign. It’s a model that can and should be replicated in statehouses around the country.
But victories this year are not limited to state legislatures. Even as the Supreme Court rolled back gun violence prevention measures by hobbling permit laws, Congress mustered enough support for the bipartisan Safer Communities Act, a package of gun laws that — while short of what the Center and others called for — included critically important provisions that will unquestionably save lives.
Incomplete as the package may be, it nevertheless represents the most significant piece of federal gun violence prevention legislation in nearly three decades.
Among the components of the bill are $750 million to fund crisis intervention programs, including extreme risk protection order implementation, $250 million to fund violence interruption programs in communities around the country; strengthening federal background check laws for purchasers aged 18-21; and closing the so-called “gun show loophole” by requiring more private sellers to register as firearm dealers and thus subject them to background check requirements.
And while funding from CREDO helped the Center drive many of these victories at the state and federal levels, the impact of additional resources is perhaps felt most acutely within individual communities. The allocation of funding for violence interruption programming has the potential to make an immediate and profound impact on neighborhoods where gun violence is most prevalent and devastating. Ensuring that state and federal allocations are made in consultation with community organizers and impacted individuals — those who stand on the front lines of our gun violence epidemic — will be a vital next step to ensure this new legislation realizes its full potential.
In the months since CREDO’s investment in the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence, much has changed for the better in how we work. We merged with the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Prevention and Policy to form the new Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. By combining the efforts of our two teams, we created a dynamic and innovative new organization that can better focus on the serious public health implications of gun violence. For example, the new organization has renewed capacity to expand and fine-tune the technical assistance that it provides to the Safer States Initiative network around the country, helping them respond to the ever-changing landscape of gun violence in their communities. Thanks in part to the additional resources provided by CREDO, we are better able to tailor our technical assistance to state organizations and help them meet the specific needs of their regions.
There is far too often a feeling of helplessness looming over the work that gun violence prevention advocates are doing. But as the past year has demonstrated, the concerted effort by activists, lawmakers, and organizations committed to curbing gun violence can make a difference.
Posted on October 4, 2022
From the Frontlines of the Leuser Ecosystem to the Corporate Boardrooms: Rainforest Action Network’s Unique Approach
Note from the CREDO team: This October, Rainforest Action Network (RAN) is among three amazing groups that will receive a share of our monthly grant. Funding from the CREDO community will help RAN exert public and inside pressure on corporations, banks and other institutions to stop environmentally destructive practices.
Read this important blog post from RAN’s Senior Communications Strategist Laurel Sutherlin, 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 October.
At Rainforest Action Network (RAN), we specialize in following the money between rainforest destruction and human rights abuses and the huge global corporations that are ultimately driving them. In Indonesia’s extraordinary Leuser Ecosystem, the last place on earth where the critically endangered Sumatran tiger, orangutan, rhino, and elephant still roam together in the same habitat, we have spent years connecting the dots from illegal Conflict Palm Oil plantations deep in the Sumatran jungle through to the household name brands that are putting that palm oil into products filling the shelves in grocery stores around the world.
At the end of September 2022, RAN released a report that conclusively establishes that deforestation linked to major consumer goods companies is on the rise, not falling, in the nationally protected Rawa Singkil Wildlife Reserve in Indonesia’s globally important Leuser Ecosystem. This new investigative report, Carbon Bombs Scandal: Big Brands Driving Climate Disaster for Palm Oil, reveals that public commitments by major global brands are failing to stop illegally produced palm oil from entering global supply chains.
Using evidence obtained through field investigations, satellite imagery analysis, and supply chain research, RAN’s investigation proves that palm oil produced in this protected nature reserve, in violation of corporate deforestation-free commitments, continues to make its way into the products sold by Procter & Gamble, Mondelēz, Nestlé, Unilever, PepsiCo, Colgate-Palmolive, Ferrero, and Nissin Foods.
For decades now, the destruction of Indonesia’s peatlands has been a globally significant driver of carbon pollution into the atmosphere. In the lead-up to the Paris COP21 climate summit in 2015, fires from peatlands being cleared for palm oil production in the country were recorded to be spewing more carbon into the sky than the entire emissions of the United States combined. Since then, the multinational brands responsible for this climate catastrophe have issued new “Forest Positive” pledges and collective plans to end deforestation and address their role in driving climate change through their consumption of palm oil.
‘Forest Positive’ pledges are not being fulfilled on the frontlines of palm oil expansion in Indonesia as these big brands have failed to break their ties to illegal palm oil grown at the expense of carbon-rich peatlands inside the Rawa Singkil Wildlife Reserve since a similar scandal exposed by RAN in 2019.
RAN is calling on the ten brands exposed in its report to immediately take action to invest in lasting solutions that protect the Singkil-Bengkung region from further destruction and end sourcing from rogue palm oil suppliers until transparent and verifiable monitoring, traceability and No Deforestation, No Peatland and No Exploitation (NDPE) compliance systems are in place.
RAN is working closely with our allies to turn up the heat on Procter and Gamble (P&G) to finally pressure the company to do the right thing and cut Conflict Palm Oil from its supply chain. Since last year, RAN has collaborated with a coalition of local activists to put regular pressure on P&G at their headquarters in Cincinnati, OH through protest, art, and community building. We are continuing to push the company with public pressure tactics, which also include flooding P&G’s executive leadership with tens of thousands of emails, postcards, and petitions from our supporters.
Our work would not be complete without also incorporating the demands of our partners on the ground in Indonesia. RAN remains committed to humanizing the impacts of deforestation and elevating the voices and stories of the frontline communities. We take leadership from Indigenous and frontline communities, support rigorous investigations on the ground and bring this evidence to the company decision makers through the media, well-researched reports, and directly to their boardroom. This completes our distinctive “inside-outside” approach.
We invite you to be a part of our network and take action against P&G at our REVEL Virtual Rally on October 20th at 5 pm PT / 8 pm ET. Here we will share some updates on the exciting work with our Indonesian partners in the Leuser Ecosystem. You’ll see behind-the-scenes footage from our direct actions against P&G in addition to some of our other corporate targets. To conclude, we’ll act together to escalate the pressure on P&G and remind them that we will not back down until our collective demands are met. We hope you join us!
Posted on October 1, 2022
Our September 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 working for civil rights, gun violence prevention and abortion rights. In September, CREDO members voted to distribute our monthly donation among Facing History and Ourselves, March for Our Lives and National Abortion Hotline.
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 September grant recipients thank you.
Facing History and Ourselves
“Thank you! Your vote helps teachers like me create classrooms where inclusion, reflection, and participation are valued; where students grapple with moral dilemmas, develop their convictions, and gain agency to stand up for what they believe.” – Stephanie Papas, Facing History teacher in California for over 20 years
To learn more, visit www.facinghistory.org.
March for Our Lives
“Thank you for supporting MFOL’s youth leaders on the frontlines of the fight to end gun violence. This support from CREDO members couldn’t come at a more critical moment, as gun violence has become the leading cause of death for America’s young people.” – Natalie Fall, Director of Development, March for Our Lives
To learn more, visit www.marchforourlives.com.
National Abortion Hotline
“Thank you so much for supporting the National Abortion Hotline. We are so appreciative of your generosity during this critical time. Your support will provide direct financial assistance to help people obtain the abortion care they need.” – Melissa Fowler, Chief Program Officer, National Abortion Hotline
To learn more, visit www.prochoice.org/patients/naf-hotline.
Now check out the three groups we are funding in October, 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.
