Posted on June 8, 2022
The Economic Policy Institute: A Voice for Working People
The economy does not work for the majority of people in this country. The traditional American dream of having a stable job with decent pay, a comfortable home, quality health care, a secure retirement, and being able to pay for your children’s college is out of reach for millions of workers. The U.S. has gotten wealthier and wealthier but the standard of living for the vast majority has not kept pace. This is no accident; it is the result of 40 years of policies that favor the wealthy and corporate interests.
The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) was founded in 1986 to be an effective voice for workers and their families. EPI’s founders saw a real need for a research institute to advocate for economic justice for working people and ensure that the bread-and-butter issues affecting workers and their families were not left out of the public policy debate. EPI focuses its attention on fighting for economic justice for working people and for racial and gender justice at the federal, state, and local levels.
EPI plays a vital role in the progressive movement by providing economic research, analysis, and policy prescriptions that progressive policymakers and advocates for social and economic justice rely on to shape policy debates. We collaborate with our allies in government, the media, unions, and grassroots advocacy groups to make a strong research-backed case for the interests of working people and their families.
On the federal level EPI’s crucial research and analyses have been instrumental in promoting:
- A strong minimum wage. EPI has fought to raise the federal minimum wage so that every worker earns a decent wage and no one who works full time has to live in poverty;
- Collective bargaining rights. EPI supports the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act and other measures to safeguard the rights of workers to form a union and collectively bargain for decent pay and benefits;
- Dignified and safe working conditions. During the COVID-19 pandemic EPI consistently shined a light on the plight of workers in health, service, or production who were often forced to work in unsafe conditions, without proper protective gear, and denied hazard pay. EPI has also strongly supported paid sick family leave for workers; and
- The right response to inflation. There is an enormous amount of misinformation about inflation right now, and EPI has been tireless in providing rigorous, data driven pushback to the most damaging myths, such as the myth that inflation is primarily being driven by federal relief and recovery measures.
EPI also works to build worker power on the state and local levels. EPI founded our Economic Research and Analysis Network (EARN) more than twenty years ago as a national network of state think tanks and policy advocacy organizations that are focused on economic policy issues affecting workers in their states and localities. Fifty-five state groups in forty-three states and the District of Columbia comprise the network. EARN gives EPI a grassroots focus by addressing the different ways that economic issues impact people in different regions and localities across the country. EPI’s EARN team has provided data and policy guidance to our EARN partners in over one hundred state minimum wage campaigns with more than thirty victories in the last five years alone.
EPI’s Program on Race, Ethnicity, and the Economy (PREE) addresses the intersection of race and the economy. PREE’s frequently cited research, policy analysis, and thought leadership shine a light on the large racial and ethnic disparities in unemployment, wages, income, poverty, hours of work, and wealth, which have persisted over generations and are rooted in structural racism and policy choices. This work also looks at the intersection of race and gender, examining how women overall and women of color in particular fare in the economy, with a specific focus on wage disparities.
EPI’s research is widely respected and is recognized as highly credible. Journalists turn to EPI to give them the true facts on the economy. We are consistently cited in national media outlets such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal. EPI experts and research are also featured on MSNBC, C-SPAN and NPR. In a typical year, EPI is cited in the media more than 20,000 times and our staff are seen or heard by millions on television and radio.
Corporate elites have well-funded think tanks which advocate for policies that benefit the one percent. We have seen the devastating results of those policies for decades. EPI makes a compelling case for policies that help working people, reduce inequality, and eliminate the effects of racial and gender discrimination.
Your vote for EPI is a vote to realize the vision of an economy that works for everyone and leaves no one behind. Click here to cast your vote today.
Posted on June 3, 2022
Vote for Economic Policy Institute, Transgender Law Center and Win Without War this June
Every month, CREDO members vote to distribute our monthly grant to three incredible progressive causes – and every vote makes a difference. This June, you can support economic justice, LGBTQ rights and peace by voting to fund Economic Policy Institute, Transgender Law Center and Win Without War.
Economic Policy Institute
The Economic Policy Institute believes every worker deserves a quality job with fair pay, good benefits, and a voice at work. EPI’s research and advancement of pro-worker policies fuels the movement for economic justice and for racial and gender justice at the federal and state level.
EPI will use the grant from CREDO to support its research, data analysis, and policy work to fight for and advance economic justice for working people and racial and gender justice at the federal, state, and local level.
Transgender Law Center
TLC is the largest national trans-led organization advocating for a world in which all people are free to define themselves and their futures. Grounded in legal expertise and committed to racial justice, TLC employs community-driven strategies to keep transgender and gender nonconforming people alive, thriving, and fighting for our rights.
Your donations will help TLC promote its visionary national Trans Agenda for Liberation; develop movement leaders and build power for change; and create and advance the legal and policy frameworks that respect and support transgender equality.
Win Without War
We can create lasting change that will allow the world to thrive. Win Without War is at the forefront of a national movement to build a more progressive and just U.S. foreign policy that values people and the planet over war and profit.
It’s a critical year for U.S. foreign policy. Funding from CREDO members will help Win Without War push back on the war hawks and weapons contractors and grow our power to ensure true safety and security — for everyone, everywhere.
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 June 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 June 2, 2022
We Can Build the World We Want with a More Peaceful U.S. Foreign Policy
Note from the CREDO team: This June, Win Without War is among three amazing groups that will receive a share of our monthly grant. Funding from the CREDO community will help Win Without War build a more progressive and just U.S. foreign policy that values people and the planet over war and profit.
Read this important blog post from Annika London, Senior Digital Associate, Win Without War below, 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 June.
At this point, it is clear that current U.S. foreign policy is not only astoundingly inadequate in addressing the real security threats we face — pandemics, climate change, social inequality and more — but also certainly causes and exacerbates these threats as well.
Over and over, the U.S. government has prioritized the Pentagon’s bloated budget and weapons contractors’ profits over the needs of communities at home and abroad. It has centered violence and war profiteering over building true security and honoring human rights, especially for people most impacted by U.S. actions abroad who live in fear of drone strikes in Iraq, Syria, and Somalia, or see their chance at a decent quality of life chipped away by blanket sanctions in Iran, Cuba, and Venezuela.
But that’s where a group like Win Without War comes in. For almost two decades, our team has worked to democratize U.S. foreign policy and provide progressive alternatives, so that we can achieve more peaceful, just, and common sense policies that ensure that all people can find and take advantage of opportunity equally and feel secure.
The end of the Trump administration was an opportunity to double down on our commitment to this mission, but the reality is that our work is critical no matter who is in the White House. This year, we’ve organized to prevent direct U.S./Russia military confrontation resulting from war in Ukraine while protecting communities at risk, including LGBTQ+ people and, African and Middle Eastern diasporas. We also continue to work to avoid war with Iran and support a return to diplomacy with Iran, by defending the Iran nuclear deal in Congress and pushing back against Trump’s failed “maximum pressure” sanctions strategy that has resulted in the unnecessary suffering of millions of Iranians.
Looking ahead, we will continue to push back on the misguided notion touted by weapons manufacturers and the gun lobby that a near-trillion dollar budget for weapons and war along with weak checks around human rights and safety will ultimately make people in the United States or across the globe safer. And we will not stop challenging the hypocrisy of U.S. policy as it picks and chooses which human rights it will value and which human lives are deserving of dignity and security solely based on whether it can turn a profit or gain more power from such actions.
Transforming U.S. foreign policy is a monumental task, but it is how we will finally end our endless wars, get accountability and justice for those impacted by U.S. militarism and violence, and truly achieve peace and security. This is a mission that takes more than one person, organization, or even generation — we look forward to making this transformation happen alongside a collective of other organizations, activists, and community leaders, and we hope you’ll join us too!
Please don’t forget to vote on this month’s CREDO grantees, and learn more about our work and take action with us at www.winwithoutwar.org.
Posted on June 1, 2022
Our May grantees thank you for your support
Our May 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 climate justice, civil rights and LGBTQ rights. In May, CREDO members voted to distribute our monthly donation to 350.org, Center for Constitutional Rights and National LGBTQ Task Force. 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 May grant recipients thank you.
350.org
“Thank you CREDO Members! While our vision is ambitious, with your support we can achieve it. Your efforts will help to build a powerful climate movement and engage the generations that will lead us tomorrow toward a better future.” – May Boeve, Executive Director, 350.org
To learn more, visit www.350.org.
Center for Constitutional Rights
“Thank you for standing with the Center for Constitutional Rights! Every vote from CREDO members like you amplifies our ability to challenge oppressive systems of power and strengthen progressive social movements striving for justice and liberation.” – Vince Warren, Executive Director, Center for Constitutional Rights
To learn more, visit ccrjustice.org.
National LGBTQ Task Force
“Thank you for supporting our work! The Task Force has been at it for almost 50 years and we won’t stop until we are all free. We are organizing for our rights, demanding that our full humanity is honored and affirmed, and fighting for our democracy.” – Kierra Johnson, Executive Director, National LGBTQ Task Force
To learn more, visit https://www.thetaskforce.org/.
Now check out the three groups we are funding in June, and cast your vote to help distribute our donations.
CREDO members who use our products are the reason why we are able to make these donations each month. Learn more about CREDO Mobile, the carrier with a conscience.
Posted on May 31, 2022
At CREDO, Pride Month is every month
You see it every June: corporations rainbow-stripe their logos for a month-long marketing campaign targeting the LGBTQ community — in an effort to co-opt a movement, gesture support and make profits.
Here at CREDO, we don’t change our logo — because we don’t need to.
Our brand has embodied equality and LGBTQ rights since our founding more than 35 years ago, all year-round, long before companies saw Pride as a once-a-year party they could crash.
In fact, since 1985, our members have helped us donate $15 million to progressive organizations fighting for equality and civil rights — groups like the National LGBTQ Task Force, the ACLU, Freedom For All Americans and the Transgender Law Center, who are on our donations ballot this month.
With unprecedented, discriminatory attacks on LGTBQ people sweeping state legislatures across the country, it’s more important than ever that companies embrace and fight for LGBTQ rights forcefully and authentically.
If they truly support LGBTQ rights, corporations should ditch the fake logos, press releases, marketing campaigns — and donations to anti-LGBTQ politicians — and take time to understand that Pride Month was founded on resistance — the kind of resistance and allyship the LGBTQ community desperately needs from all corners of our country, including from corporate America — all year long, not just in June.
If you’d like to vote for the Transgender Law Center and our other amazing grantees this month, please visit CREDODonations.com and take a minute to cast your ballot!
Posted on May 19, 2022
How to add your personal pronouns to your next Zoom call
Many of us here at CREDO include our preferred pronouns on our social media profiles and email signatures as a sign of respect and to ensure we refer to each other correctly.
But did you know you can include your pronouns on Zoom calls, too?
Including your pronouns on your video calls is not only an easy way to prevent others from misgendering you, but it also lets others know that you don’t want to misgender them, while creating a more welcoming space for your colleagues and friends who are trans, nonbinary or gender-nonconforming.
In this week’s tip, we’ll show you a few quick steps on how you can include your preferred pronouns on your Zoom calls.
There are two ways to add your pronouns to Zoom — either permanently, so they appear every time you enter a call; or just during certain meetings that you choose.
Before you start, make sure you are running the most recent version of Zoom on your computer or device (here’s how to upgrade).
Adding your pronouns permanently to your Zoom account
- Sign into the Zoom web portal.
- In the navigation, click Profile, then choose Edit.
- In the Pronouns field, add your pronouns.
- In the dropdown field directly below, choose how you would like to share your pronouns:
- Always share in meetings and webinars
- Ask me every time after joining meetings and webinar
- Do not share in meetings and webinars
- Click Save.
Add your pronouns on Zoom during a specific meeting
- Enter your meeting and click Participants.
- Hover over your name and click More >> Rename
- Your name will then appear in a popup box. You can add your pronouns after your name in parentheses — for example, Jane Doe (they/them)
Posted on May 17, 2022
Five things 350.org learned from the IPCC climate impacts report
This latest climate impacts report from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is important. This is potentially the last report on impacts we’re going to get while we have the chance to avoid the worst impacts of global heating.
And the report is bad, but it also offers a way forward and shows us what we need to do. This is the decade that we can and need to change things.
Here are 350’s five takeaways from the report and ways you can fight for a safe and livable future.
1. Impacts are already here
Some of the climate impacts the fossil fuel industry has inflicted upon us are here to stay. Some of these aren’t reversible – at least not in a timeframe that’s meaningful for people and life on earth.
The level of warming we’re at is already having dire impacts on people across the world: half of the entire population of the planet faces water scarcity for an entire month every year. Droughts, fires, floods and diseases are already happening more often, and they are more severe.
2. 1.5°c of warming would have deadly, irreversible consequences
The more we go over 1.5°c, and the longer we stay there, the more we will end up in a vicious cycle of climate impacts. Existing impacts will be made worse, happen faster and release even more greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere, which will lead to even more, and likely permanent, impacts.
Every fraction of warming means more suffering for most life on our planet. More fossil fuels and more emissions will mean that impacts will be harder to manage.
The report is clear, every fraction of a degree of warming we can stop is worth fighting for
3. Adaptation is necessary, but there is a limit to what it can do
Around three and half billion people, 40% of the world’s population, live in places extremely vulnerable to the risks of the climate crisis. In these places, the impacts of global heating could destroy the fragile ecosystems that support human life, as well as many other species.
We might be able to adapt to some of these impacts. But not all of them, and not all of us.
Where adaptation is even possible, countries on the frontline need resources. And many are faced with the prospect of not being able to fund a fair transition to clean, renewable energy because they are spending their money dealing with climate impacts caused by countries that produce the most fossil fuels.
We have to make sure the cost of damages caused by fossil fuel companies, and fossil fuel producing countries, are met by those who caused those damages in the first place.

4. There is still time to act – that action must start with ending the era of fossil fuels
“The world’s biggest polluters are guilty of arson in our only home.” That is a direct quote from the UN Secretary General launching the IPCC climate impacts report.
We’ve known that all along – fossil fuel companies are responsible. And the clearest way to take action to secure a safe and livable planet is to stop our dependency on them and fairly transition to renewable energy.
195 countries signed off the report. This means 195 governments acknowledge that we need to act now. If they’re not doing what it takes, we can make them with people power – just like we have before.
Our movement stopped a huge, open-pit coal mine from going ahead in Brazil. We pressured the French Government into pulling funding from a gas pipeline in the Arctic. Activists in our movement stopped the Keystone XL pipeline in North America. New coal plants are becoming harder and harder to build.
Every battle won is another step towards a safe, livable planet. And they’re worth fighting because every fraction of a degree matters.
Every fraction of a degree we prevent could save or improve the lives of thousands, maybe even millions of people.

5. Every voice can make a difference.
UN Secretary General António Guterres said this, exactly – “Every voice can make a difference.”
Your voice matters. And to keep winning, we need to build this movement.
One of the most powerful things you can do in the fight for a safe and livable future is to have a voice – simply talking to your friends and loved ones can have a huge impact. Every conversation could inspire another person to join our fight against the fossil fuel industry. And the more of us who join the fight, the more powerful we become.
Want to learn more about how to have these conversations with friends and loved ones? Check out our handy resource here.
Posted on May 17, 2022
Thanks to CREDO members, Rainforest Foundation is tackling biodiversity loss, climate change, and human rights violations
Our grantee partners at Rainforest Foundation US support indigenous peoples of the world’s rainforests in their efforts to protect their environment and fulfill their rights. Global tropical forests are absolutely vital to combating the worst impacts of the climate crisis.
In June 2021, CREDO members voted to distribute $53,250 to help Rainforest Foundation US ensure that tropical forests can keep capturing and storing carbon, while also producing fresh air and clean water for generations to come.
Here are a few of the organization’s accomplishments, thanks to CREDO’s financial support:
Rainforest Foundation US accomplishments
In partnership with the Amerindian People’s Association (APA), Rainforest Foundation US published an evidence-based report on indigenous peoples’ land tenure in Guyana. As a culmination of eight years of participatory research, the report identifies key threats to indigenous people’s territories. The report will be key in the battle for greater territorial recognition, as well as the battle against illegal land-grabbing. By documenting the historic occupation and sacred significance of these landscapes, we are helping build a case for continued and expanded territorial recognition.
The organization also expanded Rainforest Alert, a technology-based forest patrol program to 21 new communities in 2021. That’s 573.6 square miles protected, and 63 new community-based forest patrollers trained.
New initiatives by Rainforest Foundation US
Together with the Mesoamerican Alliance of Peoples and Forests, Rainforest Foundation US launched a new project to bolster sovereignty of local indigenous peoples’ organizations in Central America. The project will help AMPB register as a legal entity, allowing it to better support threatened national indigenous leaders — a problem that pervades the indigenous peoples’ rights movement in the region. It will also provide support to channel finance to territories, enhance women’s coordination, and strengthen capacities for territorial governance.
From October 8-12 2021, nearly 200 women representing indigenous peoples across the Amazon Basin gathered in Cundinamarca, Colombia for the first-ever Indigenous Amazonian Women’s Summit. Indigenous Amazonian women play a critical role as caretakers, territory-defenders, guardians of knowledge, activists, scholars and seed-keepers of the forest, critically contributing to the greater battle against climate change. Hosted by the National Organization of Indigenous Peoples of the Colombian Amazon and Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin, the summit featured workshops, panels and traditional rituals focused on advancing women’s livelihoods, rights, community resilience and pandemic mitigation. This historic summit laid the groundwork for future gatherings for Amazonian women to strategically align and coordinate as they continue their work defending the future of the Amazon.
If you’d like to learn more or get involved with Rainforest Foundation US’s important work, please visit their website, or follow them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Posted on May 5, 2022
CREDO will always fight for reproductive rights. AT&T funds anti-abortion politicians.
When we heard the stunning news this week that the Supreme Court is poised to overturn Roe v. Wade and block abortion access for millions, we were collectively devastated and our hearts sank.
Yet, this news also reaffirmed our efforts, as an ethical and progressive company, to fight even harder for reproductive justice and to hold other companies accountable for funding anti-abortion efforts.
Recent investigative reporting by Popular Information found that six major corporations — including AT&T, a notorious donor to conservative causes — are financing an assault on reproductive rights, donating thousands of dollars in multiple states to politicians who support abortion bans.
In their reporting for Popular Information, Judd Legum, Tesnim Zekeria and Rebecca Crosby dug into the political giving of major corporations to politicians in several states who support abortion bans and harsh restrictions on reproductive freedom.
They found that six major corporations — CVS, Merck, Comcast, United Health, Anheuser-Busch, and yes, AT&T — collectively donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to anti-abortion politicians in states like Texas, Idaho and Oklahoma where some of the most restrictive abortion bills have been introduced.
As Popular Information points out, AT&T executives have, in the recent past, gone out of their way to praise their alleged women-centered policies, boasting that the company’s core values include “gender equity and the empowerment of women” and that AT&T would “continue to be an ally by advocating for and honoring women.”
Yet, their analysis paints a starkly different picture of AT&T’s allyship of women — to the tune of almost $350,000 donated to anti-abortion politicians:
Since 2020, AT&T has given a total of $40,100 to 33 co-sponsors of 15-week abortion bans in Florida and Arizona; and 10 co-sponsors of 6-week abortion bans in Tennessee, Oklahoma, and Idaho.
AT&T also donated more than $300,000 to the co-sponsors of Texas’ abortion ban.
We’re not at all surprised that AT&T makes this list. As we’ve detailed time and time again, AT&T has funded right-wing causes and politicians for years.
Unlike AT&T, we will never compromise women’s rights, reproductive justice or our progressive values for profit. In fact, our philanthropy, which is powered by our members who use our products and services every day, funds the causes that align with our values — including groups like Fair Fight Action, Rainforest Action Network, Amnesty International and Color of Change.
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.