Posted on December 1, 2021
Vote for Carbon 180, NARAL Pro-Choice America and Vote.org this December
Every month, CREDO members vote to distribute our monthly donation to three incredible progressive causes – and every vote makes a difference. This December, you can support climate justice, reproductive rights, voting rights by voting to fund Carbon180, NARAL Pro-Choice America and Vote.org.
Carbon180
Carbon180 is on a mission to fundamentally rethink carbon. We work alongside lawmakers to design policies that remove carbon from the atmosphere and offer co-benefits to communities on the frontlines of climate change.
CREDO funding will go directly to realizing full-scale carbon removal, an absolute must for avoiding the worst impacts of climate change.
NARAL Pro-Choice America
NARAL Pro-Choice America and its 2.5 million members fight for reproductive freedom at the federal and state levels—including access to abortion care, birth control, paid family leave, and protections from pregnancy discrimination—for every body.
This is a defining moment for reproductive freedom. CREDO’s support will allow us to empower our members to use their voices, to protect and expand abortion access at the state and federal level, and to mobilize to elect reproductive freedom champions.
Vote.org
Vote.org is the largest nonprofit, nonpartisan voting registration and get out the vote technology platform in America, registering over 6.6 million voters and helping users keep track of deadlines, polling locations and other essential voting info.
Funding from CREDO members will help us contact historically excluded voters across the country, providing them with the information, tools, and support they need to overcome systemic hurdles and participate in the 2022 midterm elections.
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 December 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 CREDO Energy and join our movement.
Posted on November 29, 2021
CREDO 2021 Grantee Holiday Gift Guide
Are you still searching for the perfect gift for someone in your life? You’re in luck!
We’re pleased to present our 2021 Holiday Gift Guide, featuring gifts by some of our recent grantees. Not only will you find a great and affordable gift, you’ll help support the causes you care about, like voting rights, reproductive freedom, civil rights and climate justice.
So without further ado, check out this year’s holiday gift guide and find a special gift this holiday season.
Vote.org — “Vote From Home” Socks
Our partners at Vote.org work to simplify political engagement, increase voter turnout, and strengthen American democracy with the goal of reaching historically underserved voters of color and underrepresented young voters. In 2020, that meant helping over 3.4 million voters request mail ballots so they could safely vote from home.
Help them spread the word with these cozy made-in-the-USA Vote From Home socks, then head to Vote.org to request your mail ballot for your next election.
Amnesty International — 60 Years T-Shirt
Amnesty International was founded in 1961 on the idea that together people can change the world. Today, Amnesty is a worldwide movement for human rights, calling on the collective power of our members, each one committed to fighting for justice, equality, and freedom everywhere.
Join Amnesty in celebrating its 60th anniversary this year with our limited-run collection of merchandise, like this 60th Anniversary T-Shirt and check out more great merch at https://shop.amnestyusa.org/
Fight for the Future – Digital Rights Sticker Packs
Help someone in your life show their support for digital rights on their laptop and more while supporting an organization that is leading the fight.
Go to Fight for the Future’s store to find their full collection of stickers and other merch including hoodies, beanies, posters and more. The stickers are printed on durable, high opacity adhesive vinyl which makes them perfect for regular use, as well as for covering other stickers or paint. The high-quality vinyl ensures there are no bubbles when applying the stickers. These stickers make a great gift for the tech policy nerd in your life.
NARAL Pro-Choice America — NARAL Beanie
NARAL Pro-Choice America and its 2.5 million members fight for reproductive freedom for every body. Each day, they organize and mobilize to protect that freedom by fighting for access to abortion care, birth control, paid parental leave, and protections from pregnancy discrimination. Its member-driven campaigns have propelled political and cultural change, from statehouses to the White House. And since 1990, CREDO voters have shown up for NARAL’s work, helping send $700,000 in support. This December, NARAL is thrilled to again be featured by CREDO.
At the NARAL Pro-Choice America store, you can pick up all sorts of merch for the movement, including a NARAL Beanie. This super soft, stretchy beanie fits most heads and sends everyone you meet a message they can’t ignore: it’s time to expand abortion access. You can also pick up bags, stickers, face masks, and even fanny packs to show your support for reproductive freedom.
National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum — AAPI T-Shirt
There’s a misconception that Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) are a ‘sleeping political giant.’ But AAPI women are awake, aware, and activated.
By purchasing this t-shirt, you can support AAPI women nationwide in NAPAWF’s fight for a more just world. Together, we can be a force for change.
Slow Food USA — Swag Kit
Slow Food is a global network of local communities that believes in uniting the joy of food with the pursuit of justice. The organization is committed to transforming the world to guarantee good, clean and fair food for all.
This holiday season, consider bidding on a Slow Food USA Swag Kit including t-shirt, tote bag, bamboo utensil kit, and snail pin — or another item in their auction catalog.
Posted on November 24, 2021
We’re donating 250,000 meals this Thanksgiving, thanks to CREDO members
While many of us have much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving, many families will find themselves at a food bank in search of a holiday meal. Last year alone, the number of people facing hunger rose to 38 million, including nearly 12 million children.
That’s why we’re donating 250,000 meals through our partnership with Feeding America as our very small way of giving back this Thanksgiving.
This donation is made possible by our loyal customers who use CREDO Mobile products and services every day — at no additional cost to them — and goes above and beyond our regular monthly giving to the causes we all care about.
We simply can’t thank you enough for helping to make this donation possible. From our CREDO family to yours, have a safe and happy Thanksgiving holiday.
-The whole team at CREDO Mobile
Posted on November 15, 2021
How to quickly make an emergency call with your smartphone
You hope you never have to do it, but someday you might: Making a call to your local emergency services.
We all know about dialing 9-1-1 directly, yet there are a couple ways to make it even faster and more convenient right from your home or locked screen, which can be especially helpful in an emergency situation.
In this tip, we’ll show you how to be prepared today if you ever need to call emergency services in the future.
In case of an emergency, your smartphone is the best tool to call for help — and with some preparation now, you’ll be ready to make a call quickly if an emergency arises. It may also be a good idea to memorize these steps so you won’t have to think twice during a fast-moving situation.
How to make an emergency call on iPhone
From the lock screen
If your phone is locked and you are unable to unlock it, you can quickly make an emergency call from the passcode screen by tapping “Emergency.” This will bring up a keypad from where you can dial 9-1-1.
Enable Emergency SOS
Emergency SOS is a feature built into all newer iPhones that allows you to make an emergency call almost instantly by pressing two buttons simultaneously on your phone. To use this feature, make sure you are running iOS 11 or later; the latest iOS is 15, so you probably are, but read how to find out which version you’re running and how to update it.
Now, here’s how to enable and use Emergency SOS:
- For iPhone SE or iPhone 8 or later:
- This feature should already be enabled on your phone. To make an emergency call, click and hold your side (or top) button and either one of the volume buttons until a screen with a slider labeled “Emergency SOS” appears.
- Drag the slider to the right to make a call. Alternatively, your iPhone will make an audible alarm and begin countdown before it automatically makes a call.
- To turn off the countdown, go to Settings > Emergency SOS and tap the toggle next to Countdown Sound.
- For older iPhones:
- Quickly press your side button five times in a row, then drag the Emergency SOS slider.
For more information and limitations of this feature, visit this help article from Apple.
How to make an emergency call on Android
On Android devices, you can quickly make an emergency call by bypassing your lock screen and without unlocking your device. It may different depending on the manufacturer or model of your phone, but with Android, making an emergency call is very straightforward:
- If your lock screen is enabled, tap “Emergency call” at the bottom of the screen.
- When the dialer is visible, dial the number for your local emergency services, like 9-1-1.
Posted on November 11, 2021
How to magnify your smartphone’s screen to make reading easier
Do you ever have to squint to see the fine print on your smartphone? Or is it just plain difficult to read your screen after a tiring day looking at a computer?
Fortunately, there are some useful solutions to help you to easily magnify your smartphone’s screen to make seeing it much easier.
In this week’s tip, we’ll show you how to access these features in your phone’s accessibility settings to avoid headaches and make your screen more readable.
How to magnify your screen on iPhone and iPad
With Apple’s newest operating system, iOS 15, the company added a new accessibility feature called “Zoom” — but not the video conference one you might be thinking about. Apple’s new Zoom feature allows you to instantly magnify parts of your screen with a few simple taps or swipes.
This is similar to how you might zoom in on a browser or the Photos app with a finger and a thumb, but with Zoom, you can magnify any part of your screen anywhere on your phone, like in your social media apps that don’t allow zooming in.
With Zoom, you can enlarge the entire screen (Full Screen Zoom) or just parts of the screen (Window Zoom). Here’s how to get started:
- First, make sure your Apple device is running the latest version of iOS 15, which can be found at Settings > General > Software Update, or check out this article from Apple for more information.
- To turn on the Zoom feature, go to Settings > Accessibility > Zoom, then turn on Zoom.
Now, to use the Zoom feature, you will want to get used to using three fingers to tap and swipe, which is how the tool is enabled.
- To zoom in, double-tap the screen with three fingers, then swipe up or down to magnify or shrink the screen.
- You can navigate around your magnified screen by dragging three fingers across the screen to your desired location.
- You can also triple-tap the screen with three fingers to bring up a menu, which allows you to adjust the zoom levels, as well as adjust settings.
- To adjust the settings with the Zoom menu, triple-tap with three fingers, then adjust any of the following:
- Choose Region: Choose Full Screen Zoom or Window Zoom.
- Resize Lens: (Window Zoom) Tap Resize Lens, then drag any of the round handles that appear.
- Choose Filter: Choose Inverted, Grayscale, Grayscale Inverted, or Low Light.
- Show Controller: Show the Zoom Controller.
- To use the Zoom Controller, do any of the following:
- Show the Zoom menu: Tap the controller.
- Zoom in or out: Double-tap the controller.
- Pan: When zoomed in, drag the controller.
Alternatively, if you want larger text all the time on your device, go to Settings > Accessibility > Display Text & Size > Larger Text, then adjust the size of the text with the slider.
How to magnify your screen on an Android device
Android also has magnification features built into your device’s accessibility settings. Here’s how to turn it on and use this useful feature, but make sure your device is running Android 11 or higher.
- To turn on magnification, go to Settings > Accessibility > Magnification
- Turn on the Magnification shortcut.
To zoom in (instructions via Google):
- Tap the accessibility button.
- Tap anywhere on the screen, except the keyboard or navigation bar.
- Drag 2 fingers to move around the screen.
- Pinch with 2 fingers to adjust zoom.
- To stop magnification, use your magnification shortcut again.
To zoom in temporarily
- Tap the accessibility button.
- Touch and hold anywhere on the screen, except the keyboard or navigation bar.
- Drag your finger to move around the screen.
- Lift your finger to stop magnification.
Alternatively, just like the iPhone, if you want larger text all the time on your device, head over to Settings > Accessibility > Text & Display, and tap Font size, where you can adjust the slider to change to your preferred font size. Learn more about how to adjust fonts and display on your Android device here.
Posted on November 9, 2021
Fight for the Future is defending our rights online with help from CREDO members
Fight for the Future is fighting to ensure that technology is a force for empowerment, free expression, and liberation rather than tyranny, corruption, and structural inequality.
As an intentionally small, fierce team of artists, engineers and activists, they have been behind the largest online protests in human history, channeling outrage into political power to win victories.
Thanks to our members, Fight for the Future received a $51,557 grant this April to continue their important work — and here is just a small sample of some recent victories and new projects that our donation helped to enable.
Holding Amazon Accountable
Two years after Fight for the Future began working to end Amazon’s partnerships with local police departments, Amazon announced that it would no longer allow law enforcement to privately ask Ring camera owners for video footage. This is a huge concession. They also imposed limits on geographic location, amount of inquiries per incident, and restricted video requests for lawful incidents like protests. But this policy shift does not change the fundamental dangers or racial profiling that accompanies widespread use of Amazon’s interconnected cameras in homes, mailboxes, and vehicles. So in the coming months Fight for the Future will be working to push lawmakers to protect people by banning corporate surveillance partnerships with the police, starting at the local level with city council ordinances and direct pressure on progressive mayors.
This past summer, as the one-year anniversary of Amazon’s moratorium on selling facial recognition tech to the police approached, Fight for the Future, Media Justice, the Athena Coalition, and other civil rights groups, called for a permanent ban. After groups met with shareholders and held protests in cities across the country, Amazon announced a moratorium on selling Rekognition to police ‘until further notice.’ This is a big victory but the groups are still calling for Amazon to completely divest from facial recognition technology.
Banning facial recognition surveillance in retail stores
Fight for the Future led a coalition of 35+ organizations to launch the first major campaign to ban facial recognition surveillance in retail stores. In just a few weeks, its scorecard campaign has resulted in 19 major brands like Wal-Mart, Target, Lowe’s and CVS to say they won’t use facial recognition in their stores or on their employees.
But Macy’s has doubled down on its use — it’s actually the only retailer that has confirmed it uses facial recognition and tried to justify its use — which is why Fight for the Future targeted the department store in a back-to-school action. The group rented a mobile billboard and drove it outside Macy’s downtown D.C. location to draw attention to the company’s use of facial recognition, especially on kids. Now Fight for the Future is working to build a list of small and local businesses that have pledged not to use facial recognition and endanger customers and workers in their stores. This strategy follows other private-sector facial recognition campaigns, like those against festivals and college campuses. The group is continuing to pick sectors where the threat is real, and where they think they can make headway with interrupting the spread of facial recognition as we continue to fight for legislative bans on the technology.
If you’d like to learn more about Fight for the Future’s important work defending our rights in the digital age, please visit their website and take action on a recent campaign, or follow them on Twitter or Instagram.
Posted on November 9, 2021
CREDO funding helps NDWA fight for the rights of domestic workers
At the National Domestic Workers Alliance, we believe that domestic work makes all other work possible.
NDWA works for the respect, recognition, and inclusion in labor protections of domestic workers, the majority of whom are immigrants and women of color. Driven by the lived experiences and aspirations of domestic workers, we employ five main strategies to transform the domestic work sector:
- Organizing domestic workers and developing leaders by providing a space for workers to share information, build skills with training and resources, access benefits, get support, and organize to win rights
- Developing policy solutions and deliver wins through economic recovery, immigration, caregiving, survivor, and essential worker advocacy
- Changing the story by leveraging the power of popular culture to shift key narratives and elevate character-driven stories of domestic workers
- Innovating by using technology to solve for equity and dignity and to find new ways to make work better for domestic workers
- Mobilizing underrepresented women of color voters because we know that when women of color vote, we build a better world.
Thanks to the leadership of nannies, house cleaners, and home care workers, we are on the cusp of winning historic investments in caregiving and immigration through President-elect Biden’s Build Back Better plan.We have the opportunity to accelerate policies that protect workers and raise standards at the state and city levels in part due to partnerships advising on cash assistance, new policy, reopening guidelines, and pivots from relief to recovery.
Along with our coalition partners, we will also continue to seize the opportunity created by the current visibility and appreciation for essential workers to uplift domestic and home care workers’ inherent value and dignity.
With your vote and CREDO’s support, NDWA will continue to forge new pathways to make every job into a good, living wage job with benefits by 2030 and to create a multi-racial democracy where women of color are supported to lead.
Posted on November 8, 2021
Preventing Climate Catastrophe and Building a Better Future with Earthworks
Communities First
At a time when so many people around the world are facing so many threats, should we really be putting ourselves at risk in the name of dirty and unnecessary fossil fuel production?
Fossil fuels pose risks at almost all stages. From the moment oil and gas is pulled from the ground to final consumption, these fuels threaten our health, environment, and climate. Technologies like fracking (hydraulic fracturing) poison our water, cause air pollution, and scar our landscapes.
Earthworks has been working at the intersection of dirty energy and climate change for years. In 2014, we started using Optical Gas Imaging cameras to expose the invisible methane venting from oil and gas wells. And for years we’ve been exposing the harm, advocating for better regulation of existing infrastructure, and stopping new fossil fuel development.
And now, we’re working to transition to a clean, just, and equitable energy future by ensuring that the minerals we need for new renewable technologies are responsibly sourced and don’t harm communities or the environment.
Case Study: The Permian Basin
To head off climate catastrophe, fossil fuel production and consumption must decline steeply and rapidly. The opposite is happening in the Permian Basin, a vast expanse of land across west Texas and southeastern New Mexico.
The region is experiencing a fracking boom. Oil and gas production has more than quadrupled in the past decade and is projected to grow even more aggressively in the coming decade. Weaning America and the world off oil and gas will be much harder if production keeps growing. Yet the Permian Basin could produce more oil, gas, and gas liquids in the next 30 years than it has in the past century.
Our newest report, Permian Climate Bomb exposes the climate, public health, economic, and social impacts of the Permian fracking boom. By following the flow of Permian hydrocarbons from extraction to export, illustrating the community consequences of the associated infrastructure buildout, and working directly with individuals confronting the industry, we’re exposing just how dangerous the Permian Basin is for our climate.
A Clean, Just, and Equitable Future
Shutting down the fossil fuel industry isn’t the only thing we have to do. Earthworks is working towards transition to a 100% renewable energy economy — one that no longer depends on fossil fuels. Solar, wind, and battery technologies are competitive and growing rapidly, while their costs continue to fall. Yet, as with any transition, we must prepare for, and ensure against, unintended consequences. We must create a renewable energy future that doesn’t cause harm to communities through dirty mining.
Renewable energy and battery production rely on minerals such as cobalt, nickel, lithium, and copper. Demand for these minerals is skyrocketing. Mineral extraction already brings devastating harm to people and the environment. But we know that renewable energy production does NOT have to mean the degradation of communities and special places. By partnering with frontline communities, creating stricter standards for extraction, and promoting responsible sourcing with renewable energy companies, we can minimize the harm from renewable technologies.
Will You Join Us?
We don’t have much time to prevent climate catastrophe. Defeating the political and economic power of the fossil fuel and mining industries will not be easy — but we know it must be done.
Though it may sometimes seem that progress is impossible, remember that the momentum for change keeps building. And it’s so important to keep speaking up for what’s right.
Will you join us in standing in solidarity with those on the frontlines? If you haven’t already, I hope you’ll vote for Earthworks on CREDO’s donation page. I also invite you to watch the new multi-media report at www.permianclimatebomb.org. Thank you for your support!
Posted on November 8, 2021
Write a Letter, Change a Life with Amnesty International
Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) is the largest country section of Amnesty International, a membership-based global human rights movement founded on the idea that every person can make a difference standing up for the rights of others wherever they may be. For six decades, we have been seen worldwide as the premier grassroots organization demanding human rights for every person and tackling the most pressing challenges to human rights.
Our vision is of a world in which every person enjoys their full range of human rights, and our mission is to undertake research and action focused on preventing and ending grave abuses of the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and other international rights instruments. Combined with our award-winning research, our members, supporters and activists—over 10 million globally—work to advocate in their communities and beyond to ensure that all people can claim the full spectrum of their human rights and to amplify the voices of human rights defenders and individuals at risk everywhere.
Write for Rights is Amnesty International’s largest annual human rights campaign, held throughout the fall to mark Human Rights Day on December 10th. Each year, AIUSA activists and supporters around the world write letters to support people at risk and help end human rights abuses, such as the imprisonment of individuals solely for the peaceful expression of their beliefs or identity—people we call prisoners of conscience.
Through Write for Rights, millions of people around the world, like you, each write a letter to the government official(s) responsible for the case. These letters pile up in their offices and can’t be ignored. We supplement these letters with e-mail actions, lobbying, media attention, and social media to increase the pressure on those officials. We also write “solidarity” notes to the people we are trying to help, or their families, to give them hope.
Each year the campaign focuses on the cases of ten different individuals. This year’s cases include human rights defenders and individuals at risk in Egypt, Mexico, Thailand, Belarus and beyond. Write for Rights shines a spotlight on human rights defenders like Bernardo Caal Xol in Guatemala, who was jailed for protecting a sacred river while doing everything he can to peacefully protect his people’s land and natural resources from plunder and biodiversity loss. Or activists Anna Sharyhina and Vira Chernygina, who have been repeatedly attacked for defending LGBTI and women’s rights in Ukraine.
Good news from previous Write for Rights cases:
“To everyone who sent me countless letters from around the world…I want to express my deep gratitude, while in prison, these actions lifted my spirit and reminded me of the importance of international solidarity in the struggle for human rights.” — Taner Kilic. Former Amnesty Turkey Board Chair, released after more than 14 months behind bars. 2017 Write for Rights – Turkey.
“Thank you very much each and every one of you. Not just for campaigning for my release, and the release of other prisoners, but for helping to keep our hope and our beliefs alive.” — Phyoe Phyoe Aung, Student leader imprisoned after peaceful protest, freed in 2016. 2015 Write for Rights – Myanmar.
Ready to get writing? Here’s how to get started:
- SIGN UP: at write.amnestyusa.org
- DOWNLOAD: our guide with the cases, addresses and instructions
- WRITE: from now until December 20, 2021
- REPORT: your letters by January 31, 2022 at write.amnesty.org/impact
For any questions, you can reach out to our team at: w4r@aiusa.org
Even if you only have time to write one letter, it counts. Through our collective power, prison doors will open, families will be reunited, justice will be achieved, and human rights activists will be safe and supported in continuing their important work to change the world.
CREDO and supporters like you make it possible for us to protect people wherever justice, freedom, truth, and dignity are denied—thank you!