Posted on July 16, 2024
How to limit your data use and save money on your phone bill
A lot of people these days are looking to cut back on their spending. If you’re doing the same, one place you might look is your mobile plan. If you’re not a heavy data user, you could save by choosing a metered rather than unlimited data plan. Over the course of a year, you could cut your bill by hundreds of dollars.
What’s a metered data plan? It’s a plan that gives you a set amount of data per month. Here at CREDO, we have metered plans from 1GB per month to 15GB per month. Choosing one of these could save you money. That’s why we offer them—and why many other carriers don’t. Because they’d rather have you on an unlimited-data plan.
Which is fine, if you use a lot of data. Then an unlimited plan is a good choice. That’s why we have a high-value unlimited-data plan ourselves. But if you don’t use a lot of data each month, you might be better off with a metered plan.
The first step in deciding is to learn how much data you use. Many people meet their needs with just 3GB or 5GB a month. To see how much you use, check your bill. If you can’t find your data usage there (some carriers go out of their way to hide it) you can check your phone.
On an Android, open Settings, tap Network & internet > Data usage. On an iPhone, go to Settings, then tap Cellular or Mobile data. Scroll down to Current period.
So it’s decided: a metered plan might be good for you. But it won’t be good if you exceed the cap on your plan and you get charged overage fees. To avoid this, you can limit your data usage. Here’s how to do it.
Use WiFi when you can
Some of your favorite phone activities can burn a lot of data. Like to watch videos? Streaming standard-definition video uses up to 1 GB an hour, high-definition uses up to 2.5 GB an hour and ultra-high-definition up to 10 GB an hour.
If you’re on a metered data plan, you’ll quickly exceed your limit. So connect to WiFi whenever you can, whether you’re at home or away, at a friend’s house or the cafe. You’ll save a lot of cellular data this way.
Update and download only when you’re on WiFi
When your phone asks you to update or download using cellular data, say no. Wait till you’re connected to WiFi. Ignore those prompts to update to a new OS or new version of an app.
Turn off Smart Network Switch or WiFi Assist
Android and Apple devices will automatically use data to improve your WiFi connection. On an Android, this function is called Smart Network Switch, on an iPhone it’s called WiFi Assist. If your WiFi signal is weak, these functions will boost it by using cellular data.
To save data, turn them off. On your Android, go to Settings > Connections > WiFi. Tap the three dots, then tap Advanced. You’ll see a slider for Switch to mobile data. Slide it off. On your iPhone, go to Settings > Cellular. Scroll down and you’ll see a slider for WiFi Assist. Slide it off.
Turn off autoplay
Video apps like YouTube will automatically play the next video—and use data to do it—unless you turn off the autoplay option. At YouTube, this is under Settings. Navigate there and slide off Autoplay next video. Now your phone won’t continuously play videos while it’s in your pocket.
Limit background data use
Apps constantly update and refresh themselves even when they’re not running on your screen, using your data to update your social media feed, sync your emails and more.
You can disable background data usage by apps individually. Or you can do it more easily with Data Saver Mode (Android) or Low Data Mode (iPhone and iPad, iOS 13 and later). When turned on, these modes will ensure that apps and services running in the background can only use WiFi data, while currently active apps and services can use mobile data.
On your Android, open Settings. Tap Network & internet > Data Saver. Slide it off. The process for enabling Low Data Mode on your iPhone depends on the type of network you’re connected to. If you’re on LTE/4G, go to Settings, tap Cellular, tap Cellular data options, then slide on Low Data Mode. If you’re on 5G, go to Settings, tap Cellular, tap Cellular data options, select Data mode, then slide on Low Data Mode.
Set warnings and limits
You can set your phone to warn you when you’re approaching your monthly allotment of data. You can also set your phone to limit your data use and stay below your allotment.
On your Android, open Settings, then tap Network & internet > Internet. Tap Settings next to your provider’s name, then tap Data warning & limit. To set a warning, turn on Set data warning, then tap Data warning and enter a number. You’ll get a notification when you reach that number. To set a limit, turn on Set data limit. When you get an onscreen message, tap OK. Tap Data limit, enter a number, then tap Set.
Apple devices don’t offer these options but they may be available via your carrier.
Switch to CREDO Mobile
We have a variety of plans to suit you, from 1GB per month up to unlimited data, with rates that meet your needs. The average CREDO Mobile customer uses less than 5GB per month. Many people can save hundreds of dollars per year, switching to a metered plan with CREDO Mobile.
Switch today and you’ll get all you want in a mobile service: the nation’s top-rated network, competitive plans, great deals on new phones and friendly, responsive customer service.
You’ll also get an easy, effective way to support positive change, just by using your phone. Because whenever you do, you’ll raise vital donations for nonprofit groups like Friends of the Earth, Social Security Works and Reproductive Freedom for All.
To date, we’ve given over $95 million to these and many other nonprofits dedicated to making our world a better place. These donations cost our customers nothing extra. But they mean everything to the groups that rely on us.
Ready to switch? Join CREDO Mobile today.
Posted on July 15, 2024
CREDO funding supports the National Network to End Domestic Violence in its effort to create a world where domestic violence no longer exists
Domestic violence is a quiet crisis. Though it seldom receives coverage, it is shockingly common.
Almost 20 people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner in the U.S. 1 in 3 women and 1 in 4 men have suffered physical violence by an intimate partner. For 1 in 4 women and 1 in 7 men, that violence was extreme—beating, strangling, burning. It goes on. And on.
But the National Network to End Domestic Violence is taking action to stop it. That’s why CREDO supports NNEDV and why we recently gave a significant grant to the group.
A wide range of programs to support victims
NNEDV is a social change organization. It knows that, working together across different sectors and from all different angles, we can create a society where domestic violence no longer exists. But NNEDV doesn’t only address the causes of domestic violence, it operates a range of programs to ease the consequences.
NNEDV’s efforts are multifaceted and far-reaching. They include:
- Advocating for policies that meet the ongoing and emerging needs of domestic violence victims, including advocacy on Capitol Hill and in the White House.
- Responding to technology abuse, supporting survivors in their use of tech and harnessing tech to improve services provided to victims.
- Supporting transitional housing programs across the country and advocating for improved housing-related policies.
- Addressing the intersection of domestic violence and HIV/AIDS.
- Maintaining an Economic Justice program that focuses on financial abuse (99% of domestic violence victims also suffer financial abuse) so that survivors can move from short-term safety to long-term security.
- Providing credit-building microloans to survivors of financial abuse through NNEDV’s one-of-a-kind Independence Project.
- Publishing the annual Domestic Violence Counts Report, which informs local and national policy decisions by providing a snapshot of the services people received, requested and were turned away from because programs lacked resources.
- Operating the WomensLaw Email Hotline and WomensLaw.org, which provide free, plain-language legal information and support in both English and Spanish for survivors, their advocates and loved ones.
Expanded efforts, powered by CREDO funding
Our recent grant to NNEDV has strengthened its many programs, including technology safety, coalition capacity-building, housing, HIV/AIDS, the WomensLaw Email Hotline, the Independence Project and advocacy to meet the ongoing and emerging needs of domestic violence victims.
Our funding aided NNEDV’s success in leveraging the power of its member coalitions and the local programs they represent. It bolstered NNEDV’s leadership of efforts to influence Congress, and provide tools and information to help coordinate the domestic violence field. And it boosted NNEDV’s vital Economic Justice program by funding advocate training and education, as well as NNEDV’s microloan program.
Our grant supported the launch, on March 20 at a bipartisan Congressional briefing on Capitol Hill, of the 18th Annual Domestic Violence Counts Report. It helped NNEDV host its 7th Annual Economic Justice Summit, March 5-7, in Kansas City, Missouri. And it assisted NNEDV’s work with the Oregon coalition and other domestic violence, sexual violence and homelessness organizations to organize the Grants Pass v. Johnson amicus brief led by the National Housing Law Project. NNEDV collected signatures on the domestic violence and sexual assault-focused brief and worked with other organizations to devise an amicus strategy.
NNEDV and CREDO: making a difference together
For too long, victims of domestic violence suffered in silence. Now, thanks to the work of organizations like NNEDV, survivors know they can leave abusive relationships and rebuild their lives. And we all know that, together, we can create a social, political and economic environment in which domestic violence no longer exists.
If you’re a CREDO customer, thank you for supporting NNEDV. If you’re not a customer, please consider joining now. You’ll get all you want from a phone company: the nation’s top-rated network, competitive plans and great deals on new devices.
And you’ll get much more. You’ll get an easy, effective way to make a difference in the world by generating much-needed donations for progressive nonprofits dedicated to the causes you believe in, like the environment, human rights and economic equality.
To learn more about the critical work NNEDV does, go to NNEDV.org.
Posted on July 15, 2024
Donations spotlight: Support Slow Food USA as it works to fix our out-of-control food system
Note from the CREDO Mobile team: This July, Slow Food USA is among three amazing groups that will receive a share of our monthly grant. Funding from the CREDO Mobile community will support Slow Food USA in its work to fix our out-of-control food system.
Read this important blog post about Slow Food USA’s critical work, then visit CREDODonations.com and cast your vote to help send funding to the group to assist its efforts — and the efforts of our other outstanding July grantees.
Madre Salone Del Gusto food summit in September 2022.
Our food system is in crisis. Gigantic food corporations now dominate where, once, small-scale farms served their communities. Instead of building relationships around food, we make transactions. Instead of making food choices based on flavor and origin, we prioritize convenience. Instead of treating the Earth like the source of all life, we pillage resources from our planet. Our food story in the U.S. is rooted in oppression, colonialism, racism and greed.
Given the enormous complexity of global food systems and the generations of targeted oppression they’re built on, there is no single solution to this crisis. But change can happen if we cultivate trusting relationships, align around shared values and work together for collective liberation.
This is the work of Slow Food: to achieve good, clean and fair food for all through coming together and mapping out a better food future. Throughout the world, Slow Food movements are responding to the unique challenges, traditions and opportunities in their regions and defining what it would take to achieve good, clean and fair food for all.
Slow Food is where anyone who eats can find belonging. Since its beginnings, Slow Food has grown into a global movement involving 1 million people in over 160 countries. Through our food choices and by taking direct action to shape our food future, we can collectively influence the way food is cultivated, produced and distributed, and make meaningful change as a result.
Help Slow Food grow
The Credo Mobile community can activate this new way of being by voting for Slow Food USA, the national association of 500,000 activists working tirelessly to effect change in foodways across the nation.
Slow Food USA strives to create a world where all people can eat food that is good for them, good for the people who grow it and good for the planet. Our vibrant network of 3,000 chefs, farmers, ranchers, fish harvesters, educators, eaters, activists, organizers and entrepreneurs are mobilized via 80 member-led chapters across the country. Chapters take the three pillars of Slow Food—biodiversity, education and advocacy—and bring them to life in ways that are relevant to their cities and regions.
Slow Food chapters uplift sustainable food producers and work to end hunger. Some chapters emphasize education and school garden programs while others focus on partnerships with community groups. For instance, at Slow Food Atlanta local volunteers have built lasting connections in the metro area through the Snail of Approval program, which recognizes food and beverage businesses that are pursuing and practicing Slow Food values. This is more than about making good food—it’s about making commitments to the environment, local communities, employees and purveyors, and our core values of anti-racism and anti-oppression.
Food insecurity is not only a regional issue but a national one. According to the USDA, more than 34 million people in the U.S. are food insecure. There are people in every state who struggle to afford food and continuously lack access to healthy options. One Slow Food USA chapter in Jackson, Wyoming, Slow Food in the Tetons, takes on food insecurity by lowering the barrier to farm-fresh food. This chapter created the Local Food Discount Program, which helps people in the community purchase farm and ranch food at affordable prices. Slow Food in the Tetons finds it encouraging to know that it has a connection with other Slow Food communities around the world who are working toward similar goals.
Support Plant a Seed
Our team at the national office works around the year to provide rich programming for our volunteer network. One example is the Plant a Seed program, which celebrates biodiversity on farms, gardens and schools. Through Plant a Seed, Slow Food USA invites growers to engage with food in our gardens and on our plates.
Every year, Plant a Seed puts together a cast of endangered and biodiverse seeds that tell a story and offers them in a kit. The varieties in each kit come from a unique grower and landscape, and tell a story of plants and people. The Plant a Seed campaign opens a door to understanding the importance of biodiversity and issues of food sovereignty through the cultivation and journey of seeds.
The 2024 kit features grains and roots. It invites supporters to ground themselves and connect the dots among soil health, human health and planetary health by exploring roots and grains. This year, 700 Plant a Seed kits arrived at school, community and home gardens to flourish.
Ultimately, we aim to bring awareness of the way that simple acts of growing culturally significant crops in our gardens can impact our climate and nutrition while we learn from the communities who are stewarding them.
To learn more about what we do and ways you can help, go to SlowFoodUSA.org.
Posted on July 8, 2024
Donations Spotlight: Planet Reimagined is mainstreaming the climate movement with fair solutions
Note from the CREDO Mobile team: This July, Planet Reimagined is among three amazing groups that will receive a share of our monthly grant. Funding from the CREDO Mobile community will support Planet Reimagined in its work to mainstream the climate movement with fair solutions.
Read this important blog post about Planet Reimagined’s critical work, then visit CREDODonations.com and cast your vote to help send funding to the group to assist its efforts — and the efforts of our other outstanding July grantees.
June 5, 2024, was the 51st annual World Environment Day. On the occasion, UN Secretary-General António Guterres urged world leaders to act immediately to address mounting climate risks, highlighting the dire fact that our planet just endured 12 straight months of record heat.
After attending the special address on climate action by Guterres, Adam Met—U.N.-appointed climate advocate (and the “A” in eight times platinum band AJR)—appeared on CNN Newsroom to reflect on the Secretary-General’s ambitious plan to confront the crisis.
“He laid out a really comprehensive plan,” Met told CNN. “He started by calling fossil fuel companies the godfathers of climate chaos and called on people around the world to stop investing in advertising that supports fossil fuel companies. But at the same time he called for potential, saying they could be the leaders of the renewable energy transition.”
Met then described a climate solution designed by Planet Reimagined, the social impact nonprofit he founded in 2020. The solution, Common Grounds, is a bipartisan effort to engage with fossil fuel companies and independent producers to help them transition by co-locating renewable energy projects on top of oil and gas land. “They really can be the leaders if they put their mind to it and the political will,” Met says.
In his special address, Guterres called for 33 specific actions by different groups, from financial institutions to governments. As the 1.5C threshold of global warming has been breached for a full 12 months for the first time, sustainable approaches and accelerated action must happen—and they will require sweeping policy reform at local, state and federal levels. Ultimately, the scale of the climate crisis demands unconventional cross-sector partnerships, innovations and solutions to advance changes in policy and practice through sophisticated advocacy strategies and publicly accessible communication channels to inspire public audiences on the platforms and channels where they are most engaged.
Planet Reimagined has an innovative solution
In 2020, Met recognized that the movement for climate and environmental justice overall had the problem that advocacy and research take place in silos. This sparked the founding of Planet Reimagined, which is dedicated to building a bridge between thought and action. “There can be robust research showing technically how or why a solution would work,” Met says. “But if we do that research in isolation from advocacy—without engaging with policymakers and without answering the economic, social and political questions, along with the scientific and policy ones—then just having good evidence isn’t enough.”
Planet Reimagined combines rare access to media and entertainment with global partnerships to enable interdisciplinary teams to work nimbly within academia, industry, policy and social movements. Planet Reimagined is advancing real solutions through its Action Research Center (ARC), a new kind of academy that brings together researchers from around the world on fellowships to collaborate on fair solutions to the climate crisis. This model maximizes the impact of research and advocacy through the arc of sequential topics that ladder up from the work of previous fellows, graduating projects from incubation to full-scale implementation.
As a result of this unprecedented action-research model, Planet Reimagined incubated the Common Grounds clean energy idea and graduated it to implementation, achieving rare bipartisan Congressional agreement that sparked an affirmative response from the Department of the Interior. As a result, the Department of the Interior is indicating that, for the first time in U.S. history, it will accept and encourage proposals for new solar and wind projects on top of current and former oil and gas leases on public lands. This landmark response triggered the next stage of Common Grounds: the development of pilot co-location projects in the western U.S. and a digital portal that will help small energy-business owners transition away from fossil fuels to power our economy in a way that is more sustainable.
Additional victories from Planet Reimagined’s ARC include: attracting more than 1,600 fellowship candidates from 110 countries; new research on fan engagement in climate action featured by CNN, Fox, Pollstar, Worth magazine and at the 2024 Music Sustainability Summit; and research on the values of freshwater conservation incorporated into local stakeholder appeals for river restoration in arguments before the Supreme Court of Nepal.
To learn more or get involved, please visit PlanetReimagined.com.
Posted on July 2, 2024
Vote for Planet Reimagined, Slow Food USA and Supermajority in July.
Every month, CREDO members vote to distribute our monthly grant to three amazing progressive nonprofits. Every vote makes a difference. This July, you can support Planet Reimagined, Slow Food USA and Supermajority.
Planet Reimagined
Planet Reimagined is fighting the climate crisis with fair solutions for people and the planet. Reaching 100 million people a year to mainstream the climate movement and drive solutions from incubation to implementation through a new kind of academy that turns research-driven THOUGHT into collective ACTION to fuel positive CHANGE.
Slow Food USA
Slow Food USA advocates for a future where all people can access good, clean and fair food. We cultivate nationwide programs and a network of local chapters, host educational events and advocacy campaigns, and build solidarity through partnerships. We unite to advance joy and justice in our foodways.
Supermajority
Supermajority is building women’s political power to create a future where all people are truly equal. Supermajority is driven by a single-minded purpose—to strengthen the political power of women to make the Majority Rules real for all people. We have the power to build the world we deserve — where our lives are safe, our bodies are respected, work is valued, our families are supported, and our government represents us.
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 July 31st.
CREDO Mobile customers who use our service everyday are the reason we are able to make these donations each month. Learn more about CREDO Mobile and help make progressive change every time you use your phone.
Posted on July 1, 2024
June’s grantees thank you for your support.
Each month, CREDO members vote on how we distribute funding to three incredible nonprofits. In June, CREDO members voted to distribute our monthly donation among Fair Fight Action, Government Accountability Project and Advocates for Trans Equality.
When our customers use CREDO Mobile service, they generate funds for our donations program. At the end of the month, we nominate three nonprofits to receive donations, then our community members vote to decide which groups will get how much. The next month, we do it again. Our June non-profit grantees thank you.
Fair Fight Action
As the late John Lewis once said, the right to vote is the most powerful nonviolent tool or instrument in a democratic society. With your support, we can work to ensure the freedom to vote for all eligible Americans. Thank you. – Lauren Groh-Wargo, CEO, Fair Fight Action
To learn more, visit https://fairfight.com/
Government Accountability Project
Thank you for help in defending whistleblowers and promoting their verified concerns about democracy & truth. – Louis Clarke, CEO, Government Accountability Project
To learn more, visit https://whistleblower.org
Advocates for Trans Equality
Thank you for being a foundational supporter of A4TE. In the face of relentless attacks against our dignity, it is because of the courage of CREDO members and allies like you that we will continue our fight and settle for nothing less than equality. – Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, Executive Director and CEO of A4TE, respectively.
To learn more, visit https://transequality.org/
Now check out the three groups we are funding in June, and cast your vote to help distribute our donations.
CREDO Mobile customers who use our products are the reason why we are able to make these donations each month. Learn more about CREDO Mobile, the phone company that is better for all people and the planet. If you are not a customer, please consider switching your service to CREDO Mobile. If you are already a customer, thank you and do tell your friends.
Posted on July 1, 2024
Donations spotlight: Help Supermajority mobilize 430,000 young women across the country to vote their values this election
Note from the CREDO Mobile team: This July, Supermajority is among three amazing groups that will receive a share of our monthly grant. Funding from the CREDO Mobile community will support Supermajority in its work to mobilize 430,000 young women across the country to vote their values this election.
Read this important blog post about Supermajority’s critical work, then visit CREDODonations.com and cast your vote to help send funding to the group to assist its efforts — and the efforts of our other outstanding July grantees.
We at Supermajority are driven by a single-minded purpose: to strengthen the political power of women and create a future where all people are truly equal.
Our organization was founded in 2019 by a group of incredible women activists working on the frontlines of economic, racial and reproductive justice: Cecile Richards, Ai-jen Poo and Alicia Garza. They realized that the leading social movements in our country had something in common. Women were leading and doing the majority of the work but there wasn’t a place for us to come together across issues and collectively create change.
So they started Supermajority, which today is building a community of women so powerful and united that our leaders have no choice but to make this country work for us. Our definition of women is expansive. It includes trans and cisgender women, gender nonbinary people, trans men and anyone who has been marginalized due to their gender. In partnership with more than 75,000 women across the United States, we wrote the Majority Rules, our guiding principles that, when realized, will build a world beyond even our radical imagination.
These are the Majority Rules
Rule 1: Our lives are safe. We live free of fear, intimidation and violence at home, at work and in our neighborhoods—no matter where we’re from, who we love or how we identify.
Rule 2: Our bodies are respected. The healthcare system takes our needs seriously, from treatment to research to women making decisions about if and when to start a family.
Rule 3: Our work is valued. We are paid equally and promoted equally too. The jobs primarily done by women—from teaching to caregiving—are valued and supported. All women can retire with dignity and enjoy the life they worked hard for.
Rule 4: Our families are supported. We are no longer forced to make impossible and unfair choices between family and work. Providing the best care for our families, from infancy to old age, is possible and affordable for all of us.
Rule 5: Our government represents us. From the school board to the White House, women are represented. The right to vote is protected and promoted, all voters have access to the polls and every vote is counted.
And the Super Rule: The lives and experiences of women—particularly women of color—are front and center in addressing all of our nation’s challenges. From economic justice to reproductive freedom to gun violence prevention, the people most impacted must be at the forefront of the solutions.
How we’ll win in 2024
Young women must be seen as the political force that they are in key elections in 2024—because they’re the ones who will protect our freedoms.
We’re laser-focused on six priority states where we can make real change happen: Michigan, Pennsylvania, Arizona, North Carolina, Georgia and Virginia. We plan to turn out a collective 430,000 young women voters—particularly infrequent and nonvoting women ages 18 to 35— because we know they’re a crucial segment needed to grow the progressive women’s voting bloc and achieve policies that will make the Majority Rules real for all people.
This is absolutely critical at a time when nearly all people in America feel like their vote doesn’t matter and change never happens. We know that our political system isn’t working and that big corporations and power-hungry, out-of-touch politicians are to blame. But we also know that we have the collective power to change this and get what we need.
How to join our movement
Become a member. All we do is powered by our members. When you join our free membership program, you’ll get access to respected experts and leaders through our member events. You’ll be part of a diverse community of values-driven people across the U.S. and be reminded regularly that you’re not alone and you have hope whenever you feel disheartened. And you’ll receive ongoing education, training and leadership opportunities to help dismantle centuries’ worth of misogyny and racism.
If you believe in a world where everyone is truly equal, then you belong with Supermajority! Take action with us.
One woman can be ignored. Two women can be dismissed. But thousands of women, working together, are unstoppable. We are a movement of people more than 500,000 strong who are ready to take action. Join us now and help impact that will be one of the most consequential elections in this nation’s history.
Please also vote to send CREDO Mobile donations to Supermajority. Every dollar is critical to help us turn out 430,000 young women voters in November and transform this country.
To learn more and join our movement, please visit supermajority.com.
Posted on June 24, 2024
We won’t go back
Two years ago, on June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court set women’s rights back half a century.
It reversed Roe v. Wade and opened the door for states to pass laws that restrict or ban abortion, which half of states have now done.
The court’s six reactionaries have made their intention clear. They want to take our nation backward. With one decision, they’ve pushed women back to 1972, to the days when sexual discrimination was legal and women weren’t allowed to make their own choices.
If you’re of a certain age, you’ll remember those days. We remember them too. And we liked a lot about them. American Pie and Let’s Stay Together. The Poseidon Adventure and Cabaret. Carrot cake, tie-dye and playing outside till dark.
Fun stuff. But fond as we are of Flip Wilson and platform shoes, we don’t want to go back 1972. We won’t. Because it was bad in all sorts of ways, especially for women. They couldn’t have a credit card in their own name. They could legally be fired if they got pregnant. And they couldn’t end a pregnancy without risking jail.
We’ll say it again. We won’t go back.
If you feel the same, now is the time to take action. You can do it by voting. You can do it by choosing companies that share your commitment to choice.
You can do it by joining CREDO Mobile.
To date, CREDO Mobile has donated over $11 million to nonprofit groups working hard for women’s rights, including Planned Parenthood, the National Abortion Hotline, Global Fund for Women and many others.
CREDO Mobile is the one phone company as dedicated to reproductive freedom as you are. Join us and you’ll get all you want from your mobile service: competitive plans, great deals on new devices and the nation’s top-rated, most reliable network.
And you’ll get much more. You’ll get an easy, effective way to make a difference in the world by supporting a company that’s committed to progressive causes like women’s rights, free and fair elections, economic justice and climate action.
Ready to raise your voice for choice? Switch to CREDO Mobile, the phone company that shares your values.
Posted on June 21, 2024
Over the rainbow: How “pinkwashing” dilutes the true meaning of Pride Month
Pride Month is here and the rainbow flags are flying. Unfortunately, a lot of those flags are a fig leaf.
Corporations unfurl them in June to show support for the LGBTQ+ community—and do some Pride marketing to push their products. Then, when the month is over, they go back to business as usual, which all too often means hostility to LGBTQ+ rights.
It’s called “pinkwashing.” It’s when companies use the rainbow flag to virtue-signal solidarity with LGBTQ+ people without making any meaningful commitment to inclusion and diversity. Or, worse, it’s when companies use the flag to hide their anti-LGBTQ+ behavior.
Like the social media platform that ran a Pride-themed campaign while refusing to take down homophobic videos. Or the retailers that features Pride merchandise every June but forget all about the LGBTQ+ community on July 1.
This is a problem. Pinkwashing misleads consumers and dilutes the meaning of Pride Month. It wraps a vital movement in candy-colored marketing and suggests the state of LGBTQ+ rights is hunky-dory, when it definitely is not. The Human Rights Campaign has declared a “national state of emergency” for LGBTQ+ Americans “following an unprecedented and dangerous spike in anti-LGBTQ+ legislative assaults.” States across the U.S. are passing anti-LGBTQ+ laws and they pose a real threat to LGBTQ+ people.
This is the true state of LGBTQ+ rights today. And this is why we should never forget that Pride Month is not about rainbow sales and half-off “Love Is Love” crop-tops. It’s about struggle and resistance. At its foundation, it’s about the Stonewall Rebellion, when patrons of a Greenwich Village gay bar, fed up with police threats and beatings, fought back for four days and ignited the LGBTQ+ civil rights movement.
If you support LGBTQ+ rights, you should know that there is an easy way for you to raise your voice for these rights not only for Pride Month but every month. In fact, every day.
It’s CREDO Mobile. For us, Pride is a year-round cause. That’s why we don’t drape our website in rainbows each June. That’s why we regularly send donations to nonprofit groups like the National LGBTQ Task Force, the Transgender Law Center and the ACLU. Since our very first donations, back in 1986, we’ve donated more than $15 million to progressive nonprofits working for equality and civil rights.
Join us now and we’ll donate $50 to Family Equality, which works to ensure that everyone has the freedom to find, form and sustain a family by advancing equality for the LGBTQ+ community. We’ll also give you $250 off a new smartphone or $240 in bill credits if you bring your current phone to CREDO Mobile. Learn more at CredoMobile.com.
Posted on June 17, 2024
Grantee highlight: Government Accountability Project empowers whistleblowers to expose government and corporate wrongdoing
Note from the CREDO Mobile team: This June, Government Accountability Project is among three amazing groups that will receive a share of our monthly grant. Funding from CREDO Mobile will support GAP in its work to litigate whistleblower cases, expose wrongdoing to the public, and promote government and corporate accountability.
Read this important blog post about GAP’s critical work, then visit CREDODonations.com and cast your vote to help send funding to the group to assist its efforts — and the efforts of our other outstanding June grantees.
On February 3, 2023, a Norfolk Southern train carrying more than 1 million pounds of highly toxic chemicals derailed in East Palestine, Ohio. Much of the lethal freight spilled immediately into the ground, water and air. Tank cars containing 116,000 gallons of vinyl chloride did not rupture but hung in the balance.
To address the threat, railway executives pressured state and local officials to vent and burn the vinyl chloride, while U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials stood idly by. The fire sent up a dioxin-laden black plume that covered the region. Residents were evacuated but not for long. Within days, the EPA pronounced the town safe and sent its lead administrator, Michael Regan, to publicly drink water from an East Palestine tap. The EPA said the monitors on its high-tech surveillance plane showed no lingering toxics.
Then whistleblowers began coming to us. A former lobbyist for the chemical industry told us and Congressional offices that the vinyl chloride fire had not been the clean-and-complete burn that government agencies said it was. He called for the EPA to do widespread independent testing because dioxins and even worse chemicals were a major biproduct of the burn. Instead, the EPA relied on railway contractors to perform the tests.
Another whistleblower client of ours, a skilled technician with decades of experience testing for hazards, visited the city dozens of times to test in homes and throughout the community. He found alarming results. In response, the EPA impugned his professionalism to journalists and others behind closed doors, even though it had previously praised his work.
To verify the concerns of whistleblowers, we filed extensive Freedom of Information Act requests for EPA documents about its test procedures and results. We were surprised when the agency denied our ask to expedite the processing of our requests, forcing us to file a (successful) lawsuit to reverse that denial. The agency even refused to waive its processing fees — the first time in our 47-year history that any state or federal agency had done so.
With our suspicion of corruption growing, we sent our environmental investigator to East Palestine. She met with residents who described strange rashes, feelings of disorientation, dizzy spells, brain fog, severe respiratory episodes, unusual gastrointestinal illnesses and other serious health problems. Residents said even the inspectors testing for contaminants had become ill, although they reported no problems. Two inspectors allegedly told a resident that they were having a difficult time, morally and emotionally, listening to the lies that railway officials were telling residents.
We have now learned from the scientists who conducted the flights in the EPA’s surveillance plane that the EPA purposely waited to begin its monitoring until after the toxic plume had dissipated. They also reported that the EPA turned off the plane’s monitors when over the contaminated creeks and waterways flowing from the accident site and only tested for 7 minutes, when the EPA would usually fly around for hours. With its own results not conclusively showing the area to be safe, the EPA lied to the nation and declared that the results of its aerial testing did show it was safe for residents to return. The whistleblowers further reported that, had the EPA launched the flights immediately after the derailment, the vinyl chloride burn could have been avoided, because in fact the vinyl chloride tankers were not at risk of imminent explosion.
Because these revelations and our complaint to the Office of Inspector General have now made national news, potential whistleblowers are lining up to speak with us. We currently represent nearly 100 whistleblower clients courageous enough to speak the truth. Our mission is to protect them, protect their jobs and ensure that they don’t drown beneath the waves they make. We’re also launching more campaigns like the one in East Palestine, because the better people know us and the more impact we have, the more whistleblowers will come forward.
Over the past 47 years, we’ve developed over 35 federal laws that Congress later enacted. Passage is usually unanimous because there is bipartisan consensus: whistleblowers are society’s most powerful tool to fight illegality, abuses of power, public health dangers, environmental threats, gross waste, politicized science and other wrongdoing. Insider information, effectively investigated, strategically applied and brought to public attention, has the potential to transform government agencies and private companies in profound ways.
Truth-tellers are the antidote to corruption, because they bring sunlight to the dark corners of our society. But they can’t do what they do without organized, experienced, expert help, which is what we provide daily. When whistleblowers stand alone, it’s easy for bureaucracies like the EPA and corporations to identify, harass and ruin them, rather than clean up their act. But as soon as we become involved, we change the narrative, as we have done in East Palestine. We bring the full weight of law enforcement, the news media, other public-interest organizations and citizen groups to bear on the wrongdoers. And we fight to see that truth-tellers are defended and honored for doing what’s fair, just and right.
