Posted on April 25, 2024
Results of the CREDO Mobile Book Survey
Back in March, we ran a survey of our members to learn their favorite books and authors. We were thrilled to hear about so many great books and authors from our extremely literate members. We wanted to share these results with you. If you are interested in reading any of these books, or any other books, you can find them at our Bookshop.org affiliate here.
Disclosure: CREDO Mobile is an affiliate of Bookshop.org and will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.
The favorite books of those who responded were:
- To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
- Demon Copperhead – Barbara Kingsolver
- Braiding Sweetgrass – Robin Wall Kimmerer
- The Covenant of Water – Abraham Verghese
- The Lord of The Rings – J. R. R. Tolkien
- A Gentleman in Moscow – Amor Towles
- Prequel – Rachel Maddow
- Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents – Isabel Wilkerson
- Lessons in Chemistry – Bonnie Garmus
- All the Light We Cannot See – Anthony Doerr
Caste by Isabel Wilkerson was the book most named as a book to change your perspective. Also frequently mentioned were Braiding Sweetgrass and A People’s History of the United States (Howard Zinn). To Kill a Mockingbird, 1984 (George Orwell), Braiding Sweetgrass and the Bible were most named as books everyone should read. Fiction was the most common style of books read, although there was a very diverse selection.
The most popular authors were:
- Barbara Kingsolver
- Stephen King
- Louise Penny
- Jane Austen
- Louise Erdrich
Barbara Kingsolver was by far the most popular author, with almost two times as many mentions as Stephen King.
40% of the respondents read for over 1 hour per day. 3/4 of respondents read for at least 30 minutes per day. This is a group that loves to read.
From our earlier education survey, we learned that 40% of our members had not read a single book by an author of color in high school. Check out our Bookshop.org affiliate. This is a great place to find new books and help raise money for independent bookstores. CREDO earns a commission on every book sold. We have recommendations for books by LGBTQ+ authors, authors of color, women authors and even a list of most banned books. That said, you can find just about any book you are looking for there.
Posted on April 18, 2024
Earth Day: Save money, Save the planet— Purchase refurbished electronics
April 22 is Earth Day. Encouragingly, this is now the largest civic event in the world, with billions of people participating in Earth Day activities and calling for solutions to our planet’s problems.
One of those problems is e-waste. We generate over 60 million tons a year and only about a quarter of it is recycled. The rest is dumped in landfills, legal and not, where it leeches heavy metals and other toxics into the ground, the groundwater and often into nearby crops.
Want to be part of the solution? Here’s one way to help. Next time you’re buying a new electronic device, buy refurbished. We know. Refurbished? Like, used? No, actually, not like used. Refurbished electronics are not what they were. These days, they’re virtually the same as new. They’re reliable, affordable and available direct from manufacturers like Apple, Samsung, Bose and Microsoft.
Refurbished is different from “used”
Refurbished devices are much better than used. They usually have been cleaned, inspected and tested. In a properly refurbished device, tired batteries and damaged parts have been replaced. They should work like new and they should have a lot of life left in them.
Many of the refurbished devices for sale have been traded in by their previous owners not because the devices were defective but because the owners wanted an upgrade. Many are barely used devices returned by buyers who’ve had second thoughts.
Most used devices don’t come with a warranty but refurbished devices from reputable sellers do, often up to a year. If you find a seller that does not offer a warranty, find a different seller.
These manufacturers sell refurbished devices
You can frequently buy refurbished devices direct from manufacturers. Before they sell the devices, most manufacturers inspect them, repair them with original parts, replace the batteries, then test them. They do a thorough job of wiping all data from previous owners and return devices to a fresh state. They ship refurbished devices to you in a new box with the same manuals, accessories, cables and operating system as a brand-new device.
Apple’s refurbished site offers Macs, iPads, iPhones, Apple Watches, AirPods and more.
Samsung’s refurbished site sells only Galaxy phones, no other Samsung devices or electronics.
Microsoft’s refurbished site has Surface devices and Xbox gaming consoles.
If you’re looking for audio equipment, Bose, Sonos and JBL have sites selling refurbished headphones, earbuds and soundbars. All of them undergo the same testing, repair, reconditioning and cleaning as the devices mentioned above. In other words, what you get is like new, with the same return window and warranty as new products.
If you’re looking for a particular brand not mentioned above, just Google the brand name and “refurbished.” If it’s a big brand, it will likely have a site selling refurbished devices, as Dell, HP and Acer do. Or you can go to a retail site—many of the big retailers sell refurbished electronics.
These retailers sell refurbished devices
The downside of retail sites is that the refurbishment probably has been done by a third party. The upside is that these sites have a wide variety of devices to choose from, all in one place.
eBay Refurbished has Apple, Samsung, Bose, Acer, Dell, HP, Sony and much more. All devices are refurbished, functional and come with a 1-year or 2-year warranty. You can choose from various conditions and pay more or less, depending on how “new” you want your device to look. There’s Certified Pristine (“pristine, like-new condition direct from the brand or authorized seller”) down to Good (“moderate wear from quality-vetted sellers”). All can be returned free within a 30-day window.
Newegg, the online electronics retailer that’s a little more wonky, has a large refurbished site. It offers products from desktops to servers to laptops to phones.
Most big-box retailers like Walmart and Target have a site selling refurbished electronics. The warranties they offer tend not to be as long as those given by manufacturers—or they tend not to exist at all, so proceed with caution.
We hesitate to recommend Amazon, especially on Earth Day, because its impact on the Earth is immense and largely negative. For example, did you know that, in 2021, Amazon generated enough plastic waste to cover the planet in 800 layers? And that Amazon would have “no problem” switching to plastic-free packaging but lacks the will? That said, it is Amazon. It’s quick, easy and you’ve probably got an account there. Amazon Renewed has that Amazon-size selection of refurbished stuff, much of it electronics. All of it is inspected, tested and comes with a 90-day warranty.
CREDO Mobile has refurbished phones on sale
We’re celebrating Earth Day with a big sale on refurbished phones, which have a much smaller footprint than new phones—and a much smaller price tag.
Shop our Refurb Madness sale and save $300 or more on a refurbished phone. We have a great discount on the Samsung Galaxy S21 and the iPhone 14 Pro, but supplies are limited so act fast.
Posted on April 5, 2024
Artificial Intelligence: The Next Climate Wildfire?
Note from the CREDO Mobile team: This April, Friends of the Earth is among three amazing groups that will receive a share of our monthly grant. Funding from the CREDO Mobile community will support Friends of the Earth as it campaigns on today’s most urgent environmental and social issues, challenges the current model of economic and corporate globalization, and promotes solutions that will help create environmentally sustainable and socially just societies.
Read this important blog post about Friends of the Earth’s critical work, then visit CREDODonations.com and cast your vote to help send funding to Friends of the Earth to assist its efforts—and the efforts of our other outstanding April grantees.
(This piece was originally posted in the Messenger, then featured on the Friends of the Earth blog. It was written by Michael Khoo, director of the Friends of the Earth Climate Disinformation Program.)
Generally, we think nothing of filling a prescription, test-driving a new car, or taking a flight — because we know the companies that made those products had to prove they were safe.
Yet, new technology like artificial intelligence (AI) — so advanced it can literally improve itself — is entering increasingly widespread use with essentially no safety checks at all. This is alarming.
There are obvious dangers in allowing artificial intelligence to spread and multiply in an unregulated and profit-driven free-for-all. You might think ofthe kind of self-aware, self-evolving science-fiction technology in the “Terminator”film. AI using AI to improve itself is, however, a faraway threat. The more immediate danger is humans weaponizing AI to make it easier for disinformation to spread.
Lina M. Khan, chair of the Federal Trade Commission, has urged that regulators not repeat the mistakes made with social media: Allowing new technology out of the box with no rules. We know that privacy breaches and real social harms have resulted from the developed social media without strong regulatory guardrails. And she says that unless we learn from our mistakes, artificial intelligence also risks “turbocharging fraud.”
We’re not talking about fake videos of the Pope dressed up like Elton John, either. AI imaging has already reportedly been used on the campaign trail, and algorithms can vastly expand the capacity to run micro-targeted — down to even an individual level — persuasion campaigns. These abilities mean AI risks amplifying existing disinformation, including about climate change.
Misleading information about climate change and extreme weather is already a serious problem — without the help of AI. We recently saw conspiracy theories circulating on social media about the recent Canadian wildfires spread quickly — which included falsities that the fires were caused by environmentalists or LGBTQ activists or intended to clear space for renewable energy projects.
Imagine if something that could create more believable lies and spread them further was producing the disinformation. AI very well could, unless we demand the protections that we take for granted in pharmaceuticals and transportation. As we saw with social media, once new technologies leave the lab, it’s too late.
In the wrong hands, AI could forever undermine factual climate discourse with its ability to tailor-make stories, arguments, even realistic images. By scraping social media posts and other digital activity, AI has the potential to create billions of pieces of disinformation and then personalize them and disseminate them — which could make it extremely difficult to tell fact from fiction. This could not only hinder fact-based climate action, but it could also pose serious danger around extreme weather events — when clear and accurate information is critical.
Fortunately, we can still prevent the AI genie from leaving the bottle by applying the same principles regulators have used on pharmaceuticals and automobile safety to artificial intelligence.
We should start with transparency. Before AI enters use, companies must be compelled to show regulators how algorithms work — and prove that they are safe. Even China is proposing this commonsense step in its AI regulations. American rules to ensure AI accountability currently being developed by the Commerce Department should, too.
This should include rigorous safeguards against AI algorithms explicitly using disinformation, hate speech and fraud to manipulate human emotions. Strict regulations surround pharmaceutical advertising. There’s every reason to similarly constrain AI, for as the United Nations has noted, “the propagation of scientifically misleading information” has severe “negative implications for climate policy.”
It should also have to adhere to community standards. We already require television to do so. Even TikTok has adopted standards specifically to counter climate disinformation. That same logic should be applied to AI, especially given its potential power to permeate what we read, see and think.
Lawmakers and regulators were slow to acknowledge the potential harms of social media. Facing the next great technological revolution — this one with the ability to change and adapt without human oversight — we can’t make the same mistake as with social media. AI industry leaders have even asked lawmakers to prioritize AI regulation.
The sad trajectory we’ve seen social media take wasn’t inevitable. It was the direct consequence of policy decisions taken — or, more accurately, not taken — when it was in its infancy. That’s where we are with artificial intelligence today.
And that’s why, to prevent its sweeping ability to spread disinformation about the most existential crisis facing humanity, the federal government must do what it’s done for decades. Require companies to prove products are safe before Americans use them.
Posted on April 2, 2024
Donations update: Support People For the American Way Foundation as it fights to stop the rising tide of authoritarianism in the U.S.
Note from the CREDO Mobile team: This April, People For the American Way Foundation is among three amazing groups that will receive a share of our monthly grant. Funding from the CREDO Mobile community will support People For the American Way Foundation in its work to stop authoritarianism in the U.S. and promote freedom of expression, civic engagement, fair courts and legal and lived equality for LGBTQ people.
Read this important blog post about People For the American Way Foundation’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 April grantees.
People For the American Way Foundation (People For) inspires and mobilizes community and cultural leaders to advance truth, justice and the American way. We convene courageous Americans, produce compelling media and organize campaigns to defend our democracy from authoritarian threats — advancing America’s promise that everyone will enjoy freedom, safety and a vote that counts.
For over 40 years, People For has engaged cultural and community leaders and individual activists in campaigns promoting freedom of expression, civic engagement, fair courts, and legal and lived equality for LGBTQ+ people. Together, we have battled voter suppression, censorship and injustice in our judicial system.
Television producer Norman Lear was moved to create People For at a time when core American values were undermined by the emerging religious-right political movement. Its leaders weaponized media platforms with claims that the only “real” Americans were people who shared their religious beliefs and political worldview. Norman, a Jewish American and World War II veteran, knew how wrong they were. He recruited people of many faiths and political backgrounds, including the late Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, to join him in saying, “That’s not the American Way.”
The integrity of our elections and our voting rights are under unprecedented assault and Black voters are the primary targets of those attacks. Authoritarian forces are stepping up voter suppression efforts across the country. They use strategies like disinformation, intimidation and legislation to make it harder for people to vote. They also undermine voter confidence with false narratives that elections are “rigged.”
People For has long known that one of the most important strategies to combat authoritarianism and anti-democratic forces in our society is to create a vibrant, inclusive electorate. We know that boosting Black voter turnout is critical to building an electorate that is prepared to turn back the rising authoritarian tide, as well as defend workers’ rights, women’s rights, voting rights, civil rights and the future of our planet.
And that’s why we launched Defend the Black Vote. Since 2020, our Defend the Black Vote program has mobilized a critical constituency — Black men — to get to the polls. Our focus is specific and strategic: hard-to-reach Black male voters between the ages of 18-60, who have only voted in one of three or four of the last election cycles. Our program is one of the largest get-out-the-vote programs directly focused on low-propensity Black men. We reach these voters where they live, with targeted advertising, church-based engagement and peer-to-peer texting. The effectiveness of our efforts has been emphasized in numerous outlets, including this recent piece in the Stanford Social Innovation Review.
In 2022, our campaign launched in 15 states, with a goal of getting 1 million Black male voters to the polls. Our program sent 4 million texts and our radio ads ran in Maryland, North Carolina and Wisconsin, while our digital ads garnered 93,000 impressions. We relaunched our campaign for the Georgia U.S. Senate runoff, sending over 1 million text messages to Black male voters, as well as a blitz of ads including radio, digital and billboards.
In the 2023 Virginia elections, we reached 240,000 voters six or more times via digital ads, as well as an additional 274,000 voters via bilingual radio ads. Aside from Virginia, Defend the Black Vote sent more than 1 million GOTV-related texts to over 400,000 unique voters across other 2023 statewide elections, including Kentucky, Ohio, New Jersey, Mississippi and Louisiana.
While our 2024 plans are still being formed, we will endeavor to engage every Black male with a mobile phone number on the national voter file, via text-based get-out-the-vote outreach.
To learn more about what we do, visit PFAW.org.
Posted on April 2, 2024
Our March grantees thank you for your support
Each month, CREDO members vote on how we distribute funding to three incredible nonprofits. In March, CREDO members voted to distribute our monthly donation among Reproductive Freedom for All, Rise Up and Stop AAPI Hate.
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 March grant recipients thank you.
Reproductive Freedom for All
“It’s going to take all of us to win back our rights. Thank you for helping us do this critical work to protect and expand reproductive freedom for everybody.” – Mini Timmaraju, President and CEO, Reproductive Freedom for All
To learn more, visit reproductivefreedomforall.org.
Rise Up
“Rise Up is extremely grateful to CREDO Mobile voters for supporting our work to ensure that women, girls, and gender-nonconforming people are healthy, educated, and can lift themselves and their families out of poverty.” – Dr. Dennise R. Dunning, Founder and Executive Director
To learn more, visit riseuptogether.org.
Stop AAPI Hate
“Our deepest gratitude for your support! Your vote helps Stop AAPI Hate to fight racism and discrimination against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, empower communities, and advocate for policies that protect the rights and dignity of AAPIs.” – Cynthia Choi and Manjusha Kulkarni, Co-founders, Stop AAPI Hate
To learn more, visit stopaapihate.org.
Now check out the three groups we are funding in April, and cast your vote to help distribute our donations.
CREDO members who use our products are the reason why we are able to make these donations each month. Learn more about CREDO Mobile, the carrier with a conscience.
Posted on April 2, 2024
CREDO Mobile funding supports 350.org in its fight to cool our climate and save our planet
Recently, CNN posted an opinion piece titled “I’m a climate scientist. If you knew what I know, you’d be terrified too.”
The author is Bill McGuire. In his piece, he wrote, “If the fracturing of our once stable climate doesn’t terrify you, then you don’t fully understand it. The reality is that, as far as we know, and in the natural course of events, our world has never — in its entire history — heated up as rapidly as it is doing now. Nor have greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere ever seen such a precipitous hike. Think about that for a moment. We’re experiencing, in our lifetimes, a heating episode that is probably unique in the last 4.6 billion years.”
Worried yet? We are. That’s why we support the vital work of 350.org. And why we recently made a large donation to the group.
350.org is an international movement of ordinary people working to end the age of fossil fuels and build a world of renewable energy for all. And, with the support of CREDO Mobile and our community, it is making progress.
Our funding moves the needle on climate change
With our help, 350.org is taking important steps forward in its campaign to save our climate. Here’s a report from 350.org on its recent successes.
- March to End Fossil Fuels. On September 17, together with our partners we mobilized 75,000 climate activists to fill the streets of New York City and demand the phase-out of fossil fuels and renewable energy solutions for all.
This was the largest climate mobilization since the start of the pandemic. It was one of 700 #EndFossilFuels actions in 65 countries, with total participation by 600,000 people. The demonstration received extensive news coverage, including a piece on the front page of the New York Times.
- Power Up. We organized a month of Power Up actions in November. Thousands of people around the world joined one of our 200 events in 46 countries, demanding 100% renewable energy and an end to fossil fuel finance and investment. Led by communities worldwide, Power Up events sent a resounding call that cannot be ignored: we need climate action now.
One example was Power Up in the Gulf. In New Orleans, we welcomed people of all ages into the climate movement, celebrating the community power and joy of the Gulf while engaging attendees in conversations about the harmful effects that methane gas plants have on people and the planet. We kicked off the event with a joyful Second Line march downtown calling on the government to end corporate subsidies, stop all old and new fossil fuel projects, and usher in real and just climate solutions for the Gulf and the world.
Additionally, we continued campaigns from previous years in which we saw major wins, including:
- Defunding fossil fuels. Three major financial institutions — Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, Standard Chartered Bank and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group —publicly declared their non-involvement in financing the EACOP project. The StopEACOP coalition raised the profile of this iconic fight, amplifying the voices of thousands of affected people and emphasizing the injustices of EACOP. Through coordinated advocacy, local and global community mobilization, communications and litigation, we’re closer to stopping EACOP’s oil and infrastructure developments before it’s too late.
- Phasing out Amazon oil and gas builds ahead of COP28. At the 2023 Amazon Summit, the damage of fossil fuel extraction received the same level of attention as deforestation for the first time, thanks to collective mobilizations and media attention. To achieve this increased focus, we worked closely with other grassroots organizations, including Amazon Watch, Global Gas & Oil Network, and Rainforest Action Network.
- Taking on the Federal Reserve. At the beginning of 2024, after years of our campaigning, the U.S. Federal Reserve officially released proposed climate guidance principles for major banks. 350.org’s Fossil Free Fed campaign successfully pressured the Fed to strengthen these guidelines by mobilizing an unprecedented 15,000 people to submit public comments on the proposal, something that is unheard of for an institution that’s used to hearing only from academics and politicians.
350.org puts new projects in the pipeline
The current moment presents us with a unique opportunity to effect a radical shift in both the “what” and the “how” of galvanizing our global movement in this next phase of securing climate justice.
To make it happen, we will build the power, strength and capacity of frontline groups, offer strategic focus and support. The campaign will be integrated across local, national and global spheres, addressing and overcoming challenges, both shared and unique.
We will focus on the following activities and objectives.
Distributed renewable energy
- Widespread regional variation is our strength. We will build the size and capacity of the movement through our current network of 500+ grassroots groups on six continents.
- We’ll empower local groups to advocate for and/or implement renewable energy solutions where they live, with principles and guardrails agreed with partners to ensure solutions are contained and focused.
- We’ll develop tools for community-led renewable initiatives.
- We’ll identify localized barriers to the uptake of renewable energy, and develop and test solutions.
- We’ll invest in grassroots groups, enabling community leaders to shape the work and also to develop renewable energy campaign approaches by learning together.
- We’ll enable new alliances and reach new audiences to create demand for climate solutions.
- We’ll deliver a full suite of support to grassroots groups to help them become self-sufficient.
- We’ll identify and train the next generation of youth activists to ensure sustained community-led action toward 100% renewable energy.
Iconic renewable installations
In strategic locations around the globe, we will campaign for investment in and implementation of iconic renewable installations that will reignite the movement. We’ll develop a comprehensive communications strategy at the global, regional, national and community levels to increase public acceptance and demand for renewable energy.
A shift of financing toward renewables
We’ll continue to drive forward our finance campaigns in key regions, shifting the focus of financing toward investment in renewables. According to the International Energy Agency’s net zero scenario, investment in renewables must triple to reach $4 trillion by 2030.
Together, CREDO Mobile and 350.org are making a difference
350.org is calling for a deep transition, one that places energy justice at the beating heart of its values. It is moving forward into the world we all want to see, leaving no one behind. It is doing this with the urgency the climate crisis demands of us. And it is doing it with the support of CREDO Mobile.
To learn more about the critical work 350.org does, go to 350.org.
Posted on April 2, 2024
You’re Invited: Earth Month Events
Happy Earth Month! Climate justice is one of CREDO Mobile’s main pillars of giving, and we know it’s something our community cares deeply about. To celebrate Earth Month and honor the efforts to create a safer, cleaner and more hospitable planet for all, we reached out to some of our incredible nonprofit partners to see how our community members might be able to get involved.
Green America’s Webinar Series | Online | Throughout April
Thursday, April 11 at 3pm ET: Garden of Remembering (Film Showing and Q&A with Filmmakers)
Will Hasell makes a difference in his community with a small garden that he started in his front yard. He grows food and provides a free seed library and compost program for the community, and he hopes to inspire others to start their own gardens. Join Green America on Thursday, April 11 to view the beautiful and sanguine short film “Garden of Remembering”. You’ll leave with positive, hopeful feelings about the power of gardening. We’ll be joined by award-winning filmmaker Dante Downey and the film’s subject, Will Hasell.
Thursday, April 25 at 7pm ET: Aligning Your Money with Your Values: Take Charge of Your Card
In this webinar, you will learn: How credit card issuers make money, how to tell if a credit card is tied to fossil fuels, how the branding on a credit card differs from its issuer, how to tell if a store or affinity card supports fossil fuels, and how to find a responsible credit card. Speakers include Rev. Amy Brooks Paradise from GreenFaith, Fran Teplitz from Green America, and Michael Richardson from Third Act Upstate New York.
Sunrise Movement Teach-ins | Nationwide | April 21-22
“Every Earth Day, politicians and corporations that aren’t doing shit to stop the climate crisis give themselves a pat on the back. This year, that comes to an end. We’re challenging politicians in every corner of the country to tell the truth about the climate crisis and the solutions we need, or we’ll expose their cowardice and do it without them. It’s time to declare a Climate Emergency and fight for the world we all deserve.” Learn more and check to see if an event is happening in your city here.
Earth Guardians’ “Inspiring Shift” Program | Nationwide | Ongoing
To expand its reach within historically marginalized communities, Earth Guardians is deploying its most inspiring young public speakers (all identifying as QT-BIPOC and under 30) to public elementary, middle, high school, and higher education institutions nationwide to educate, mentor, and engage students in the climate justice space. This transformative initiative is designed to shift power and agency into the hands of the next generation, motivating more young individuals to become confident leaders equipped with the skills and knowledge needed to shape their future. Interested in having a speaker at your school or in your community? Learn more about this program here, and request a speaker here.
Earth Guardians’ Project Grant Application Launch | Nationwide | April 22
Earth Guardians Project Grants range from $300 to $1,000 and work to support its global network of changemakers, youth leaders, and Crews. Since 2021, its Project Grants program has backed grassroots efforts in climate justice education, regenerative agriculture, tree plantings, nonviolent direct action, climate policy, food security, art-vism, and more worldwide. With education, mentorship, and funding, its Project Grants program empowers others to bring their ideas to life and inspire others. The process also teaches grant writing, project coordination, and data analysis skills. Join Earth Guardians in building resilience and tackling the climate crisis locally while inspiring the global movement. Check out the website to apply when the application goes live on Earth Day!
View 350.org’s Pacific Islands Team’s Upcoming Documentary Trailer and/or Host a Screening!
Stronger Together is a documentary following a crew of students, Pacific Climate Warriors and Gomeroi First Nations Custodians who confront the damaging impacts of mega coal mines and gas wells and work to protect lands and lives against the fossil fuels industry. View the trailer here, follow the Pacific Climate Warriors work at @pacificclimatewarriors and go watch the full film once it’s released. Details about the release and opportunities for hosting a screening of your own can be found here.
Posted on April 1, 2024
Donations update: Support Black Voters Matter as it works to increase power in marginalized, predominantly Black communities
Note from the CREDO Mobile team: This April, Black Voters Matter is among three amazing groups that will receive a share of our monthly grant. Funding from the CREDO Mobile community will support Black Voters Matter as it campaigns to increase power in marginalized, predominantly Black communities and turn out voters, because effective voting enables a community to determine its own destiny.
Read this important blog post about Black Voters Matter’s critical work, then visit CREDODonations.com and cast your vote to help send funding to Black Voters Matter to assist its efforts—and the efforts of our other outstanding April grantees.
You know the drill. Every election cycle, we hear about the importance of voting, the power of the vote, blah blah blah. But if you’re a Black voter, that power often feels like a myth. Voter suppression tactics like restrictive ID laws, gerrymandered districts and a decrease in polling locations disproportionately target Black communities. The result? Lower voter turnout, diluted representation and a system that seems rigged against the interests of Black people.
But here’s the thing. We have the power to make the change that we want to see in our communities and that is why the work of Black Voters Matter is so important. The goal of Black Voters Matter is to increase power in marginalized, predominantly Black communities. We believe that effective voting allows a community to determine its own destiny. We agree with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. when he said, “Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.”
BVM’s mission is a comprehensive approach to social justice, with a focus that extends far beyond voting rights and voter engagement. We recognize the interconnected nature of social justice issues and we’re at the forefront of campaigns for environmental justice, youth engagement, reparations, Medicaid expansion and more. Our work ranges widely, from raising awareness about the environmental injustices in Louisiana’s Cancer Alley to engaging college and high school students through our Take the Field campaign to advocating for affordable healthcare, but all of it is focused on creating a powerful coalition that reflects the diverse needs of Black communities across the country and all of it drives real change.
As we continue to grow and expand our impact, our work is becoming increasingly influential in shifting the narrative around Black voter participation by centering the voices and needs of Black voters. As we look to the future, the work of Black Voters Matter serves as a powerful reminder that grassroots organizing is the backbone of any successful social movement. And it’s time we fight back, by continuing to empower communities at the grassroots level and increasing voter turnout and civic participation.
To lean more about Black Voters Matter, watch this video overview at YouTube or visit BlackVotersMatterFund.org.
Posted on April 1, 2024
Vote for Black Voters Matter, Friends of the Earth and People for the American Way Foundation this April
Every month, CREDO members vote to distribute our monthly grant to three incredible progressive causes – and every vote makes a difference. This April, you can support Black Voters Matter, Friends of the Earth and People for the American Way Foundation.
Black Voters Matter
Black Voters Matter (BVM) Capacity Building Institute’s mission is to increase civic engagement and power building in predominantly Black communities. Our belief is that effective voting allows a community to determine its own destiny.
Our goal with this funding is voter outreach, education, and engagement throughout our target counties to help create excitement around voter turnout, educate community members and develop a community-driven agenda for expanded voting rights and progress on local issues (energy, criminal justice reform, and healthcare.).
Friends of the Earth
Friends of the Earth believes that environmental protection and social justice are both part of the struggle for a healthy and just world. We fight polluters who put profit over people, and we help the public join in the battle.
A vote for Friends of the Earth will help us fight against polluters and policies that threaten our precious shared Earth. Above all your vote will help us fight for climate solutions that are fair for all the people and animals that call Earth home.
People for the American Way Foundation
Our focus is specific: Black male voters who have only voted once in the last several elections. This is one of the largest “get out the vote” programs directly focused on Black men. We reach them with targeted advertising and peer-to-peer texting.
CREDO funding will help People For’s nonpartisan efforts to educate and mobilize sporadic Black male voters to turn out to the polls. Our overall goal is for Black men to match Black women as the most engaged voting demographic group.
Your vote this month will determine how we divide our monthly donations among these three progressive groups. Be sure to cast your vote to support one, two or all three by April 30.
CREDO members who use our products and services everyday are the reason we are able to make these donations each month. Learn more about CREDO Mobile and join our movement.
Posted on March 20, 2024
Spring cleaning for your phone – delete those zombie apps
If you’re like most people, you’ve got a lot of apps on your phone that you never use. Streaming channels you don’t watch, fitness apps you’ve fallen out with, games that now bore you. A quarter of all apps downloaded are used just once and never again. Far more are used a few times and forgotten.
These zombie apps are, well, if not an apocalypse, at least a big problem for your phone. They hog storage and memory, clutter up your screen and open the door to serious security threats. They should be deleted. And, since this is the season of spring cleaning, now is a good time to do it. Here’s why.
The security risk
Zombie apps can pose a serious threat to your digital security. If an app is not regularly updated—either because you never use it or because it’s no longer maintained by its developers—it may contain unpatched vulnerabilities that open your phone up to hackers.
Good apps can also be hijacked by bad actors and turned into malware. In 2021, the developers of a barcode-scanning app sold it to new owners, who promptly injected malware into the app. The malware would open the web browser on the phones of users and display junk pages with ads. This made money for the app’s new owners but it was a major annoyance for the millions of Android users who had installed the app.
Google pulled the app from the Play Store to prevent future downloads but Google doesn’t notify users when an app gets banned, so anyone who already had the app kept on getting ads they didn’t want to see.
The only way to protect yourself from security risks like these is to go through all your apps and uninstall those that you don’t use or don’t trust.
The clutter factor
The average person uses around nine apps a day and around 30 per month. That means the typical smartphone user needs just over one screen’s worth of apps to do what they do in a typical month.
But if your phone is clogged with dozens of apps you don’t use, you might be wasting valuable time whenever you open your phone, scrolling and searching for the app you want—especially if you’re one of those people (like us) who doesn’t keep their screen very well organized.
Uninstall apps you don’t use and you’ll find the apps you do use a lot quicker.
The storage suck
Some apps gobble up a lot of space on your phone the moment you install them. Call of Duty: Mobile takes a whopping 15GB. Other apps start small, then hog more memory as you use them. Photo and video editing apps do this because they save a version of all the original photos and videos that you edit. The more you edit, the more space the app takes.
If you use an app often, it’s OK to give it space. But you should clean out all the apps you never use—the games you’re tired of, the zany photo filters that were fun for 20 minutes—to free up space for the apps you do use.
To check the storage used by your apps on your iPhone, go to Settings > General > Storage. On your Android, go to Settings > Apps.
How to uninstall zombie apps
This is the easy part. If you have an iPhone, touch and hold the app you want to delete. When the menu appears, tap Delete App, then Delete. Uninstalling apps on an Android phone works the same way. Find the app, touch and hold it, and when the menu pops up, tap Uninstall.
How to get the ultimate app
One phone comes with an app you won’t find anywhere else—a phone from CREDO Mobile. And what’s the app? It’s the ultimate: it actually makes the world a better place.
Every time you use your CREDO Mobile phone, you generate donations for nonprofit groups fighting to make our planet more fair, sustainable, just and equal. Groups like the National LGBTQ Task Force, Green America, Planned Parenthood and Social Security Works.
These donations cost you nothing extra. But they mean everything to the nonprofits that rely on us. So join CREDO Mobile and get the good feeling that comes with knowing you support the progressive causes you care about, just by using our service.
You’ll also get everything you want from a phone company, like great rates, special deals on the latest devices and the nation’s top-rated, most reliable network.
Switching is easy. You can bring your current number and your current phone. To learn more, go to https://www.credomobile.com/byod/.
