CREDO: A Company Everyone Should Know
8/21/2015
Do you use a cell phone? More importantly, did you know that every time you pay your cell phone bill, and everyone else pays their cell phone bills, a portion of that gigantic pile of money is donated to other causes?
Many years ago, someone told me I should switch from AT&T to CREDO. I was happy with AT&T, though. I was really, really happy with my iPhone. And, frankly, when I'm happy with something, I hate change. Hate it enthusiastically. Telling me CREDO was a
"good company" and I wouldn't pay more than I did with AT&T just wasn't enough to sway me.
When I learned, however, that AT&T (and Verizon, too) was one of the biggest donators in getting Bush Jr. elected, and funding banning abortions for women and girls in need of them, and the Tea Party, and a multitude of other things I oppose, I discovered that CREDO is actually perfectly in line with my values.
(Here's another article on the right wing funding from AT&T and Verizon from David Zax at Fast Company.)
I spend about $1200 a year on my family's phone bill so my contributions from that fee matter to me.
CREDO takes a portion of our monthly payments and contributes our money to movements that are planting trees, feeding starving women and children, advocating for human rights (especially women's, gay, and minority rights), fighting for the impoverished and the degraded, protecting the environment, and sooo much more.
And CREDO has been doing this for over 30 years.
They even have an impressive history of being the #1 funder of Planned Parenthood. As a woman living in a man's world, I'm deeply grateful to them for this, on behalf of all women. From their website at http://www.credomobile.com/ :
"Over the course of our history, CREDO has raised over $79 million for Democracy Now!, Brennan Center for Justice, Doctors Without Borders, ACLU, EFF, Planned Parenthood, 350.org and hundreds of other nonprofit groups.
Our activism arm, CREDO Action, channels the power of its 3.5 million members to fight for progressive change. We’ve generated over 16 million letters and phone calls to decision-makers in Washington D.C., in state and local governments, and in corporate headquarters across the country. Our members have submitted their signatures over 127 million times on CREDO petitions and in public comments to government agencies."
Believe it or not, it gets even better! CREDO has even more to offer:
1.) CREDO will help you pay off your old bill if you choose to switch over to them. $350 per line.
2.) I pay less now for the same services I had with AT&T.
3.) I get way better service with CREDO! They run off Sprint's cell towers and, at least for me, in Eugene
Oregon, they are 10x better than AT&T's.
4.) When you pay your monthly bill with a bank card, CREDO plants a tree.
5.) Every month, we get an email encouraging us to vote for the company we want our donations to go to.
What it comes down to is this. If your cell phone is with AT&T, Verizon, and others, you're supporting the collapse of women's rights, the denial of climate change and need for environmental action, the defeat of social programs which help the poor, hungry, and otherwise disadvantaged; if your cell phone is with CREDO, you're supporting social justice, progressive change, the well being of the environment, the betterment of life for those in need of advocacy, and other movements that appeal to those of us with a strong sense of integrity, altruism, and empathy.
The choice is yours.
© Lindsay Swanberg – 2015. All Rights Reserved.