Our Mission
CREDO is a different kind of company. We're not driven by the bottom line; we're driven by a belief. A belief that we can make the world a better place — and for 25 years we've been doing just that. Here's how.
Donations at no extra cost
Our business is based on a simple, powerful strategy: enable people to make a difference in the world by doing the things they do every day. When our members use our services — CREDO Mobile, CREDO Long Distance or the Working Assets Credit Card — we donate a portion of their charges to nonprofit organizations working for progressive change.
These contributions are made at no cost to our members but they make a huge difference to the causes our members care about. Since our founding in 1985 as Working Assets, we've raised over $65 million for nonprofit groups in our five issue areas: civil rights, environment, peace & international freedom, economic & social justice, and voting rights & civic participation.
Who decides where the money goes? Our members play an important part. Every year we ask them to nominate nonprofit groups to receive funding. We evaluate the nominees, then our employees and board of directors select the 50 groups we'll fund for the year. Our members then vote to decide how much money each group will get.
Activism made easy
CREDO members use our easy activism tools to speak out every day for causes they believe in.
In every phone bill we update our members on hot-button issues and give them easy ways to speak out — with a free call or a low-cost advocacy letter sent on their behalf. We explain what's at stake and encourage them to make their voice heard. And they do. Every month our members generate over 80,000 calls and letters to Congress, the White House and corporate leaders.
We also offer CREDO Action, our activism Web site where you can stay current with issues of the day and take action to influence decision-makers.
By using our activism tools, our members have helped win significant victories over the years. They've pushed for landmark global-warming rules, helped defeat anti-abortion measures in states around the country and pressured Congress to protect over 2 million acres of wilderness from logging and development.
We're also a powerful progressive force come election time. We helped 2.5 million Americans register to vote in the run-up to 2008. We've led successful campaigns in several states to pass election-day registration, a proven means of lifting turnout. And we're active in the Election Protection Coalition, which deploys lawyers around the U.S. to ensure voters don't face obstruction at the polls.
Green in every way
CREDO is not just green, it's real green. We're the only one that prints our bills with soy-based ink on all-recycled paper. We're the only one that plants 100 trees for every ton of paper we use (enough to make another ton of paper). And we're the only one that's donated over $10 million to groups like Friends of the Earth, Vote Solar Initiative, ForestEthics, Greenpeace and the Rocky Mountain Institute.
We work with our partner Carbonfund.org to offset the estimated lifetime electricity usage and shipping of all our mobile phones. We were the first phone company to offer solar-powered chargers. And we're a leader in phone recycling: to make it easy for our members to send in their old phones for reuse or recycling, we've teamed up with Flipswap, an eco-friendly organization that offers cash back or makes a donation to CREDO's nonprofit groups if your phone has any value.