CREDO Mobile
Working Assets is a socially responsible American wireless and long distance phone service, and credit card company based in San Francisco, California. It is also the publisher of the best-selling book How Would a Patriot Act? by Glenn Greenwald.
The company was founded in 1985. A portion of the fees charged by the company go towards "making the world a better place". They have raised $50 million for progressive non-profit corporations since 1985, when the company was founded. Some of the groups that have received money from Working Assets include Greenpeace, Doctors Without Borders, Planned Parenthood, Amnesty International and Project Vote. Yearly polls to customers determine the allocation of contributions to non-profit social change organizations.
Working for Change
Working for Change is an online progressive news journal published by Working Assets. The journal features articles from syndicated columnists such as Molly Ivins, Robert Scheer, and Greg Palast.
Act for Change
Act for Change is a progressive online activism site published by Working Assets that allows individuals to speak out on urgent issues to elected officials and other decisionmakers. Recent issues featured on the site include opposition to conservative judicial nominees, support for embryonic stem cell research, and opposition to President Bush's unprecedented use of signing statements.
Volunteer for Change
Volunteer for Change was created by Working Assets in order to make volunteering easier for busy people who want to make a difference. It is a web-based tool for progressive organizations and individuals to manage volunteers online, using customer-generated ratings to guarantee the best possible experience for users.
Environmental Activities
Working Assets uses recycled paper for all its paper bills and internal operations, and provides tens of thousands of dollars in tree-planting grants to nonprofit groups each year. Working Assets is also a carbon-neutral company, purchasing carbon offsets through Carbonfund.org to reduce its office's climate footprint to zero.
Criticism
Credit card
The credit card offered by Working Assets came under criticism as it is issued through the bank MBNA, the top contributor to George W. Bush's 2000 Presidential Campaign[1].
When asked about this, Working Assets' employees have made differing claims. In one letter, it was stated that Working Assets chose MBNA regardless of their political views and entirely for their experience and quality customer service.[2] In another letter, president Michael Kieschnick stated that Working Assets ended up under MBNA when the company purchased the credit card business of Fleet Bank, who previously issued the card. Kieschnick said it was not Working Assets' choice to select MBNA and cannot change banks without violating their current contract[3]. MBNA has subsequently been purchased by Bank of America.
Telephone carrier
Working Assets uses the network of Sprint Nextel, a non-union long distance telephone carrier.
See also
References
- ^ Open Secrets, 2000 PRESIDENTIAL RACE Top Contributors
- ^ Unknown News, Working Assets works for Bush's biggest backers, May 7, 2003
- ^ Buyblue, Working Assets and MBNA