Working Assets

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Working Assets is a socially responsible American wireless and long distance phone service and credit card company founded in 1985 and based in San Francisco, California. A portion of the fees charged by the company are automatically donated to organizations working to build a better world. The donations are at no additional cost to Working Assets subscribers. Since its founding, Working Assets has raised over $50 million for progressive nonprofit organizations. Some of the groups that have received money from Working Assets include Greenpeace, Doctors Without Borders, Planned Parenthood, Amnesty International and Project Vote. A yearly poll of customers determines the allocation of contributions.

Working Assets is also well known for sending out Ben & Jerry's coupons to new subscribers.

Working Assets is also the publisher of the best-selling book How Would a Patriot Act? by Glenn Greenwald.

1 Websites
2 Environmental Activities
3 Criticism
- 3.1 Credit card
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Websites

[edit] WorkingForChange

WorkingForChange is a progressive news and opinion Web site maintained by Working Assets. The site features articles from syndicated columnists such as Ellen Goodman, Robert Scheer and Greg Palast. In January 2007 the site started a blog.

[edit] ActForChange

ActForChange is a progressive online activism site run by Working Assets that allows individuals to speak out on urgent issues to elected officials and other targeted decision-makers. 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. It is part of WorkingForChange.

[edit] VolunteerForChange

VolunteerForChange is a program 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.

[edit] Environmental Activities

Working Assets uses 100% post-consumer recycled paper and soybased ink 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.

[edit] Criticism

[edit] Credit card

Although the Working Assets credit card is now offered through Bank of America, the product came under criticism when it was 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 was subsequently purchased by Bank of America.