This second one-hour webinar provides practical tools and steps to help you find a better bank, credit union, and/or credit card.

About this event

Join Webinar #2 on “Better Banks and Credit Cards” in Third Act’s 4-part series on Responsible Finance designed in collaboration with Timothy Yee and Rose Penelope Yee of Green Retirement, Inc. to answer your questions. In this series, you will hear from certified financial advisors, bank and personal finance experts, experts on investment and retirement, and nonprofits leading campaigns to reform the financial system. You’ll learn big-picture strategies and approaches as well as practical steps to help you design your personal Responsible Financial Plan and to make choices that are good for you and good for the planet.

This second one-hour webinar provides practical tools and steps to help you find a better bank, credit union, and/or credit card. Speakers include Fran Teplitz, Co-Executive Director of Green America, Jessy Tolkan CEO of Drive Agency and the creator of Bank for Good, and Jim Thompson who has made the switch and founded This! Is What We Did. Panel members will speak to questions Third Act has received about credit scores and other elements of switching. 

Speakers will explain:

  • the various criteria that define a “better bank,”
  • what certifications to look for,
  • demonstrate the available tools and guides to help you find a better bank and credit card;
  • how the field of better banks, credit unions, and credit cards is evolving, 
  • considerations for choosing the right banks and credit cards that will meet your needs, and
  • tips for responsibly managing a transition in accounts.

One of Third Act’s central goals is to halt the flow of money financing the climate crisis. We don’t want our money to be invested in an unlivable world. When we launched the Banking on our Future campaign to move our money and credit cards away from these dirty banks, we heard your questions about whether doing this will affect your finances and how to start aligning your money with your values. Join us to learn more.

 

Please note: Third Act is a non-profit educational, organizing, and advocacy organization. We are not investment advisors and are legally prohibited from providing investment or financial advice. The information provided on this page, our website, in the webinar, and in emails is for educational purposes only. Third Act does not offer advisory or brokerage services, nor does it recommend or advise investors to buy or sell particular stocks, securities or other investments.

Jessy Tolkan,

Jessy Tolkan is the President and CEO of Drive Agency. With nearly 20 years of campaign and movement experience, her passion and drive for transformative change have taken her around the world and across issue sectors in pursuit of building the necessary power to win. 

Prior to founding Drive Agency, Jessy served as Partner at PURPOSE and Co-Founder of Purpose Labs, a ground-breaking approach to campaigning and collaborating with philanthropy to drive change. During her tenure at Purpose, she helped expand their global footprint by opening campaign offices in India, Brazil, Eastern Europe, Indonesia, and Kenya. The Purpose Climate Lab, where Jessy remains a Collaborator and Senior Advisor, employs 40 staff globally, and has raised and invested over 40 million dollars in climate campaigning infrastructure over the past 6 years. 

Over the course of her career, Jessy has built and led a series of powerful progressive institutions, including her role as Executive Director of the Energy Action Coalition, as the Co-Executive Director of the Citizen Engagement Laboratory, and as Senior Advisor to the Working Families Party. Jessy has consulted with leading social change organizations in the United States and around the world including: Progressive Change Campaign Committee, GetEqual, HeadCount, 1sky, 350.org, Groundswell, Web of Change, and Wellstone Action, The Women’s Forum for the Economy and Society, and Global Witness. 

She’s been featured in Time Magazine, Glamour Magazine, The New York Times, Hard Ball with Chris Matthews, and Vanity Fair Magazine. Rolling Stone Magazine named her one of the 100 agents of change in America. 

Jessy Tolkan received her B.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Political Science.

Fran Teplitz, Executive Co-Director of Green America

Fran Teplitz serves as the Executive Co-Director of Green America, focusing on Green America’s programs in green business, socially and environmentally responsible banking and investing, and public policy. Green America is a nonprofit membership-based organization in Washington, DC that involves consumers, businesses, and investors in economic strategies to advance positive social and environmental change. Fran joined the organization in 2000.

Fran’s roles include serving as the Director of Green America’s Green Business Network® and Director of the Responsible Finance Program. Her work on impact investing includes community investing and banking, shareholder action, and fossil fuel divestment. She also manages Green America’s role in coalitions related to sustainable business and economics, climate change, and other policy issues.

Fran worked with Peace Action and the Peace Action Education Fund for seven years before joining Green America. Prior to Peace Action, she worked on U.S. policy toward Central America.  She holds a Master’s Degree from the Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame and earned her undergraduate degree from Washington University in St. Louis in Political Science. 

Head shot of Jim Thompson

Jim Thompson

Jim Thompson (he, him) (Jim@ThisIsWhatWeDid.org )

Jim founded THIS! Is What We Did. 

THIS! helps people move their money from climate-bad banks (especially Chase, Citibank, Wells Fargo & Bank of America) financing the destruction of the planet’s ability to support humanity. THIS! provides training in Effective Climate Conversations and supports people who are committed to helping grow a large and diverse movement. 

Jim founded Positive Coaching Alliance, a national movement to transform youth sports. He co-founded Recovery Café San José, a healing community for individuals traumatized by homelessness, mental illness and drug abuse. He has written nine books including Positive Coaching and Elevating Your Game.   

Jim received an MBA from Stanford where he was Director of the Public Management Program, named as the nation’s top non-profit business management program. 

Jim is an Ashoka Fellow. He has taught coaching, leadership, and sport & spiritually in Stanford University’s Continuing Studies Program and teaches an online spiritual poetry class.