Help Choosing an SRI Mutual Fund Written By: Casson Rosenblatt 2007-10-18 10:49:57
For those of you who are trying to find a SRI mutual fund to invest in, Amy L. Fontinelle on her blog Two Pennies Earned, has done some of the heavy-lifting for you. She narrows down a long list provided by Social Investment Forum and Morningstar and reviewed 16 funds in depth. This is how she describes her process:
I started compiling the list from funds that had 9% or higher returns over a 10 year period. I aim for this return myself whenever choosing a fund since the S&P 500 historically returns this amount and my retirement calculations are therefore based on it. Then I expanded my list to funds that returned 7% - 9% since there were so few in the first category. I also added other funds that sounded like they might have potential.
If He Can Like Wal-Mart, Can You? Written By: Casson Rosenblatt 2007-08-20 15:49:36 For those of us interested in sustainable community development, Wal-Mart (WMT) is a hard company to like, let alone love. Even with its move toward more energy-efficient stores and selling more environmentally-friendly and organic products, it is a reflex for many of us to be Wal-Mart haters. But given the enormity of the company, is dismissing Wal-Mart offhand worse than engaging with it seriously?
In a Shifting World, Inform Thyself Written By: Casson Rosenblatt 2008-01-17 13:50:16 Corporate social responsibility is more than a buzz word. For better or worse, it has joined mainstream business lingo and is changing the landscape of the private, public, and social sector. This week's Economist delves into the many facets of CSR in its special report on the issue. The articles range in topic from the virtues of CSR to managing risks to ethics of consumers to the globalization of CSR. Some articles are more informative than others, but taken as a whole, the issue gives readers insight into both the promise and the problems of the growth of the industry.
One of the most important statements in the report is the following:
A new, exhaustive academic review of 167 studies over the past 35 years concludes that there is in fact a positive link between companies' social and financial performance—but only a weak one. Firms are not richly rewarded for CSR, it seems, but nor does it typically destroy shareholder value. Might cleverer approaches to CSR in future produce better returns?
If CSR doesn't hurt, does it matter that it might not drastically improve the value of the business? Isn't the social outcome the value?
Investing in Your Own Backyard Written By: Casson Rosenblatt 2007-08-28 10:46:59 The push towards "local" is mostly viewed through consumer eyes. Whether shopping at local stores rather than national chains, or eating local foods rather than those shipped from thousands of miles away, being local is emerging as vital to the sustainable development movement.
Socially responsible investors can get in on the act as well. Supporting community development financial institutions (CDFIs) is a great way to make your money work for your community.
Investing on My Own Terms: A Definition of SRI Written By: Casson Rosenblatt 2007-06-25 10:30:40 Somewhere along the way, an industry becomes defined by the terms used to describe it. And then sprouts a descent saying that the original terms are somehow skewing the real meaning of what the industry does, or perhaps, unfairly paints another industry as not being what the new industry says it is. Such is the case with socially responsible investing (SRI).
