Top 20 Socially Responsible Mutual Funds

According to Wikipedia, socially responsible investing (SRI)

describes an investment strategy which combines the intentions to maximize both financial return and social good. In general, socially responsible investors favor corporate practices which are environmentally responsible, support workplace diversity, and increase product safety and quality.

In the May issue of Financial Planning magazine, there’s a special report on SRI with a list of top 20 mutual funds that involve in such activities. The screening of funds out of hundreds, possibly thousands, of mutual fund offerings uses certain criteria to make sure that the fund’s investments have no or restricted exposures to industries that engage in

• Alcohol
• Tobacco
• Gambling
• Defense/Weapons
• Animal testing

While at the same time, the fund should have positive investments in

• Products/Services
• Environment
• Human rights
• Labor relations
• Employment equality
• Community investing

Because of the relatively small number of funds that can be considered as socially responsible, identifying a SR funds isn’t as straightforward as, say, using any mutual fund screening tool ro find a fund that has 10% return, 1% ER, and $1,000 minimum investment. With the list, which ranks funds based on their average 5-year return, however, making a selection is a little easier if this is the area that one wants to get in.

The following are the top 20 SR mutual funds from the Financial Planning magazine. I added the ER (expense ratio) colum so you can have an idea the cost of owning the fund as well as the link to the fund’s Morningstar summary page for easy reference.