Socially Responsible Investing

Funds

SRI funds, or socially resposible investing funds use screeners to determine which stocks meet a conciouss investors' needs.

SocialFunds.com has an overview and general list.

I also have a few links on the sidebar that help explain why the funds are good for some people and how they work.
Check out GreenMoney Journal for some basics and more links.

I don't want to rehash their screeners, but they find stocks that have a certain level of environmental reporting, or avoid companies that have questionable ethics. Most of these funds have averaged around 7% on before tax returns with some years reaching way into the double digits. For instance the Pax Balanced fund, according to their april 2005 prospectus, had negative numbers for 2001 (-9.09%) and 2002 (-8.86%)......while 2003 saw a 17.27% return and 2004 had 13.39%. In their prospectus, as with any, they note past performance is not a very good predictor of future performance. This has a lot to do with the economy and mindset of consumers, as well as the manager which can have a a good/bad year.

Here is what the Sierra Club has and you can see how the holdings are to your taste:

Sierra Club Fund Facts
Hershey Foods
3.77%
Equifax
2.95%
NVR
2.18%
Alltel
2.11%
Jefferson-Pilot
2.00%
Hewlett-Packard
1.99%
Franklin Resources
1.98%
Oracle
1.97%
Astoria Financial
1.95%
MGM Mirage
1.94%
McGraw Hill
1.86%
Bank of America
1.85%
CIGNA
1.82%
SAFECO
1.76%
Humana
1.76%
UnitedHealth Group
1.75%
Comcast
1.73%
KeyCorp
1.71%
Starbucks
1.70%
McCormick & Co.
1.59%
Kroger
1.56%
Amgen
1.55%
MGIC Investment
1.54%
Fastenal
1.51%
Microsoft
1.47%