NWSRI - Northwest Socially Responsible Investors
our collection of bits N bobs - Shaula and Elise
What is socially responsible investing? Shaula wrote a blog entry about it.
Information and Research
Green Money Journal - "Every week brings news that makes socially and environmentally responsible investing and green business more relevant then ever."
Materials on Mission Related Investing from the Noyes Foundation
Social Funds - personal finance site devoted to socially responsible investing
International - the United Nations Environment Programme - Finance Initative: UNEP-FI
They just published (Jan 2007) an interesting whitepaper on the slow uptake of ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) issues in High Net Worth Individual asset management.
Socially Responsible Investment Research firm
Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility - home of the EthVest proxy vote database
Social Investment Forum guide to socially responsible mutal funds
Social Investment Forum Community Investment Database
Info on Nathan Cummings Foundation shareholder engagement activities
Investor Network on Climate Risk
Good Money
ISS - Institutional Shareholder Services - they do proxy voting for large holders
Proxy Democracy - help for individual investors - see what the big SRI funds are doing!
SRIAdvisor.com
Social Edge
Innovest - investing and research firm focused on socially & environmentally responsible investment
A great SRI book listing, courtesy of Creative Investment Research. They also have several pages with good info on choosing advisors and investments.
http://www.sristudies.org/index.html - a collection of 17 key papers on socially responsible investing
Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors has a number of publications on mission-related investing for foundations. The subject area over time has blurred over into Social Impact investing for anyone (well, mostly anyone with big bucks, but lessons can be gleaned for all). Check out their monograph on Social Impact investing for advice on how to think about your goals.
Glossary of Investment Terms - an nwsri link
Places we've heard of to invest
Investment Advisors these folks should help you do some planning, an asset allocation, and investment selection
The Caprock Group, Boise ID
Social Equity Group, Berkeley, CA
Good Funds, Seattle, WA
Natural Investing, CO, CA, HI
Veris Wealth Partners, NY
Newground Social Investment, Seattle, WA
Trillium Asset Management, Boston, MA
Portfolio 21, Portland, OR
http://www.harringtoninvestments.com/ - Napa, CA
Investment managers of The Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation
Blue Dot Venture Fund
Boston Common Asset Management http://www.bostoncommonasset.com
Commons Capital http://www.commonscapital.com
Kenwood Capital Management http://www.riversource.com/rvsc/investments/kenwood-management.asp
Neuberger Berman, LLC http://www.nb.com
Solstice Capital http://www.solcap.com
TIAA-CREF Asset Management http://www.tcasset.com
Trainer, Wortham & Company http://www.trainerwortham.com
Winslow Management Company http://www.winslowgreen.com
Consultant Mercer Investment Consulting http://www.merceric.com
Investment Fund Companies - these folks generally offer funds or managed accounts but don't necessarily help you individually make a plan for your assets, though you'll see that many companies are on both lists. The question then is "are you open platform" which means - after you've helped me figure out an asset allocation and now you're choosing investments, do you examine and select from investment funds outside your own company? I prefer that to be a "yes". Nobody can really analyze every stock or fund for it's potential use in a portfolio, but I want the subset of what they do analyze to be good sized, certianly bigger than the handful of funds they manage themselves, and I'm wary of conflict of interest.
Domini Social Investments
Trillium Asset Management
The Calvert Group has an Introduction to Socially Responsible Investing with their offerings
Portfolio 21 has a fund in addition to doing investment advising
RSF Social Finance has social impact loan funds
Progressive Investment Management, Portland OR
Light Green Advisors, Seattle, WA
Trillium Asset Management, Boston, Boise, San Francisco, Durham
http://www.creativeinvest.com/ - MN. They run a diversity fund that looks at how companies manage diversity.
Generation Investment Management - London & DC. Honorary Chairman Al Gore. However they don't consider themselves SRI, rather they're trad alpha with a "sustainability lens".
Donor Advised Funds - charitable funds you can donate to now but "advise" on what nonprofit should ultimately get the dollars later. They help you separate when you get the tax deduction from when you have to decide the best use of the donated dollars. Particularly if you have a windfall year or you get some kind of corporate matching you're not ready to take advantage of yet, this is a great tool. These folks will make sure your dollars are invested in a social impact way while they wait to be donated.
Calvert
RSF
Tides
Banks - where you do your banking can have an impact on who gets access to loan dollars or bank services based on what institutions are strong and liquid!
Shorebank Chicago - long history of strengthening communities of color
Shorebank Pacific - environmental metrics on their lending - check out their website!
Wainwright Bank - in the northeast. I've now run into them a couple times doing lending to good SRI businesses.
Your local community bank or credit union! A new movement in response to the financial crisis. [Note on 2/10/2010: if you're in the northwest and thinking about a spluge new car purchase, I know a new credit union that needs strong borrowers to help it make money and they are totally a worthy cause, so check with Shaula]
Community Development Venture Capital - overview
Pacific Community Ventures
SJF Ventures
CEI Maine
Kentucky Highlands
Bay Area Equity Fund
Angel Groups
Investor's Circle
Investment Banking
Evergreen Pacific Capital, Issaquah, WA
Interesting Private Equity or similar
Good Capital - full disclosure: Shaula is interning here for summer of 2007
Return On Inspiration
Conscious Capital Fund - stumbled across this site while researching a potential new friend. don't know them yet.
Farm Power - working to turn manure into fertilizer, electricty, bedding and carbon credits.
Ignia Fund - vVVenture capital investment firm based in Monterrey, Mexico that supports the founding and expansion of high growth social enterprises that serve the base of the socio-economic pyramid in Latin America.
Root Capital - a nonprofit social investment fund that is pioneering finance for grassroots businesses in the developing world. We work with artisan and farmer associations that build sustainable livelihoods and transform rural economies in poor, environmentally vulnerable places.
Brokerage Firms
AltruShare Securities - though they only work with institutional clients for now (Sept 2007).
Measuring Return
methods
- Return On Investment (ROI) - straight cash on cash, no time component
- Compound rate - ROI annualized
- Internal Rate of Return (IRR) - the theoretically comparable compound interest rate to earn the same ROI over a specific set of time. However, it assumes that returned cash is reinvested at the same rate until the entire project ends, which isn't realistic. A criticism of IRR for evaluating investment returns.
- non-financial returns or impacts, screening filters or engagement?
- carbon footprint
- changed priorites (someday!)
- internal gini coefficient?
- training investment - helping employees develop or improve skills that will make them more employable. helping employees develop or improve Financial LIteracy (something the Ford Foundation has asked of the Bay Area Equity Fund)
- entry-level employment - related to the above and below - are there entry-level opportunities that provide training and enable formerly low-income people to move to (and beyond) living wage employment?
- living wage - are employees making a living wage for their area?
- % employees with health care coverage
- employee ownership - particularly in growth companies looking for an investor exit. Share the wealth, eh?
- Pacific Community Ventures has developed a "Job Quality" measure that is " a weighted scale of key employment features including wage, employer share of health benefit premiums, training hours and provision of wealth building opportunities" from http://www.pacificcommunityventures.org/publications/2005-SocialReturnExecutiveSummary.pdf. They do consulting, inquire at
info at pcvmail.org
benchmarks
Metrics and Indicators
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