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Social funds on the rise
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January 9, 1998: 6:29 p.m. ET
Mutual fund investors have more choice to support their favorite causes
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Hate Big Tobacco? Love environmental causes? Wall Street has a mutual fund for you.
Perhaps you are an evangelical Christian who opposes abortion. Or you support gay and lesbian rights. There are dozens of funds with investment agendas to satisfy your needs.
"We're seeing a recognition of these alternative types of investments," said Jan Bryan, a Phoenix, Ariz.-based money manager. About 70 percent of her clients are socially responsible investors.
The Pax World Fund, for example, buys stock in companies involved in pollution control, health care, education and housing. The Calvert New Africa Fund invests in Africa to help improve the quality of life on the continent.
The Timothy Plan screens out companies with ties to pornography, gambling and abortion. On the other end of the political spectrum, the Pride Fund invests in companies that have progressive policies towards gays and lesbians.
For animal lovers with money to invest, there is the Cruelty Free Values Fund.
"You can get any kind of socially responsible mutual fund," said Alisa Gravitz, vice president of the Social Investment Forum, a non-profit group based in Washington, D.C.
Socially responsible investing began about 15 years ago to protest South Africa's apartheid government.
"Apartheid led to other issues," Gravitz said. Funds started screening out companies with ties to tobacco, gambling, alcohol, and weapons.
"Socially responsible investing didn't start with Wall Street," Gravitz said. "It was investors walking into their brokerages and saying, 'I don't want to buy stock in companies that pollute.'"
Today, socially minded investors have expanded their agendas. For example, new funds support companies that have good employee policies, said Jon Hale, an analyst at Morningstar Inc., a Chicago-based mutual fund tracker and financial publisher. Or, funds will buy stock in companies that respond to community needs, he said.
"It's moved from negative screens to more qualitative screens," Hale said. "There's a broadening of the notion of social responsibility."
Another change is that more companies are paying attention to the social investment community, Hale said. The motivation is less altruistic than practical: companies can avoid costly litigation and improve their public image, he said. 
-- By staff writer Martine Costello
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