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February 17, 2010 at 07:00 PM
Many socially responsible investors want to do the right thing with their funds while still earning respectable results. According to the Social Investment Forum, that was exactly what happened in 2009: A review of 160 socially responsible mutual funds from 22 members of the Social Investment Forum (SIF) finds that 65 percent outperformed their benchmarks in calendar year 2009, most by significant margins.
These SRI funds topped benchmarks across nearly all asset classes, including balanced, large cap, small cap and global funds, as well as bonds. The performance data that was analyzed by the SIF included all 12 months of 2009 and was provided by an independent third party, Thomson Reuters.
Particular standouts on SRI mutual fund performance were the 73 large cap funds, the largest single category of SIF member funds — nearly three out of four (72.6 percent) outperformed the S&P 500. On average, large-cap SRI funds bested the S&P 500 by more than 6 percentage points. A majority of the large-cap funds offered by SIF members also outperformed the S&P 500 over three years and 10 years.
