Free Guide Helps Investors Select Ethical and Responsible Investments

Booklet on socially responsible mutual funds is now available from www.SocialFunds.com

(Brattleboro, VT) A new guide aimed at helping individual investors align their investments with their values has just been published by SRI World Group. The 20-page guide, entitled Investing in Socially Responsible Mutual Funds, is part of a free socially responsible investing (SRI) Mutual Funds Kit that can be ordered from www.SocialFunds.com. SocialFunds.com is a service of SRI World Group and is the Internet's most comprehensive personal finance site devoted to socially responsible investing.

"At a time of unprecedented cynicism about corporate ethics, this guide is a valuable resource for the individual investor whose faith in Wall Street has been shaken to the core," said Jay Falk, president of SRI World Group. "If recent events prove anything, it is that corporate responsibility is a central component of a company's success. Investing based on one's values is anything but naïve. In fact, it is a shrewd and prudent way to identify solid long-term investments. The goal of this guide is to help the individual investor do just that."

Investing in Socially Responsible Mutual Funds addresses the misconception that social and environmental screening hurts performance. According to Morningstar, 33.3 percent of the socially responsible mutual funds (15 out of 54) it tracks earned either four or five stars, compared with 32.5 percent of all mutual funds.

Investing in Socially Responsible Mutual Funds is an easy-to-read guide that gives readers the information they need to start investing in SRI mutual funds. Because the guide covers fundamentals such as asset allocation, investment style, and the different types of SRI mutual funds, it will help the reader create a plan for meeting his or her financial goals. Investing in Socially Responsible Mutual Funds also explains how different funds integrate social and environmental criteria into their investment strategies.

"SRI mutual funds select investments based not only on financial performance but on social and environmental performance as well," said Falk. "And many SRI mutual funds do more than use positive and negative screens. A number of SRI funds try to change corporate behavior by conducting dialogue with companies and by submitting shareowner proposals, and many others invest capital in distressed urban and rural communities. This guide helps investors identify those SRI mutual funds that act in accordance with the investors' values and beliefs."

The free SRI Mutual Funds Kit also includes prospectuses and informational materials about funds offered by several socially responsible mutual fund companies.

In tandem with the release of the free SRI Mutual Funds Kit, SRI World Group is also launching a revised SocialFunds.com. SocialFunds.com has been revamped with a new, user-oriented navigation system that makes it easier to access the site's vast resources.

SocialFunds.com offers social and environmental research on over 1,800 companies, daily news stories from around the world on socially responsible investing and corporate responsibility, social mutual fund performance statistics, updates on shareowner resolutions, and community investment information.

About SRI World Group

SRI World Group provides information, research, and consulting services regarding socially responsible investing and corporate social responsibility. For more information about SRI World Group, please visit www.SRIworld.com. In addition to SocialFunds.com, SRI World Group operates www.institutionalshareowner.com, an information site for institutional investors, www.SRI-adviser.com, an SRI resource center for financial professionals, and www.CSRwire.com, a corporate social responsibility presswire service and corporate sustainability report distribution service.