The Investment Management Council (IMC) announced today the results of a screening process that identifies mutual funds that have passed a fiduciary due diligence audit. Only 5% of all mutual funds passed the screens, yet 7% of all socially screened mutual funds passed the same criteria.

"Trustees and investment committees have long made excuses for not including socially responsible offerings in their portfolios for fear that they would be breaching their fiduciary responsibility," said Don Trone, president of the Investment Management Council. "Our results show that this is no longer appropriate. Fiduciaries, trustees and individual investors can now identify socially screened funds that have passed a rigorous due diligence process."

Trone presented the results in New York City at the "Making a Profit While Making a Difference" conference for socially responsible investors in New York City.

The IMC fiduciary audit included a total of eight different criteria: adherence to a consistent investment strategy; consistency of securities in portfolio with strategy; better than average portfolio manager tenure; assets under management, performance relative to peer group; risk-adjusted performance; expense ratio compared to peer group; and organizational stability compared to peer group.

The five SRI funds included the Citizens Emerging Growth Fund (Mid-Cap Growth), Calvert Capital Accumulation (Mid-Cap Growth), Calvert World Values International (International), Domini Social Equity Fund (Large-Cap Blend) and Smith Barney Concert Awareness (Domestic Hybrid).

The Citizens Emerging Growth Fund was also recently chosen as one of the Standard & Poor's Select Funds for Mid-Cap Growth Funds. Standard & Poor's evaluated 203 Mid-Cap Growth Funds and awarded the 'Select Fund' designation to only 10. Citizens Emerging Growth Fund was the only socially responsible fund to be selected by Standard & Poor's in the Mid-Cap Growth category.

"We believe that the IMC audit is quite significant. It provides fiduciaries with further evidence that SRI (Socially Responsible Investing) funds can compete with, if not outperform, traditional mutual funds," said John Shields, Citizens Funds president and ceo. "We believe that our rigorous social and environmental screening process adds value by identifying better-managed companies. We never accepted the conventional wisdom that social screening compromises performance by limiting choice."

"I believe the message that SRI funds can compete with and even outperform traditional mutual fund offerings is finally beginning to shake that conventional wisdom," Shields continued. "We are finding that defined contribution and benefit plans, foundations and endowments are increasingly receptive to the idea of including SRI funds in their portfolios. We see a real growth opportunity in this area."

Shields noted that Citizens Funds has opened a number of significant institutional accounts in recent months including Silicon Graphics (SGI) 401(k) plan. 

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