Walt Disney was asked to adopt workplace standards for its non-U.S. suppliers, including rules on factory conditions, work hours, and child labor. Pick Your Poison Perceived corporate offenders often remain in the portfolios of social funds, as long as constructive dialogue continues. But some funds reject offenders outright. Social responsibility, it's easy to see, is in the eye of the beholder. Meyers Pride Value, conversely, rejects companies that discriminate based on sexual orientation, and Disney is in.
Some funds cater to particular religions.
For fundamentalist Christians there are Noah, Timothy Plan, and two Shepherd Values funds. Investors may rightly worry whether social funds, over the long term, will suffer for their scruples, because large swaths of the economy are off-limits for investment. They might, although clever managers can broaden their investment possibilities as long as shareholders are not too dogmatic. In selecting stocks, Daniel Boone, the fund's manager since late 1998, insists on a 10-year history of consistent growth in earnings and dividends. While energy companies are commonly shunned by social funds, these two exploration and production companies make the grade because they're not involved in refining or offshore drilling.