Socially and environmentally responsible mutual funds experienced a 3% increase in assets in the first six months of the year, compared with a 9.5% decline in assets invested in the broad universe of non-screened, U.S. diversified stock funds, according to new data from Lipper, released by the Social Investment Forum.
"This data appears to confirm that there really is something to anecdotal reports we are hearing about the ongoing market scandals spurring people to join the ranks of socially responsible investing,” Steve Schueth, spokesman for the Social Investment Forum, said in a statement.
Lipper data also showed that in June, socially responsible mutual funds attracted net inflows of $47 million, during a period when the S&P 500 lost more than 13% and non-screened U.S. diversified funds had net outflows of almost $13 billion.
