Socially Responsible Investing - Ethical Investment in Higher Education

Ethical Investment in Higher Education

In 2007, the Dwight Hall organization at Yale University launched the first undergraduate-run socially responsible investment fund in the United States. The Dwight Hall Socially Responsible Investment Fund was initially seeded with $50,000 of the Dwight Hall organization's endowment and is managed by a committee of ten undergraduate Yale College students. The DHSRI fund makes use of traditional methods of socially responsible investing to have a positive environmental and social impact while aiming to outperform standard investment benchmarks and maximize financial return.

The first student managed (undergraduate or graduate) investment fund to employ socially responsible investing was the Arnone-Lerer fund at Villanova University in January 2004 which made its first investments in March 2004. (http://www.students.villanova.edu/smf/fund_performance.htm) The fund has been managed according to the Catholic Bishops' Statement on Socially Responsible Investment. The SMF program at Villanova currently includes 170 students managing five different investment funds and offers four academic courses (12 credits) per year.

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