White Raven Financial specializes in SRI – Socially Responsible Investing. Another way to define it? Sustainable, responsible, impact investing. Within SRI, we incorporate filters for ESG – Environmental, Social, and corporate Governance factors – that align with your own morals and principles.
Whether you’re new to investing or you’re looking to make a positive impact with your investment dollars, White Raven Financial can help develop a custom solution for to you! Contact a socially responsible financial advisor today.
White Raven Financial is dedicated to:
- Working with our clients and families to be financially healthy while also leading satisfying lives.
- Allowing small businesses and individuals the ability to invest in a way that matches their own interests to create a more sustainable and fairer world.
When first meeting with us, our advisors will determine your tolerance for risk coupled with the time and money objectives you have. We will then begin a discovery process to better understand your own personal values and life goals. From there, we can help prepare a financial game plan that supports these goals.
An experienced socially responsible investment advisor at White Raven Financial can explain this process to you. We love working with new clients and invite you to call us at 360-653-0198 or to reach out via email.
Socially responsible investing is a strategy that tries to maximize your monetary returns but also tries to make an impact on one or more of the following attributes including environmental, ethical, and social justice reforms.
Some socially responsible investors aim for companies that not only have an optimistic financial outlook but also conduct business in a positive, responsible way. While many historical investors consider factors such as rate of return, inflation, taxes, dividends, and other risks – socially responsible investors take it a step further by identifying companies that they believe will stimulate progressiveness.
Related Read: What You Need To Know About Sustainable and Responsible Investments
What is SRI / ESG?
SRI is an acronym for “Socially Responsible Investing”. When implementing SRI, an investor could look for companies that strive for a good record in addressing environmental, social, and/or corporate governance (ESG) issues. When it comes to SRI, the key is finding investments that align with your personal values. A few distinctions that an investor may look for, include:
Raising Awareness for Social Justice
Investors interested in social justice will look for companies that practice wage equality, gender equality, women leadership, or a clean record of no human rights violations.
Nurturing a Cleaner Environment
Investors who prefer companies that don’t pollute the environment are often called “green” investors. They generally try to avoid investing in fossil fuels and look for alternative forms of energy sources such as wind or solar power. Others might look for companies that minimize the carbon footprint of their products and services.
Advocating for Peace
“Make peace, not war” would be a common phrase associated with these types of investors. They tend to avoid companies that make weaponry, munitions, or profit from foreign conflict.
Encouraging Good Health
People who strive to live a healthy lifestyle may be looking to avoid companies that sell tobacco, alcohol, or even avoid investing in products that contain genetically mutated organisms (GMOs).
Promoting Morality
Avoiding “sin stocks” is another popular investing strategy for socially responsible investors. They try to avoid a broad range of enterprises, such as gambling, liquor, contraception, and pornography.
How to Approach Socially Responsible Investing
Investors looking to promote their social goals may follow the following strategies:
- Negative Screening: Negative screening means refusing to invest in companies that don’t meet your social standards. For instance, many socially responsible mutual funds screen out tobacco companies. An extreme form of negative screening is divestment: pulling all your assets out of specific companies because of how or where they do business.
- Positive Investing: On the other spectrum, there is another strategy that investors may employ: positive screening. Here you choose companies to include in your portfolio specifically because you approve of their behavior or champion their values. Positive investing is also known as impact investing, or ESG incorporation.
- Community Investing: This is a specific subcategory of positive investing that focuses on investing in community-based organizations, especially in low-income areas. Community investment provides loans to people and organizations that would have trouble getting them otherwise. These loans can be used to fund small business and provide needed services such as housing and education. Community investment can also focus on making communities more sustainable by financing projects such as green energy and smart growth, a type of urban planning designed to reduce sprawl and protect green space.
Types of Socially Responsible Investments
Stocks
A way to buy shares, or ownership, of a specific company. This may be the easiest way to make sure you are investing in companies that you value.
Mutual Funds/ETFs
A “basket” of stocks an investor can buy that allows you to own several fractional shares of a variety of companies. There are several resources out there that can help you screen for those funds that follow certain ESG criteria.
Community Investments
An investor can also put their money directly into projects that benefit communities. An easy way to make such an investment is to contribute to community development financial institutions (CDFIs).
How Can You Make an Impact?
White Raven Financial can assist our clients in making a direct impact by investing in a variety of ways including:
- Raising Awareness for Social Justice: Investors interested in social justice will look for companies that practice wage equality, gender equality, women leadership, or a clean record of no human rights violations.
- Nurturing a Cleaner Environment: Investors who prefer companies that don’t pollute the environment are often called “green” investors. They generally try to avoid investing in fossil fuels and look for alternative forms of energy sources such as wind or solar power. Others might look for companies that minimize the carbon footprint of their products and services.
- Advocating for Peace: “Make peace, not war” would be a common phrase associated with these types of investors. They tend to avoid companies that make weaponry, munitions, or profit from foreign conflict.
- Encouraging Good Health: People who strive to live a healthy lifestyle may be looking to avoid companies that sell tobacco, alcohol, or even avoid investing in products that contain genetically mutated organisms (GMOs).
- Promoting Morality: Avoiding “sin stocks” is another popular investing strategy for socially responsible investors. They try to avoid a broad range of enterprises, such as gambling, liquor, contraception, and pornography.
Take a Free Socially Responsible Impact Test
How well does your portfolio support the causes you care about? Take a free, 3-5 minute assessment to start finding out:
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Schedule a Consultation with White Raven Financial Today
Whether you’re new to investing or you’re looking to make a positive impact with your investment dollars, White Raven Financial can help develop a custom solution for to you!
We walk the talk. Our Washington office is located in an environment surrounded by nature. Take a visit around the Stump Farm to see our worm bin, our pesticide free vegetable garden, and the trees that have been planted for future generations. In addition to standard business hours, we offer flexible appointments during evenings, and via video conferencing.
Schedule a consultation with a socially responsible financial advisor today.
Sources:
*https://www.investopedia.com/articles/07/clean_and_green.asp
*https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/sri.asp
