Social Investment Forum

The Social Investment Forum (SIF) is a national nonprofit trade association, based in Washington, D.C., dedicated to promoting the concept, practice, and growth of socially and environmentally responsible investing. As of January 2006, the Forum's membership included more than 600 social investment practitioners and institutions (private investors are served by joining the SIF partner, Co-op America).

Founded in 1981, the SIF conducts and communicates research on socially responsible investment. The Forum provides listings of financial professionals, mutual funds, information sources, and community investments that provide socially responsible investing. With its Web site, annual conference, socially responsible investor mailing list, membership directory, and Listserv, SIF supports a community of committed financial professionals. Furthermore, it offers an annual monetary award, the Moskowitz Prize (named for the pioneer investigator Milton Moskowitz, senior editor of Business and Society Review, who first published comparisons of the financial performance of screened and unscreened portfolios). The award recognizes outstanding research on socially responsible investing.

The Moskowitz Prize, begun in 1996, is the only global award recognizing outstanding quantitative work on socially responsible investing. The three criteria for the award include (1) the practical significance to practitioners of socially responsible investing, (2) the appropriateness and rigor of quantitative methods, and (3) the novelty of the results. Beginning in 2006, the prize will be administered by University of California at Berkeley's Haas School of Business. SIF will continue to serve as a consultant in prize awards.

News and trends in the socially responsible investment industry are reported by the Forum on its Web site, at its annual conference (“SRI in the Rockies”), in its quarterly newsletter to members, and in its biennial report on social investment trends (the latest report is titled “2005 Report on Socially Responsible Investing Trends in the United States, 10 Year Review”).

A related program, Social Investment Forum Advocacy & Policy Program, provides communication, research, and advocacy on public affairs related to socially responsible investing.