The art of giving

Danika Kleiber '02, chair of the alumni relations committee for our allies at the Tufts Progressive Alumni Network, has written a great op-ed that appeared in today's Daily that captures well the perspective of a growing number of alumni:

"...while I do wish Tufts well, I am going to withhold any direct donations to their coffers until they cough up some transparency and make a commitment to investing money in ways that make the world a brighter place, and I’m going to encourage other alumni to do the same. However, since I do sincerely believe that one of the best things about Tufts is its students, I’m going to use my hard-earned paycheck to support the Tufts Progressive Alumni Network (TPAN) Social Justice Fund ... That way I can still support the institution I love, but with the smug knowledge that my money will go to Tufts students working to make their school live up to its full potential."

The big push

Today's Daily article, "Groups petition to expand ACSR," is covering STIR's campus-wide push to raise awareness about making our ACSR bigger and better - with the help of the first unanimous TCU Senate resolution in two years.

STIR, a new student group that has formed to push for increased endowment transparency, and the Senate will officially present this argument to the administration today in a packet of information. It will include a STIR petition with 190 signatures and a resolution that the Senate passed on Sunday.

The Senate’s resolution follows up on a similar one that the body approved last spring, but to little avail.

“The TCU Senate urges the Board of Trustees and the Officers of Tufts University to allow the ACSR to undertake broader activities towards shareholder engagement, such as corporate dialogue, filing shareholder resolutions and increasing transparency in a way that will both protect the security of the endowment and permit greater community engagement,” Sunday’s resolution, which garnered unanimous support, read.

“I think that STIR is advocating for a really important cause on campus, and we’re going to help them as much as we can,” TCU President Duncan Pickard said.

The consensus: socially responsible investing is good for the pocketbook

Thanks Danielle for finding this great article from Worldchanging on the financial edge that social responsibility, transparency, and oversight bring to the investing process:

"SRI [Socially responsible investing] mutual funds have begun to outperform their "hard-headed" competitors. That's right, investing in doing good makes you more money. As Green Money Journal reports, 16 of the 21 funds with $100 million or more in assets "achieved the highest rankings for performance from either or both [financial analysts] Morningstar or Lipper," compared with only 32% of all mutual funds.

But here's the twist: it turns out that not only does SRI make investors more money - standards of transparency, accountability and social responsibility make corporations more money.

Some of this competitive advantage is due to the fact that environmental efficiency and good working conditions, while a hit to the short-term bottom line, often pay themselves back handsomely. Companies with the guts (and shareholder pressure) to make investments in sounder practices often do better than their short-term focused competitors at finding and implementing innovations as well.

But it's not all compact flourescent lightbulbs and childcare. Socially responsible businesses are also run better as businesses. And, it turns out, financial transparency (being honest and open with your books) and corporate democracy (allowing shareholders and even employees a strong voice in decision-making) are excellent predictors of both profitablity and shareholder return."

The article cites articles by Barron's and the Quarterly Journal of Economics that aren't available online, but to read more about the profit advantage of investing right, you check out our earlier post on the Financial Times's coverage of this new awareness.