Socially Responsible Investing

Socially Responsible investing is the process of integrating your values, concerns and core beliefs with your investments. Altavista holds membership in the Social Investment Forum. For those clients who prefer to invest in concert with strongly held beliefs, we utilize a detailed interview process to determine the concerns and issues that are meaningful to them. We can execute any investment strategy in a socially responsible manner.  Social Investing has three components (1.) Screening (2. )Shareholder Advocacy and (3. )Community Investments

Screening is the policy and practice of including or excluding securities from a private portfolio based on social or environmental criteria. Social investors seek to own profitable companies with outstanding employee relations, strong records of community involvement, excellent environmental practices and respect for human rights. Conversely, they attempt to avoid investments that fall short in those areas.

Shareholder Advocacy describes investor efforts to submit and vote proxy resolutions as a means of influencing company behavior.

Community Investments include programs in community-based financial institutions such as development banks, loan funds and community credit unions to support community development in the United States and developing countries.