How to go socially responsible

The Internet provides a handful of sites that are good starting points for investors wanting to investigate socially responsible investing.

Among them:

* Social Investment Forum (www. socialinvest.org) - A great place to start your search for the best socially responsible mutual funds. Its database lets you compare fund strategies and performance in many different ways.

* Social Funds.com (www.social funds.com) - Personal-financial site devoted to social investing. Nearly 10,000 pages of information, data on some 2,000 companies, and a compelling resource for alternative-investment strategies, such as community investing and shareholder activism.

* First Affirmative Financial Network (www.firstaffirmative.com) - A network of some 80 investment advisers in 22 states (with licenses to operate in 44 states) for people who want professional help - and who have $30,000 or more to invest.

* Kinder, Lydenberg, Domini (www.kld.com) - Maintains the Domini 400 Social Index, made up of 400 socially responsible companies. A good place to start for investors wanting to pinpoint some good companies.

* Calvert Group (www.calvert.com) - A leading source of socially responsible mutual funds that can help investors get started.

* Citizens Funds (www.citizens funds.com) - Another socially responsible fund family that helps people get started via its Web site.

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