Investment Manager Opens Two Politically Charged Funds

The Blue Funds, a large-cap fund and a small-cap fund, first screen for whether companies have made donations to Democratic candidates over the past ten years by their political action committees (PACs) and by their top three executives, according to SocialFunds.com. The screen does not take into account corporate spending on lobbying or contributions from corporate treasuries. 

A second screen on social and environmental issues covers areas such as environmental sustainability, human rights, corporate governance, fair treatment of employees, diversity, positive community relations and avoidance of harmful products. The funds also apply exclusionary screens on tobacco and firearms, though not on nuclear power production, SocialFunds.com said.

According to a white paper from Blue Investment Management, The Blue Large Cap Index – comprised of the 76 Democrat-supporting companies in the S&P 500 that pass social and environmental screens and whose ranks include Apple, Google and Fannie Mae – outperformed the S&P 500 by 13.1% annually over the past five years. The large-cap index also outperformed the portfolio of some 380 companies that support Republicans with the majority of their political donations by 15.6% annually over the same period.

“The Blue Fund arose to give progressives who have social and political values at the top of their investment agenda a way to support companies that match these values, both socially and politically,” Daniel Adamson, chief executive officer of Blue Investment Management, told SocialFunds.com.