Forty-three percent of those polled by Yankelovich Partners of Norwalk, Conn., are familiar with the idea of socially-responsible mutual funds, up from 30 percent in 1996. And, of those who know about socially-responsible funds, 25 percent have money in such funds, up from 14 percent in 1996, the firm's survey found.
Yankelovich interviewed 800 men and women 18 years or older in the first quarter of this year about their attitudes about socially-responsible funds and investing in general. Calvert Group, a fund family in Bethesda, Md. with socially-responsible funds, sponsored the study as a follow-up to Yankelovich's similar survey in 1996.
According to a book recently published by Bloomberg Press on socially-responsible investing, $1.2 trillion, or $1 out of every $10 invested, is in socially-responsible funds.
