For investors with a conscience, options grow

[applegrove]

"With $10,000, ethically minded investors can help fund budding companies devoted to community development.

By G. Jeffrey MacDonald | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

Opportunities are growing for ethically minded investors to buy into pioneering companies that haven't yet gone public. To play in this court, deep pockets and a strong stomach are often required or strongly suggested - but not always.
Consider the high-stakes world of community development venture capital (CDVC) investing. Here, institutional investors provide much of the juice for young companies to create hundreds of jobs for a particular region, frequently in impoverished areas. They invest - with no guarantees - on growth-stage start-ups for the chance to earn 10 to 15 percent or more per annum over 10 years, to bankroll an innovative social model in the marketplace, or both.



Yet as the field expands, individual investors are also taking notice, learning lessons from the sidelines and sometimes jumping into the game themselves.

Numbers tell of a growing universe, at least for qualified or "accredited" investors with net worths of at least $1 million (not including personal residence) or annual incomes above $200,000. In 2000, 55 CDVC funds were either established or raising money for a launch. By 2004, that number had grown to 82. Over the same period, capital under management in CDVC funds grew from $400 million to $870 million, according to the Community Development Venture Capital Association, based in New York

.....Snip"

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0919/p13s01-wmgn.html

[electricray]

1. Perhaps it is possible to make money without violating your moral code n/t

[applegrove]

2. A man who sells tons of carpet in the US is using recycled pop bottles

and the like. He says he feels wonderful for not making all his carpet out of "new" material.

You should see the documentary "The Corporation".

Corporations were put on this earth to serve man. They need to be controlled by man.

Some corporations out there really do try to see the world through a prism of humanity.

I'm sorry they don't get any attention.

[electricray]

3. I know of a company that manufactures cloth diapers out of old pop bottles

They feel like regular old fleece. There are truly awesome products out there.

[applegrove]

4. Yes & we should learn the names of those corporations who leave

as small a footprint as possible.

We don't know their names. We should.