Oct. 20, 2004 — Socially responsible mutual funds come in many shapes and sizes. The three-member Ave Maria fund family takes its investment philosophy from the top, buying companies that it believes conform with the values of the Roman Catholic Church.
Launched in May 2003, the $35-million Ave Maria Growth Fund (AVEGX) avoids companies engaged in abortion or pornography, as well as corporations that support Planned Parenthood or provide benefits to non-married partners of employees. The fund was created as a growth alternative to the firm's successful flagship portfolio, Ave Maria Catholic Values Fund (AVEMX). Without a three-year performance history, the fund is too new to be ranked by Standard & Poor's.
For the 12-month period through September, the Growth Fund gained 23.6%, while its benchmark, the S&P 500-stock index, climbed 13.9%. Year-to-date through September, the fund was up 10%, versus a 1.5% rise by the Index.
Jim Bashaw, president of JLB & Associates, a Plymouth, Mich.-based investment advisory firm, manages the fund, which has a Catholic Advisory Board that determines a potential holding's compliance with Church teachings. Bashaw can invest in any company as long as it meets the fund's religious criteria.
Members of the advisory board include Bowie Kuhn, a former commissioner of major league baseball; Tom Monaghan, founder of Domino's Pizza (DPZ); and Phyllis Schlafly, a long-time conservative activist. The board meets periodically to monitor the fund's holdings.
"We do not invest in companies whose practices violate the core teachings of the Catholic Church," said Robert Schwartz, director of marketing at Schwartz Investment. The ban on abortion, for example, excludes most hospital stocks and most health insurers, drugmakers, drug store chains as well as contraceptive makers and distributors. The ban on adult entertainment rules out most media companies. In the case of Planned Parenthood, Schwartz said a company is rejected if it uses shareholder money to support that organization, not if a top executive makes a private donation to the group.
The fund, however, can invest in gambling, tobacco, alcohol, firearms, and defense stocks, investments that some socially conscious funds avoid. For example, the portfolio currently includes defense contractor General Dynamics (GD).
While Schwartz Investment generally takes a value-oriented stock-picking approach, Bashaw follows a growth strategy, seeking stocks with above-average revenues, earnings, and rising cash flow. "We work from a pool of 200 stocks, which we rank based on risk-adjusted returns and relative costs over the next three years," Bashaw said. "Stocks in our top quartile are typically ones we put into the Ave Maria Growth Fund, as long as they don't violate the Catholic Church screens."
