3.20.2008 - 12:01am ET

(CSRwire) SPRINGFIELD, MA – March 20, 2008 - Social(k), the nation's most diverse socially responsible retirement platform, has been nominated for the first annual Joan Bavaria Awards for Building Sustainability into the Capital Markets. The awards will be announced April 29-30 at the Ceres "Building Leadership, Creating Solutions" conference in Boston, MA. Other nominees include As You Sow and Co-op America, both of which rely on Social(k) for their organization's retirement benefit.

Ceres, a national network of investors, environmental organizations, and other public interest groups working with companies to address sustainability challenges, and Trillium Asset Management Corporation developed the award to "recognize investors, corporations, and non-profit organizations that have helped move the capital markets from a system focused on short-term profits toward one that balances financial prosperity with social and environmental health."

Springfield, MA-based Social(k) (www.socialk.com) offers more than 150 screened socially responsible funds and over 2000 traditional funds to choose from. The number of clients on the Social(k) platform grew 186 percent in 2007 and already this year organizations such as Investor's Circle (San Francisco, CA) Animal Legal Defense Fund (Cotati, CA), Center for Environmental Health (Oakland, CA), Global Exchange (San Francisco, CA), and Headwaters Foundation for Justice (Minneapolis, MD) have signed up.

What's the attraction? Companies and organizations want their retirement plan to reflect their mission and to help their employees match their values with their investments. Less than one-third (32%) of employees have access to socially responsible funds as part of their retirement plans although more than two-thirds (68%) of employees say they would invest in such funds if they were available.

Several socially responsible mutual funds on the Social(k) platform have announced their continued marketing support for 2008 outreach including: Calvert Group, Fred Alger Management/Spectra Funds, MMA Praxis, Parnassus Investments, Pax World Management Corp., Portfolio 21 Investments, and Winslow Management Company.

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