Leading SRI financial advisory firms are among 50 U.S. and overseas groups that are asking the Obama Administration to create an Office for Innovation in Corporate Social Responsibility.

The purpose of the office would be to enhance and coordinate corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities across the government, at home and abroad, and to pursue policies and initiatives to strengthen the CSR commitments of the private sector.

A joint letter from the groups, released today, was organized by the 500-member Social Investment Forum (SIF), the U.S. membership association for socially and environmentally responsible investment professionals and institutions.

Major signers of the letter include Oxfam America, Ceres, ICCR (Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility), Green America, and mutual fund companies PAX, Domini and Calvert Group. Non-U.S. signers included the European Sustainable Investment Forum (Eurosif) and the Canadian Social Investment Organization.

The letter says that such an office would help the federal government help businesses improve governance, transparency and manage environmental and social issues, as well as focus on such sustainability issues in its own agencies.

U.S. signatories of the joint letter include: S. David Bue, CFP AIF, Affirmative Financial Services, Westport, Conn.; Frank Rauscher, senior principal, Aquinas Associates, Dallas, Tex.;  Kathy Stearns, principal, Arc Advisers, LLC, Boise, Idaho; Judith L. Seid, CFP, president, Blue Summit Financial Group Inc., San Diego, Calif.; Lauren Compere, director of Shareholder Advocacy and Steven Heim, director of Social Research and Advocacy, Boston Common Asset Management, Boston, Mass.; Bennett Freeman, senior vice president, Social Research and Policy, Calvert Group Ltd., Bethesda, Md.; Michael Underhill, chief executive officer, Capital Innovations LLC, Hartland, Wis.; Joshua Humphreys, director, Center for Social Philanthropy and lecturer, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.; Mindy Lubber, president, Ceres, Boston, Mass.; Rian Fried, president, Clean Yield Asset Management, Greensboro, Vt.; Ronald L. Phillips, president, Coastal Enterprises Inc., Wiscasset, Me.; Jeannine Jacokes, senior policy advisor, Community Development Bankers Association, Washington, D.C.; James McRitchie, publisher, Corporate Governance, Elk Grove, Calif.; Sister Lucille Clynes, DW, canonical treasurer, Daughters of Wisdom, Islip, N.Y.; Adam M. Kanzer, Esq., managing director and general counsel, Domini Social Investments LLC., New York, N.Y.

Also, Christine Eibs Singer, executive vice president, E+Co, Bloomfield, N.J.; Gregory Wendt, CFP, director of Sustainable Investing, Enright Premier Wealth Advisors Inc., Los Angeles; Rev. Dr. Dorothy May Emerson, interim minister, First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church, Billerica, Mass.; Alisa Gravitz, executive director, Green America, Washington, D.C.; Cliff Feigenbaum, founder and managing editor, GreenMoney Journal, greenmoney.com, Santa Fe, N.M.; Laura Berry, executive director, Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, New York, N.Y.; Richard A. Liroff, executive director, Investor Environmental Health Network, Falls Church, Va.; Peter Krull, president, Krull and Company, Darien, Ga.; Jennifer Lazarus, financial planner, Lazarus Financial Planning, Durham, N.C.; and Clifford Rosenthal, president/CEO, National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions, New York, N.Y.

Also, Michael Kramer, managing partner & director of Social Research, Natural Investments, Kailua-Kona, Hawaii; Julie N.W. Goodridge, president and CEO, NorthStar Asset Management Inc., Boston, Mass.; Raymond C. Offenheiser, president, Oxfam America, Boston, Mass.; Joe Keefe, president & CEO, Pax World Management Corp., Portsmouth, N.H.; Donna E. Clifford, financial services director, Rainbow Solutions Inc./Progressive Asset Management, Medford, Mass.; Joanne Dowdell, SVP, director of Corporate Responsibility, Sentinel Financial Services Company, Montpelier, Vt.; Verna Barton, assistant vice-president/manager of Strategic Partnerships, ShoreBank, Chicago, Ill.; Sister Patricia A. Daly, OP, Sisters of St. Dominic of Caldwell, N.J.; Nora M. Nash, OSF, director, Corporate Social Responsibility, Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia, Aston, Pa.; Sister Roberta Mulcahy, Socially Responsible Investment coordinator, Sisters of St. Joseph of Springfield, Mass.; Sister M. Cecile Paulik, controller, Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother, Brown Deer, Wis.; Alice Tepper Marlin, president, Social Accountability International, New York, N.Y.; Andrew Tulchin, managing partner, Social Enterprise Associates, Washington, D.C.; and Lisa Woll, CEO, Social Investment Forum, Washington, D.C.

Also, Sanford Lewis, attorney, Strategic Counsel on Corporate Accountability, Amherst, MA.; Nikki Foster, AVP-Corporate Administration, Sunrise Community Banks, Saint Paul, Minn.; Cheryl Smith and Adam Seitchik, co-chief executive officers, Trillium Asset Management Corporation, Boston, Mass.; Sister Patricia A. Daly, OP, executive director, Tri-State Coalition for Responsible Investment, Montclair, N.J.; Vidette Bullock Mixon, director, Corporate Relations, United Methodist Church General Board of Pension and Health Benefits, Evanston, Ill.; Michael Lent, chief investment officer, Veris Wealth Partners, LLC, New York, New York; Timothy Smith, senior vice president, Walden Asset Management, Boston, Mass; and Jackson Robinson, founder and president, Winslow Management Company, Boston, Mass.

International signatories include (in alphabetical order by organization): Steve Waygood, head of Sustainability Research and Engagement, Aviva Investors, London, UK; Eva Willmann de Donlea, director, Beyond 2012 Pty Ltd, Sydney, Australia; Duncan Paterson, CEO, Centre for Australian Ethical Research (CAER), Canberra, Australia; Stephen Hine, head of Responsible Investment Development, EIRIS, London, UK; Marc de Sousa-Shields, director, managing partner, Enterprising Solutions Global Consulting, Cuernavaca, Morales, Mexico; Matt Christensen, executive director, European Sustainable Investment Forum (Eurosif), Paris; Nicholas Taylor, Outcrop, Fitzroy, Victoria, Australia; Paulo Bueno, director, Santa Fé Portfólios Ltda., São Paulo, Brazil; and Eugene Ellmen, executive director, Social Investment Organization, Toronto.