A Bangladeshi boy buys a cup of Shokti Doi, a nutritious, low-cost yogurt produced by Grameen Danone Foods, a joint venture between French food company Danone and Grameen Bank, the pioneering microcredit institution. Grameen Danone is the world's first international social business.

A social business is one which aims to be financially self-sufficient, if not profitable, in its pursuit of a social, ethical or environmental goal. Examples of social businesses in the United Kingdom included The Ethical Property Company, Divine Chocolate and Fair Finance.

A more famous example is the Bangladeshi Grameen Bank, set up by Professor Dr. Muhammad Yunus in 1976. Dr. Yunus is a key proponent of the social business model, seeing it as a means to eradicate poverty and to influence the future of capitalism.

However, his definition specifies that profits cannot be distributed to investors and must instead be ploughed back into the business or the community it serves. Source: Wikipedia

Please add to this list of ways to promote social businesses.

Invest

• Invest money in danone.communities, which invents business models that benefit the most disadvantaged populations. (danonecommunities.com)

Educate yourself and others

• Stay abreast of blogs at Yunusphere.net, a publication dedicated to social business (yunusphere.net)