There’s a growing breed of innovative for-profit entrepreneur that views positive social change as the foundation of business.

Rather than garnering donations or applying for grants as a nonprofit entity, social enterprise entrepreneurs are generating revenue and reinvesting profits in the community by providing services or manufacturing products.

“I love entrepreneurial ventures, but they just don’t make me want to get out of bed in the morning and get excited unless the product being generated is producing a gift,” said Chris Williams, founder of Community Security, a Memphis-based company that provides home security and monitoring. “If it’s just business, it really gets boring after a while.”

Community Security gives away more than 50 percent of its profits to dozens of area nonprofits. Each client chooses a charity – ranging from Shelby Farms Park to the Mid-South Food Bank to Youth Villages – that will receive a portion of the monthly payment.

“I’m not someone who should be counseling kids or figuring out how to solve the homeless shelter problems, or figuring out what to do with stray animals that need homes,” said Williams, whose company has five employees. “I’m just not wired that way. I’m wired for business. So the plan is to take what you love doing and use it for the community. If you can do what you’re good at, make a living, and help the community at the same time, what a perfect world.”

Williams founded Community Security in 2009, inspired by Tom’s Shoes, a California-based company that for every pair of shoes purchased gives a new pair of shoes to a child in need.

“I started doing research on those giving companies so I could figure out how you pull this off,” Williams said.

Although social enterprises are more common in the coastal regions of the country, Williams said lately he’s run into more Mid-Southerners interested in focusing on philanthropy as a major component of their business ventures.

Williams, who also owns a financial planning company and several other companies that operate on the same premise, said Community Security’s philanthropy is often the reason many clients choose the company for their security needs.

His goal now is to “convince local entrepreneurs that giving is a great way to grow a business and not just lose money,” he said. “This is a real-life case study that works.”

And the rewards go well beyond raising money for organizations creating significant social change.

“The change in my heart and the hearts of my employees has been the biggest change,” he said. “We’re getting exposed to the truly great people of Memphis that aren’t out there hustling to make a buck; they’re out there hustling to change a life. I’m being influenced by them constantly.”

While Williams says any existing company can transform itself into a social enterprise, there’s more risk involved in transitioning than there is in starting that brand of company from the ground up.

“If you’re giving away a decent chunk of your money, you have to really plan for that and figure it out from the get-go,” he said. “Otherwise you end up having to lay people off, and that’s bad socially too.”

Since the beginning of Ghost River Brewing’s brand development stage, brewery founder and longtime conservation supporter Chuck Skypeck planned to develop a community partnership with strong Memphis ties, and the Wolf River Conservancy was his first choice.

“Brewers have always been community-oriented, so I thought it would be good to develop a strong community partner that would make sense for our business,” Skypeck said. “Beer is 95 percent water, and so much of our marketing is centered on being local and using that local water. It only made sense to develop a relationship with an organization that was actively protecting the resource.”

For every barrel of Ghost River beer purchased, $1 goes to the Wolf River Conservancy, In addition, the company donates beer for the nonprofit’s events, and Skypeck personally participates in canoe trips and other outings as an ambassador of sorts.

Many conservancy members are active supporters of the Ghost River brand, encouraging people to purchase the product to support the protection of local resources.

“We’re the only nonprofit that they support financially,” said Ken Kimble, development director for Wolf River Conservancy. “That’s part of their mission because it’s all about the water for them. It makes business sense for them to support an organization that’s protecting the water.”

Skypeck said blending business and philanthropy is a win-win for everyone involved.

“We’re both in the same boat in that we’re both small organizations with limited resources that have trouble getting our message out because of that limitation,” he said. “I think that we have the opportunity to reach people that they might have trouble reaching, and make them aware of the Wolf River Conservancy. It’s a two-way street and they have the opportunity to promote our brand.”