If you’re going to write a piece on “corporate social purpose,” Blake Mycoskie (founder of TOMS Shoes) is your go to example. From Forbes:

It’s now possible to improve your business by giving away your products and services. Not by traditional free trial offers. By embedding your social purpose in what you don’t sell.

Here are three inspiring examples of companies that had the courage to abandon the  most fundamental principle of business and built or strengthened their firms in ways that wouldn’t have been possible without offering their products for free.

Since its founding in 2006 by Blake Mycoskie, TOMS has matched every pair of TOMS shoes purchased with a new pair given to a child in need. Mycoskie calls the matching concept the One for One movement. Even some of the most cynical Gen-Y’ers are supporting the company by raising awareness about the impact a pair of shoes can have on a child’s life at more than 1,200 TOMS Campus Clubs across North America.

Just in: TOMS founder Blake Mycoskie’s new book, two years in the making, Start Something That Matters. The book hit #1 on Amazon the week it came out.