Many organizations in Asia have begun to use innovative and successful approaches to philanthropy that mix for-profit and nonprofit tactics. The Wall Street Journal profiles several of these as part of a holiday giving guide.

Michael Liffman, director of the Asia-Pacific Centre for Philanthropy and Social Investment, at Swinburne University in Melbourne, said that organizations of this sort exemplify the region’s recent shift “from checkbook philanthropy to engaged social investment.”

In a Chinese province near the Tibetan border, for example, a for-profit social-enterprise group called Shokay buys downy yak fiber from the herders in Qinghai and weaves it into upscale “yashmere” blankets and sweaters for sale at high-end shops in urban locations. The group was founded by two women when they were graduate students at Harvard University. Profits from that venture and others are funneled into Ventures in Development, a Hong Kong nonprofit organization that puts the money toward social programs and local research.

In Cambodia, International Development Enterprises, a large nonprofit organization with branches in many countries, designs and tests affordable products for the rural poor, such as simple, foot-operated water pumps. Other organizations profiled include Green Gecko, a sanctuary in Siem Reap, Cambodia, that provides nourishment and education for street children, as well as SKS Microfinance, a for-profit social-enterprise group based in Hyderbad that is expanding microcredit throughout India.