Three weeks ago, we posted profiles of 25 social ventures on this blog and asked readers to vote for the one they felt held the most promise. The profiles were part of our second annual round-up of businesses from across the country that aim to both turn a profit and do social good.

Now, nearly 4,500 votes later, the results are in.

Arkadelphia, Ark. —
Phil Baldwin, President and Chief Executive Officer of Southern Bancorp, Inc., announced that Dominik Mjartan has been promoted to Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Communications.

…In addition, a recent study by BusinessWeek featured 28 growing social enterprises that are worth keeping on your radar screen for future responsible job opportunities as well as potential companies to buy products from. These social enterprises really reinforce the notion that businesses can do well whiled doing good in any industry and wherever you are located! Let’s review these organizations by industry..

Southern Bancorp – This bank with operations in Arkansas and Mississippi aims at providing banking services to communities that other bank desert. Furthermore, Southern aims at reducing poverty and unemployment in rural areas, as well as increasing the high school graduation rate of the communities they serve.

Just as electric bills start to increase because of the summer heat, Entergy Arkansas, Inc. customers will see a reduction in rates – a whopping 23-percent reduction from last summer.

The lower rate will result in a $24 savings on the typical Entergy Arkansas residential customer bill, which is for 1,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity. The rate decrease is in response to lower fuel costs and projections through the end of 2010. A residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours will pay $85.91 starting in July, about what customers were paying in July of 1986.

The temperature is rising quickly on a muggy Wednesday morning as Trey Berry and I walk through the woods on Hindman Hill in Helena-West Helena, the nonsensical but now official hyphenated name for this history-rich city on the Mississippi River.

Berry, a noted historian who’s now a deputy director of the Department of Arkansas Heritage, wants to show me Battery D, one of four Union batteries built to protect Helena from Confederate attack during the Civil War.

With the deliberateness and precision of a military maneuver, Jack Hill stepped towards the crowd and provided Rotarians with several updates at the civic club’s weekly meeting Tuesday.

Hill, administrator of Northwest Regional Medical Mississippi Center, said improvements are being seen at the Clarksdale hospital, but encouraged Rotarians to investigate and determine the success of the facility on their own.

The Arkansas Tech University-Ozark campus is one of three community colleges in the state to be selected as pilot sites in the “Sustainable Communities through Community College Leadership” program.

Part of the Arkansas Department of Higher Education, the program is designed to build upon existing relationships between the colleges and community groups. The other colleges selected are Phillips Community College of the University of Arkansas in Helena, and Ozarka College in Melbourne.

Tonight at 7:00 on the campus of Phillips Community College in Helena-West Helena, the first class of seniors will graduate from what’s commonly known as the KIPP school.

If you closely examine how far these kids have come, you’ll realize just how remarkable this story is.

Gov. Mike Beebe will deliver the commencement address at what’s officially known as the KIPP Delta Collegiate High School. Mike Feinberg, one of the national founders of KIPP (which stands for Knowledge Is Power Program), will be there.

If there has been a more hopeful day than this one in the Arkansas Delta in recent years, I’m not sure what it is.

BLYTHEVILLE, Ark., May 20, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — At 25 years old, Monica Reed never thought she would be a homeowner. But with the help of a $5,000 grant from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas (FHLB Dallas) and Southern Bancorp Bank of Blytheville, she is now a proud homeowner.