Typically, Mama Bona contacts the community leader and, together, they identify families to take care of the children.

CNN: 'Mama Africa' and Congo's orphans of war

Lastly, it creates invaluable contacts within the venture community, which may provide insights into other portfolio companies that might be interesting to engage.

FORBES: CIOs and Start-Ups: a Natural Fit

When Kadambi and his co-founders started to raise money for YuMe in 2005, they had already made good contacts in the investor community because of their previous roles and successes.

FORBES: Jayant Kadambi's Journey from India to Silicon Valley

Meirelles said his 8 years running the Central Bank and his contacts in the global investment community led her to choose him for the position.

FORBES: Brazil's Ex-Central Banker Tapped to Lead 2016 Olympic Investments

First, they should work harder to forge an identity with the local population, by taking more local students or forging closer contacts with local schools and community groups, inviting them onto the campus to share facilities.

BBC: How universities could cash in

That is, it leverages a loyal community to add, edit and subtract the contacts in the database.

FORBES: Be A Rainmaker With Jigsaw

"With more than 280 million connected users each month, Skype offers a huge range of contacts for the small-business community, " said Ural Cebeci, head of SMB Marketing at Skype.

ENGADGET: blogger-avatar

We have -- as you have said, we're an upscale community, and what we have, people using their contacts to help other people that were looking for work.

CNN: Transcript of May 'CNN Money Summit: Money & Main St.'

She will be in a community with many other widows like herself and it is likely that she will benefit from the increased social contacts.

FORBES: Is It Time For Your Aging Parent To Move?