Make it rain, bitches!

I was suggesting an altruistic endeavor to one of my student's who was looking to "help" Africa and thought it may be an interesting continuing project for the any person, group of friends, or organization. If money was raised, loans can be provided to entrepreneurs in developing countries all around the world. There is an organization (kiva.org) with which I am familiar that establishes the networks to provide these microloans.
Again, this money is a loan and has a payback period. Then the repaid loan money can continued to be reinvested in other small business enterprises in distant places around the world. This money then circulates indefinitely providing the seeds of development in many locations. If you go to this site, you will see that you don't even need to provide ALL the seed money, you can loan a portion of the whole. I thought this might be an interesting and fruitful endeavor that connects peoples' attention to other parts of the world through efforts that directly provide seed money for sustained development to better individual's and communities' lifestyles. I picture "loan parties" where people get together to narrow down the "applicants," and making arguments as to which endeavor should be supported, and then hold secret ballot to where the money should go.
You could then track the people and locations through the website. Over months and years, more money is raised to contribute to the existing seed money and there would be a network/track record of many individuals and communities that the have been assisted. I picture a world map being hung in a conspicuous place with indicators (digital or otherwise) and pictures showing the locations and people that have been invested in. This would be a very meaningful and dynamic statement for anybody.