Kiva is a charity that works with micro-loan companies and allows you to give loans from $25 upwards to individual people and projects that you can read about and track through their website and they pay you back over 12 months. And because of the nature of the site only as little of 1.9% of these default.

So you could pay $25 to help a carpenter in Nicaragua buy tools, he will pay you back $2 per month, as the money is paid back into your PayPal account you can lend that money to someone else, or reimburse yourself. It is also possible to buy loans as gifts for your friends and family through the website.

http://www.kiva.org/

My Kiva Profile
http://www.kiva.org/lender/stephen2637