As highlighted in Money Enough: Everyday Practices for Living Faithfully in a Global Economy by Douglas Hicks, investments in Microfinance can have the highest impact-per-dollar for individuals in impoverished countries looking to improve their quality of life.
Microfinance is the practice of becoming a lender on a small loan to a party who would benefit greatly from the loan. A $50 check in America would amount to a night at the movies for two and a couple of burritos for dinner. To a family in Ethiopia, however, the same $50 would allow them to purchase cattle to help with farming, nutrition via milk, and potentially cattle offspring to multiply their resources.
A microloan will typically still serve the dual purpose of a traditional loan wherein the recipient has immediate access to capital and the loaner receives their investment back plus interest over time. While microloans may not offer the same returns as traditional investments, they do offer some return by the way of interests, are offered in terms of various lengths, and help preserve capital while putting that same capital to use in a globally responsible way.
One website that helps bridge the gap between the individual investor and the microloan recipient is Vested.org. While they offer other types of investments in addition to Microloans, they can be filtered by category and several investment opportunities are available under the MicroFinance category. Opportunities include helping Haitians get a fresh start in life, improving sanitation conditions in a village in India, and constructing structurally sound housing in Colombia.
A website like Vested.org provides an immediate opportunity for the Financial Responsible Investor interested in stewarding their resources in a way that helps their brother's and sister's attain a better standard of living across the globe.
