Make a holiday loan, it'll make ya feel good.

For the last few years I have loaned money to people for art supplies in Mexico, to buy carpenters tools, coffee trees in Guatemala, a machine to balance tires and fix flats in New Orleans, to raise flowers in Mexico, rakes shovels and seed in Peru.  Kiva is my tool.  Kiva is a micro loan organization, they screen, and train people to succeed with a modest business plan, and they hand them money.  These people don't normally have collateral, many don't even have a good education.  Banks won't talk to them.  It's either borrow from loan sharks, criminals, or stay dirt poor.  The failure rate of Kiva loans, is less than 2%.  I think I have made at least 10 loans, and all paid back in full.  
It works like this.  Go to Kiva, read about people looking for loans, choose one and decide how much to risk.  Your money is pooled with others until they have enough to launch the loan.  I started with $25, and have added 3 or 4 times.  (You get no interest, you can ask for the money back when it's been paid, but almost no one does, what fun would that be, I just loan it agian)
I look for people in Central and South America involved in arts, crafts, food production, manufacturing.  You can search by various subjects.  You can also buy a gift card/account, I did this for some college students in the family to get them involved, they continue to reinvest it.
A few days ago I put $25 in to help raise 1,250 for a young man in San Miguel Xoxtia, Mexico.  He has a few hogs and will buy a digester to ferment pig poo into gas to power some lights and equipment  stop methane escaping into the atmosphere, plus, he ends up with a not so smelly manure to sell as fertilizer to local gardeners, he figures it will pay for it's self rather quickly.
I like this better than kickstarter, you get feedback, these people are screened then coached and encouraged, they pay it back, it's a full circle, it's how things should work.
 www.kiva.org.