Micro
Reading Reuters today caused me to stumble upon this site, which I can’t say I was impressed with. The maximum interest rate on these micro-loans is 3%. One would assume there is considerable overhead associated with managing the distribution of the funds to all the various investors, plus the return required by the lending institution just for covering overhead.
3% is a nice, conservative estimate of long-run inflation, so why not just “donate the inflation” to the charitable lender, as well? They can still charge interest to the borrower, which would permit increased loans in the future. Plus, this creates a sense of financial responsibility and a free-market atmosphere, which seems like the point of all this anyway.
This would cut out all the overhead and still create the end-result a micro-philanthropist is probably wanting.