One of the things I became really interested in going through my Finance major at uni was the area of microfinance and how something so simple in theory can have such a powerful and long lasting affect to help people out of poverty all around the globe. The reason I like this idea over other more traditional charitable ideas is because in essence it is not charity at all, you are basically lending a small amount of cash (like $50 or $100) to someone to buy something like a sewing machine, farming materials etc which in turn can not only enable someone with a means to provide for themselves financially, but also supporting their families and creating something their local community can build upon. Another aspect I enjoy is the fact that you get your money back if the venture is successful and this way you don't feel like you are doling out money to some big NGO that might not even use your particular contribution to help anyone, and also the person your giving to doesn't feel like a charity case (And the mindset that can go with that, but that's another blog).
If any of this sounds interesting to you, a great site to visit it www.kiva.org where if you have a paypal account and 25 USD spare you can start contributing 100% of your money to a particular business/entrepreneur right away. Take the time to check it out and I think you'll be impressed by the simplicity of this site and the overwhelming fact that you can really make a direct difference in someone's life.

Currently I am not aware of any such small organisations in Australia that caters for home grown opportunities for microfinancing (they like to call it 'microcredit' here) in such an easy to approach manner like Kiva do, which is a shame but also not surprising as small business opportunities here would likely require larger capital to get things moving in most cases. But who knows? Maybe one will pop up soon...