Idea for helping people: Local Investment Society

A local investment society is like a building society, except it doesn't give loans to buy houses, instead what it gives is loans to local projects to build up the local economy.
The ideological principle behind the idea is this; if you have someone who will invest money in their town or their village and believe in its potential then they will make a profit but by helping their town or village.
And if a towns economy improves then people in that town will find it easier to get jobs.
I believe, that because this idea is based upon the fusion of 2 models that have already been proven to work, that is: the fusion of building society with investment in small local businesses and economic projects then it is bound to work.

I imagine that there could be a local investment society in every city and village and town making loans to stimulate economic growth and before long they'd become a beloved institution for the good they do.