First, as @Rarebear mentions, if you have any consumer debt, pay it off. The interest you pay on consumer debt is more than the average rate of return you would get on investing your $7,000.
If you have no consumer debt, credit cards, e.g.then…
Investing in “possibly smaller projects, so that I can help someone as well as make money” is a nice idea, it sounds win-win, but it is incredibly risky. As the State of Wisconsin says: “never make a small business investment that you cannot afford to lose entirely.” You may do well, but the chances are greater that you could lose it all, the whole $7,000 dollars. You can take big hits in the stock market but you generally don’t lose everything.
What you might want to consider, if you do want to help people, is to take maybe $500, or more, or less, whatever you feel you can manage, of that money and use it to make micro-loans, with an organization like Kiva.com. I have been lending the same $300 with Kiva for about 5 years now. I don’t make any money, but I get my money back and I am able to help people. Then take the rest of the money and invest it in something that isn’t so risky as investing in small start up enterprises.