I don't think asking for donations is the way to go once a non-profit is in place. The US is full of foundations that are happy to throw money at half-baked proposals vaguely related to education. Pretty much every billionaire sets up a foundation like that. You just write a grant proposal and wait for the money to come in. Lots of people in academia make their living that way. And we are talking at least an order of magnitude higher than your figure above.
Sure, and Jimbo hasn't even ruled out the possibility of taking government money, although he snapped when I mentioned the EU ;-). We should explore all reasonable opportunities. Web donations have the advantage of getting us a quick money fix, if that's what's needed.
Regards,
Erik