Not meaning to theadjack. I've always thought it would be a good idea to pay/offer a stipend to key project contributors via the foundation. Guys like JJJ, Jaquith, Boone and others that are free nodes (not attached to a bankrolled company) really drive the projects but do so on thier own dime.

Lots of questions and logistics to be answered around who/what would qualify for compensation. However with the sponsorship cash collected in bulk by the foundation for wordcamps, and the referral income earned from the .org hosting page, I would think there may be a couple hundred $k that could be allocated to supplement independent devs on 3-6 month project sprints.

Also a dedicated fund could be setup just for this purpose that companies like Pagely, Lift, iThemes (that are established in the community but may not have the extra bodies to dedicate to core contribution) could donate into.

Essentially a mechanism that encourages more independents to contribute without fear of dramatic income loss, and companies can back those efforts with cash when they don't have man hours to spare.

As long at the bookkeeping is transparent and there is some community oversight, seems like it could work.