Why don't they pitch for money, like Wikipedia and NPR do? If they think they're above fundraising, then it stands to reason they will be broke.
I was deeply involved in xiph.org (vorbis, theora) for some time, same sort of situation. They were doing something arguably really important for the world (patent-free [rather, free of royalty-demanding patents] media tech), but struggled to scrape together a high 5-figure budget.
There needs to be a refactoring of how we think about and fund important endeavors that are not for profit.
I was deeply involved in xiph.org (vorbis, theora) for some time, same sort of situation. They were doing something arguably really important for the world (patent-free [rather, free of royalty-demanding patents] media tech), but struggled to scrape together a high 5-figure budget.
There needs to be a refactoring of how we think about and fund important endeavors that are not for profit.