I spent 3 years researching how to grow community networks while I was in Australia.  One message I got loud and clear is that you must have a way to fund your development.  Asking for donations is one way but experience shows that most people don't give much if anything. 

My aim is to provide a range of products that people might like to buy to help support funding network development.  

For those geeks who are interested, the site is based on one of the Mambo standard plug ins called VirtueMart. 

Cheers Don