Well it's certainly a question of scale. I've seen some successful indie projects where the hosting costs are met by donations, but that's usually when the admin/dev(s) are donating their labor. I struggle to imagine a community that could crowdfund enough for a few reasonable salaries on top of hosting costs.

Though my imagination isn't particularly strong, so I would be delighted if such a thing came to be!

The last I want after all this is corporations to come and try to take over or spread ads and marketing everywhere. Sure, it will probably happen anyway, but I‘m gonna go to some instance that defederates from them.