in it's current state, no.

presuming that this form of funding would succeed, who would be doing the actual work? I know the end user portion (the majority) of the community likes to hear this kind of ideas but just by collecting money will not magically start making thing happen. The community would need more people doing something else than just talking (hackers, developers, etc.). I just don't see those kind of people enough around here anymore and do not believe that the situation will get any better. Feel free to prove me wrong (by doing instead of talking and bikeshedding)