I second what Joerg just said: it's exciting to see the number shoot up, and easy to see it and think 'oh, cool, 1000 usd raised, I'm no longer needed'. But the fact of the matter is that right now people are really aware of the issue of needed funding, so they donate willingly. But naturally, this will taper off, and likely never flow in again like this unless we're close to another infrastructure crisis. So any money that can keep rolling in, will help, if not now then in the months after.

I think, also, what might help keep community motivated, is if the Board keeps finances more transparent than typical non-profits do; give a monthly summary to the community of income, expenditures (and where those expenditures went), what the net gain/loss was, and how much money remains in reserve. If this was done, I think we're a lot more likely to see more sustained donation income. Because most projects' donate buttons/links are just an easy to ignore/forget issue. And regularly posted donation drive requests (like that of Wikipedia) often get annoying/tedious to see regularly for many people (not necessarily a rational behavior, but that's how the human mind works). But if the finances report comes out every once in a while (which wouldn't be too hard to put together, since a more detailed version would be getting put together internally anyway) to the community, the community members will have a regular reminder of how much money the Foundation has, how much it needs, and how much it's bringing in. Assuming this remains honest, this would serve as a much more psychologically motivating reminder for people to donate if they can spare it, in the long term. (Hmmm, I think I should make this suggestion on the mailing list and maybe to the Board directly as well.)