Daniel Vainsencher <danielv at tx.technion.ac.il> writes:
> Well, Python does it:
> 
> http://www.python.org/psf/grants/
> 
> BTW, its quite possible that someone might get pissed off no matter
> how you do it, but that's part of life. The question is doing it in a
> manner that only upsets few people, and encourages active people. If
> we can vote in a board, we can certainly award some funds.


Debian, too.  They, too, have more money than they spend, but they are
willing to do it.

Here's a fun news file I googled up:

  http://www.nl.debian.org/News/1997/1.3


Some of it sounds like Stephane's alter ego wrote it:

  We've gotten real! Until now, Debian was a large informal
  organization, with no treasury or incorporation, and only one real
  officer. We have submitted our incorporation papers to the State of
  New York. As soon as the State returns them, we'll file with the
  U.S. Internal Revenue Service to be a 501(c)3 tax-exempt
  non-profit. This status will let us handle tax-exempt donations and
  grants for the development of Linux. Since everything we do is free
  software, our work will benefit all Linux users. For information on
  how to donate money to Debian, see
  http://www.debian.org/donations.html



Others sound like the familiar idealists:
 
  One major difference between Debian and other Linux distributors is
  that Debian is a non-profit organization, and the others are
  commercial companies. Debian's aim is to work together with other
  Linux distributions rather than compete with them.



-Lex