Government grants. Hearn is also the son of a wealthy Google investor, so a lot of his ego-tripping is daddy issues. Gavin gets a salary is administrator and also getting paid via grants for research and such. It's A LOT OF MONEY.
So, you believe that a government and a Google shareholder are behind their push for a higher maximum block size?
I only know from the past. I don't know how it's changed since though. But that's how Gavin was paying us (and himself) back then, with grant money. So I'm going to assume it's still their main source of funding.