I personally like the idea of a trust fund for Bitcoin held by some of the developers / elders with the purpose of legal defense for Bitcoin. We could probably work out some kind of trust instrument which ensures it would only be used for purposes in the spirit of the EFF's work. It may well be that the EFF qualifies for the money some day but it shall not be held explicitly for them (due to the reasons mentioned).
Of course, Gavin would have to take the trouble to set this up but I think such a fund might come in very handy for the Bitcoin community and would probably be the closest thing to the original intentions of the donors.
I'm sure such a fund held by reputable members would receive even further donations!
This is a brilliant idea IMHO (unless the EFF explicitly wants to give it to the faucet as they have stated), because it is probably what the original donors wanted anyway. Plus, I believe such a fund might be very much needed soon.
Even if the EFF money goes somewhere else we should think about setting up such a fund.
My main motivation for donating to the EFF stems from my philosophy on the oxymoron "intellectual property". I also highly value TOR and support work done to allow people to communicate with one another against the wishes of highly authoritarian governments. A legal defence of Bitcoin misses the mark for me. However, if this fund is controlled by Gavin (or someone Gavin can personally vouch for), is specifically for the legal defense of Bitcoin (possibly also namecoin), and the fund is used in the spirit of the EFF's work as suggested, then I must admit that the idea has merit.