Yes exactly what I think, the project is not a single project but many project in one. If the team manage the communication and the community nicely I think they can raise some funds even with this hard market. A charity platform seems to interest a lot of people.
if they focus on the core of the project and deliver the rest as they develop, they'll do fine.
I agree, it's usually better to develop some strong features first and once it works properly and the customer base is big enough add more things.