What I really want to get at is how to build a community of individuals who would be willing to run our nodes. I have no experience community building, I also do not know how to maintain such a community. If there are any tips, insights and (fingers crossed) individuals who have run nodes for various projects please comment.
Running a node for a recently started project won't attract anyone, except if you pay for it. I doubt if anyone will be willing to run your node among all those projects. If it's really something special that isn't looking towards profit and your whitepaper enthuse me, I may be your volunteer, as long as it's not expensive to run such node.
Although there are few exception such as Bitcoin where people usually run full node to perform community service or help Bitcoin network, it's not reliable option unless your coin is very popular.
Running a Bitcoin node doesn't help only the network. It helps you turning your wealth private. Back in 2009, it may was pretty much like the case with this project, but now that it's being taken seriously, running a node can actually be very profitable for you, whether someone pays you for doin' it or not.