It dawned on me that the present culture at AMSAT (and elsewhere) may not support a transparent "resources of the crowd" collaborative approach. (Duh, right? Lol).
Here's an entirely different pathway to success:
With the goal of getting the AMSAT-DL Phase 3E bird into orbit (as an example), publish the required money and start actively fund raising.
To be clear, the required money can't be "millions of dollars" it has to be unambiguous; like $9,242,200.
Then, hire a grant writer and a fund-raising organization with the existing AMSAT budget (a small amount of money leverages much more money).
If the present AMSAT budget is not sufficient, then determine how much money it will take to hire them and fund-raise for that from friends and family (AMSAT members and enthusiastic non-members).
Post a fund raising "thermometer" on AMSAT.org and the world can watch the success grow before their eyes!
Ev, W2EV
PS: maybe a hybrid approach? I'd bet that there's someone on this list who's 6-degrees of separation can get to Bezos or Musk to help to reduce even that budget.
PPS: I have an idea that could provide incentive to either of these guys, if they could be reached...but "what are the chances, really"? :-)