That's a reasonable place to start. I do think crowdsourced money could often go further outside academia, especially in areas with less required lab equipment,

That's a reasonable place to start. I do think crowdsourced money could often go further outside academia, especially in areas with less required lab equipment, but requires more vetting on your part. One idea could be to branch out of academia starting only with "less risky" areas, e.g. fund independent mathematics research but require medical research to be through existing institutions.