As someone who sits in #osm and #osm-dev on irc.oftc.net and helps at least one person a day, I'd like to point out that the community will most definitely give

As someone who sits in #osm and #osm-dev on irc.oftc.net and helps at least one person a day, I'd like to point out that the community will most definitely give you support. MapBox certainly makes it easier to pay someone, but the community isn't completely shut off from the world :).