Hundreds of Drupal developers eagerly await the arrival of a stable release of Tokens Module for Drupal 7 with Field support. Everyday users subscribe to this feature request issue thread without any word on the current status from the developers (correct me if I missed it). The developer put up a ChipIn form to which many people contributed and if it was still open for contribution I'm sure that many more people would donate money to the cause. (http://drupal.org/node/691078?page=1)
I personally like the idea of voting on what features I think are most important to add to the Drupal ecosystem and are of the highest priority by using my hard earned money to contribute to them. I've seen other threads where this is a controversial subject.
I propose making a widget like on Area 51 of StackExchange. There are three phases. First, an idea for a module or a feature added to a module is submitted. Then users have an opportunity to discuss if it's needed and pledge money to that particular project. Once the project passes a certain threshold of interest and money the second phase begins where people can through Chipin or PayPal contribute money to the project. After the projected cost of the project is met through donations, the third phase which is development begins.
I don't have a few thousand dollars to support development of a module that is contributed to Drupal with my company listed on the module project page as the sponsor which seems like the current way things are done now. However, I would love to throw $20 here and $100 there for projects and features I find to be useful and needed. Why can't I do that now?
This way we can push popular ideas that the community feels the Drupal project needs forward. I know a lot of people hate capitalism with a passion, but supply and demand is an amazing life force like the energy giving off by the sun and we should learn how to harness both of them for the greater good.