>>I also donate in the interest of karma and networking, I'm planning on trying some crowd-funded things of my own when I have more followers/friends/readers/fans, etc. <<

Yes, I think this is key for the many people who are both creators and donors. There are a handful of people who donate to my project and I donate to theirs.

>>I also, almost exclusively, only donate to people with at least a small following. Those people seem more trustworthy, in some way.<<

The social aspect of crowdfunding is important, because it helps people tell which projects are entertaining and reliable. This is one area where it would help to have a major crowdfunding hub site that would let people enter projects and 'favorite' them or something like that, so you could see at a glance which ones were most popular. Crowdsourced selection isn't perfect, but watching audiences in this field reveals that they tend to be pretty astute. A project that has a bunch of followers is probably worth at least a look.

>>Like ankewehner above, meters work as incentive for me too. <<

This is cool to hear.