Well, 15M gives investors control, and (even out over several investments) reasonable likelihood of profit. But, then again, you point out a great idea: to somehow tie large investments and open source projets. I'm not sure entrepreneurs who struggle getting funding would want to had one more stone to their neck, but it would be great PR to have either a repeated entrepreneur, or an accelerator, lock x% of the funds they raise to donation.
Without inside information you have no idea if this is true or not. It may very well not be. Facebook raised over 2 Billion prior to their IPO and never gave up control. $XXm Investment != Control.