Maybe this is a naive view, but I wouldn't mind paying a programmer to improve free software when there's something I need. Then everyone can benefit the same way I benefit from other people improving the software in similar or other ways.
For example, a while ago I realized that the OpenBSD file(1) tool didn't detect utf-8 encoding, which was something I wanted. It doesn't seem like a priority of the devs, but generally an improvement for everyone if it worked. If there was an easy way to pay a programmer to implement it for a reasonable price I could pay for that. If more people wanted the same thing we could share the cost too. Finally if the devs thought it was a feature in line with the goals of the project it could be merged into the main source code and everyone would benefit.
I wish this system of hiring programmers was easier to navigate.