if you push the field forward and you are not making the money, then someone else is off your work. if you push the field forward in a valuable way, you should receive that value in form of money such that you can decide how to allocate that capital to make even further contributions.

If you push a field forward, you are usually not making the money. You most likely have the wrong skills and the wrong priorities, and you are probably too far ahead of the rest of the world. The people coming in the next wave will usually be the ones making the money.

If you can't accept that, focus more on making money and less on developing something new.

As they say, you can spot the pioneers because they're the ones with arrows in their backs.

Exactly, just because it’s a non profit doesn’t mean it doesn’t have to pretend money doesn’t exist. It means profit is instead put back into making further advancements in the field rather than paying it out to shareholders.