I actually don't think they intend to scam / are scammers, they're most likely not, it's just that this is a little weird. Why can't it be a proper crowdsale, why must it be donations?
Because there is a lawer as team member so they know how to weasle out from all of these legal obstacles.
On the other side they placed enough skin into the game to gain some trust. Stuff will most probably take longer as advertised to archive anything. I for myself even am doubtful if mere "investment" is enough to gain some monetary value from their endeavor. Getting active and implementing some decentralized application on their platform, on the other hand, should archive that.
PS: suggestions what to implement are very welcome