To be fair, Patreon seems like a good spin on the idea because we would be donating money to you to keep creating "creative" content, whatever that may be, and not donating specifically for THIS project. As far as I know, most of your staff has their hands in some other creative projects too. This way they could never sue you for getting money for this mod specifically.
Another similar way to go would be to create a donating page for every staff member individually, again changing the focus away from it being seen as monetary gain from this project specifically. If one staff gets more money than the other you can then discuss spreading the money around if necessary or such at your discretion. Very much like tips in a restaurant.
Hell, you could do any of the above and not even mention ESF...