Hi all,
It seems like from what i'm seeing, there are either privately owned warbirds, or warbirds owned by "museums". Sometimes it's an actual brick and mortar museum, or one that comprises of just the aircraft itself.

My question is, if one knows of a aircraft worthy of restoration, is it as simple as forming a non profit company for the purposes of raising funds through donations to restore and fly the airplane, or historically has it been more of a creative accounting method for warbird owners that can afford the aircraft out of pocket, but have it serve as some kind of tax write off for the expenses associated with maintaining the aircraft by being a 501c3 Educational Museum?

There's an aircraft I'm aware of that I think would make an excellent candidate for restoration, but i'm not a rich man by a long shot. Should i sit on the sidelines as a dreamer, or is there a legit way to making this a reality? Kind of like crowd sourcing?