Thanks for your message and interest.

Students getting a free membership works as a trial period in reality (student status eventually expires and normal membership fees must be paid). It also serves a way of attracting members of academia and their PhD research teams who could base their work on Steem rather than ______ blockchain. However this is not set in stone and can be removed / amended.

Membership grants access to some events, etc. but beyond that it's a symbolic token which costs more to the member than you gain out of it. Looking at other foundations individual members are usually the ambassadors of the platform.

On a second thought, students/academia could have a separate board seat as their goals for Steem platform might be vastly different.

About funding: FIAT holdings would be held in a professional managed fund / bank and distributed in near-liquid assets outside Steem or simply kept in fiat currencies. The idea here is that in times of crisis (major hack or ecosystem failure) foundation would still retain funding power even if Steem price tanks.

I envision that this foundation should act as a bridge between FIAT world and Steem ecosystem, and having solid fiscal policy which incorporates both simply makes sense.