1) ooh cool! I think simply having that default prepopulated at $1000 goes a long way to making decision quick- that value immediately gets me deciding if I need to go higher, lower or the same.

2) those changes sound like they'll really help. How about also having a badge on the public pages to show a project has done that step, and saying that on the admin page as a reason to do it as soon as possible.

3) maybe also a link to set up a wallet. I realise this is extra development and payment fees, but enabling regular card transactions would be great - maybe only have it for some projects where anonymity isn't useful. PayPal (or something similar) would be a good compromise.