Open a New Age shop. Can you ask donations be made to start this sort of project?

Sure - you can ask for donations for anything - but it is very clear what it is. If your store is "for profit", then you probably should not say that. Mostly people give money to "charities." But what people do not know about "charity" is that much of the money that they end up going to the company that picks it up - so a lot of "charity" of things is a kind of legal fraud.

Consider this

I'm not sure where it asks for donations - but simply to make very clear what it is - and then keep a careful record of what amounts of money given.

There is an opportunity

Somehow I can not imagine anyone money donated to you for this - but give it a try. Above all these things happen because of his personality - not because it makes no sense.