I can tell you from experience it does not work.
By the way, Fairphone has given/lent/sold phones to numerous developers to develop #software:alternative-oses for the Fairphone 2. Ubuntu, Sailfish, FirefoxOS, UhuruOS all had or have access to multiple Fairphones. I also reached out to you @z3ntu, @snevas and to @chrmhoffmann with an offer to lend a FP2 for sometime to develop, but none of you seemed to need one. If that has changed, please let me know!
Other then these projects, I have so far not heard of other devs/projects needing devices for testing purposes. If you are a dev making an OS for the Fairphone 2, please get in touch and we can always discuss what is possible!
One last thing; if you want to get more community backing for a project and maybe have them even pay for hardware, I think that Patreon.com is a great way to explain why you need money and allow people to contribute to your project in a sustainable way. UBPorts has a successful Patreon page you can look at for inspiration.