It's actually quite easy, the money comes from investors that see the long-term potential. By putting their money into steem (power) they earn voting power like in regular stock companies. If they want to get out they sell their shares again. In the meantime, the money they spend for the shares goes to work. In the case of STEEM(it) the money doesn't go into buying hardware, equipment, development or human resources, but instead goes to people that other investors (small and big) think contribute to the network and should earn some bucks.
Technically, Steem is not a project raising funds on kickstarter, but instead Steem IS kickstarter, a crowd-funded platform that evolves and pays people to develop stuff that other people want.
(Claps) good point