There should be a way to appreciate those relay operators who are not backed up by big institutions and only here to help everyone. Tor project itself received donations, grants and more but I was thinking what can we do to help these other operators? They too are vital piece of this network.
Maybe some goodies, annual meetups, even financial incentive can be helpful. Just a thought I had so sharing here with you all.
I do not know how many relay operators are public about being a relay operator. If you find any, you can try to contact them and ask them if they have a monero wallet address to donate monero to.
I did not know this. I can understand it in some countries.
Is there some stigma attached to being a relay operator? Do you become a “target”?
You can contribute to the Tor network yoursef.
I think that anything more than actual expense cover would lead to people spinning up relays for money - and most of these new relays would probably not be so well managed. Of course, volunteer donations to cover actual expenses would be useful and welcome by most while not bringing this problem.
If you want to donate you may also search for relays that include donation info in their ContactInfo with CIISS. E.g. https://metrics.torproject.org/rs.html#search/contact:xmr gives you a list of relays who publish monero addresses.
That being said, as a volunteer relay operator I am grateful for the question and appreciate thought - and many others probably would!
Possibly, and it depends on your threat model.
Threat model depends a lot on what your GPS says. I hear that in some places falling off your 10th story balcony happens often enough. Must be slack building codes. 
I do not have a GPS that can speak.