Replying to my own post.

I think the key to trying to get a hosting provider to donate hardware and bandwith to your project is selling to them the idea that they are not donating to a charity, instead you are giving them an opportunity of cheap advertising to their target market.

I dare say hosting companies get approached all the time by charities looking for free hosting, and if it is an animal hospital or suchlike, then the hosting company don't have much to gain other than their logo in the corner of a website which their target market don't visit.

You project is different. People visiting your PPM repo are by definition perl developers, and a substantial fraction will be working on websites, and will need hosting. You need to convince the hosting company that your project will give them lots of sales leads.