Player families and factions can generally be pretty wealthy and influential within their own areas, up to and including being a donor organization for the Academy. That won't necessarily give the PCs too many additional advantages on the ground besides letting you establish a certain IC reputation and possibly having that be a reason why they are at the Academy (whether this is a good or bad thing is of course up to you). As the Academy has a number of donor families and revenue stream, being a donor doesn't really guarantee the organization any extra pull on how the Academy operates, although characters are certainly welcome to act like or think they do.