Some thoughts based on some personal experience,[1] something I think could make people and organizations who depend on grant funding are more effective. Maybe particularly salient now, given the fast pace of AI development. Much of this also applies to employers as well as to ongoing funding relationships, not just grants.
Costs of applying, incentives to invest in polish
Funding calls and grant applications impose substantial costs on applicants, cutting into the total effective value of the resources that ~"EA can deploy". A lot of work goes into prepping applications, making them look good, and making strategic and stylistic adjustments that aren't always aligned with adding value to the project, the ecosystem, or the world. The worst case is something like an all-pay auction, where in equilibrium the applicants between them invest something close to the full value of the grant in preparing their applications.[2]
Of course, there are also costs on the other side: it can take a lot of time for funders to process and adjudicate these applications.
I think the EA grantmaking ecosystem does an OK job of holding costs down: short forms, word limits, applications presented as "just give us a first picture of what you do and why." But there's an unavoidable minimum-friction floor when substantial money and personal interest are at stake. Even a mostly effective-altruism-aligned and rationalist applicant has some personal interest, and also may tend to overvalue their own cause and approach relative to a perfect Bayesian (~winner's curse behavior). So it makes sense, from a private PoV, to tweak and optimize extensively.[3]
Planning and calibrating
There's a second aspect here. Once you've submitted, or while you're working through a grant and waiting to hear about renewal, you don't know whether you're far above the bar, far below it, or close to it. I made this point in a comment a couple of years ago: applicants may waste a lot of time exploring a very