You have more context on your ability to make use of funds than fits into a specific numerical ask.[1] You want to give funders good information, and the natural type-signature for this is a utility function over money - how much good you think you can do with different funding levels, normalized to the max EV your project has.

I[2] made a little tool for drawing utility functions over money[3], for use in funding applications.

Features:

Copy graph to clipboard as CSV and paste back in[4]
By default enforces monotonicity but you can turn that off (hover graph for toggle)
Click to add/remove points, drag to move, clear all button (hover)
Shows preview on hover of what the graph looks like if you add points.
Flexible bounds on funding, can quickly change via a slider at the bottom or click into the max to pick any max directly.

Released as CC attribution share alike, feel free to remix and improve, if you make it better I might switch the official one to yours.

The original text contained 4 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

---

First published:
December 27th, 2025

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/9sQXG6yC9p9W3mKci/show-funders-your-utility-function-over-money-tool

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

---

Images from the article:

A utility function curve showing percentage achieved versus funding amounts up to $150k.

Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.

“Show Funders Your Utility Function Over Money (+Tool)” by plex

LessWrong (30+ Karma)

“Show Funders Your Utility Function Over Money (+Tool)” by plex