Get rid of funding. You already have gifts of subs, with both drillers and specialists, and reducing shields to gift outposts. I think funding is uncessary and contributes to uneven manipulation of the game and increases dramatically the potential for the "wolf pack" mentality discussed in a blog post, making alliances pre game which ruin the fun for others who are unsuspecting.

Funding is useful to diplomacy ...
For example, you want to make an alliance with a player but he's too far from you to gift him subs in a useful way or to give him some outposts. How can you be sure he will accept your proposition ? Funding. That's all.

And by the way, it doesn't give a huge bonus.

It's also helpful that funding only works if the funder has 20 more Np than any fundees, so it only works mid/late-game and can't be used between two even players.

Funding is one of the few sections of the game that is actually visible by all players. If you're being funded by someone, others won't be able to see who it is. However, some or all players depending on the situation can guess who's involved. For those who don't know, you're able to see who's funding you or how many players are funding someone else in the Intelligence Reports. The number and color of the dots in the Funding area represent how many and who is funding; dots will appear black for all other players to preserve information.