(Don’t) Just Keep Swimming: Proactive Grantseeking in a Reactive Era

Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming.

Sound familiar?

If you, like me, have ever balanced fundraising alongside parenting small children, sometimes those two worlds collide, and you find yourself applying cartoon quotes to your daily work. In my life as a grantwriter, the refrain of Disney’s Finding Nemo's beloved Dory, "just keep swimming, just keep swimming," really hits home.

If you are not familiar with the Finding Nemo storyline: Dory is a fish who has trouble remembering things. The only thing she can consistently remember is her personal motto, "Just keep swimming," and she uses this motto to persist, in spite of obstacles, as she searches for her lost friend, Nemo.

With the pressures of deadlines and revenue goals always looming, sometimes we, as grantwriters, can fall into a "just-keep-swimming" approach to grantwriting: Copy the language. Count the characters. Submit the form. Copy the language. Count the characters. Submit the form. Just keep swimming.

But hey, to all you Dorys out there, there just might be a better way.

As the year comes to a close, many of us are looking ahead to 2026 and working to determine how to secure the grant funding needed to deliver the programs our communities deserve. With this sense of urgency, it can feel tempting to move forward with a “just keep swimming” mindset, especially when our “plan” is simply to do whatever it takes to raise the money we need.

Often times, this approach results in frantically applying to most grant opportunities that pass through our inboxes, persisting past impossibly tedious application forms, applying again after past denials, or sending in cold requests without ever having spoken to the funders. Maybe we’re even planning to use AI to write a greater number of less customized applications.

And we just keep swimming.

But in the face of these obstacles (which are decidedly less ominous than Dory’s sharks, jellyfish, and giant whales), a “just-keep-swimming” approach may actually not be the best way to end up at your goal.

The beginning of a new fiscal year is a great time to pause and take a more intentional, or proactive approach, to grant planning. Our team here at Cloudbreak builds grants plans for a new fiscal year by following these steps:

Focus on Retention First. Review the grants that your organization has received in the past three years, and make sure every one of them has a new application penciled into your plan for the next year. You may uncover funders that used to fund your mission regularly, but haven’t recently. Include them too! If you aren’t sure you will be eligible again, do some research or make some calls to help you decide. Make a list of all these grant opportunities and how much money you plan to ask for from each.

Make a Calendar. Turn your list into a monthly grants plan by arranging each new application into a month-by-month view where you can easily see your workload at a glance. For grants that have no specific deadline, pencil them in during months where you’ll have space for it, or based on your eligibility for that specific grant (some funders say you can’t apply until a certain amount of time has passed since your last award).

Plan for Denials. Nearly no one secures every grant they plan to ask for. Even the best grantwriters can’t predict changing funder priorities, shifting relationships, or unexpectedly competitive funding cycles that lead to denials where you had hoped for an award. As part of your planning process, assume that you will not get every dollar you request. Aim to build a calendar that contains two to three times as many dollar-opportunities than your annual goal. If you need to raise $100,000, aim to identify $200,000 or $300,000 worth of grant opportunities on your calendar to apply for.

Look for the Gaps & Opportunities. If you don’t have enough opportunities on your list, look for the spaces where you can pursue new funds. Perhaps one of your programs is growing or evolving in a way that opens up new opportunities – such as a food bank now offering job placement counseling. Or maybe you’ve done well in one grant funder category, but haven’t done much in another category; have you considered service groups (rotaries, kiwanis, etc.), corporations that have local branches (grocery stores, hospitals, insurance agencies, etc.), family foundations, and local governments?

As you make your plan, consider times when you may choose not to keep a funder on your list. Grant proposals are most successful when we intentionally pause to think about what we are doing, and why we are doing it:

• In the face of tedious application forms or reporting requirements, ask yourself whether the time you are spending on that proposal is proportionate to the potential return in terms of exposure to new people or communities, dollars to support your program, or a long-term funding partnership with that funder.

• When you are up against repeat denials, pause to question whether that funder is well-aligned with your mission and goals, and seek out that funder to see if you can get feedback on your denied requests.

• When you are frustrated by funders that do not accept unsolicited proposals, brainstorm ways you can build a relationship with the decision-makers at that foundation, and look into other funders that are easier to access.

All of this leads to an approach to grantwriting that is more proactive than reactive.

Our friend Dory is a very reactive fish. She keeps swimming until she meets an obstacle, fights the battle, and its back to "just keep swimming" again. In grantwriting, the Dorys among us may see an email in their inbox with a new grant opportunity and immediately get to work on the proposal, with little awareness of how that proposal might support bigger programmatic or revenue goals.

By contrast, a proactive grantwriter spends more time researching prospects, prioritizing them against their goals, and planning their workload for the next few months, or year. They know that even when they face an obstacle throughout the year, they have a plan in place that will allow them to keep swimming towards their goals.

So some of you might be saying... yes, but Dory reached her goal - she persisted and (spoiler alert) did in fact find Nemo.

And you’re right; there is one thing grantwriters can in fact learn from Dory: resilience. We all need the ability to bounce back.. To outsmart the sharks, float around the jellyfish, and escape the whale. Absorb that denial, and rebound to ask for feedback so that you can try again. Invest in the energy required to build a strong relationship over a long period of time. Be creative in accessing new funding sources.

Just keep swimming (but just remember to pause to think a little along the way).

---

This blog post was written by Cloudbreak President and Grants Practice Director, Brittany Kirk. Learn more about Brittany here.

About Cloudbreak

Cloudbreak is a woman-owned, woman-led collective of 20+ consultants with expertise in grants, campaigns, and annual fundraising and communications. We exist to help nonprofits move forward with clarity, calm, and steady action, no matter the size of their team or the complexity of their goals.

Our collaborative structure allows us to connect organizations with the right support at the right time, ensuring leaders feel equipped rather than overextended. We often work with small organizations, offering practical, right-sized strategies to help them grow.

At the heart of our work is a simple goal: making fundraising feel less daunting and more sustainable. By tailoring our strategies to your capacity and resources, we aim to help organizations strengthen their fundraising with confidence and clarity.

Learn more about Cloudbreak's services here.