The Tiny Cave and the Magnificent Creatures grew out of CRIF’s journey experimenting with youth-led, liberatory grantmaking.
We noticed something powerful: when we sat with children and youth to dream, the energy was wild, imaginative, and full of possibility. Age, time, geography — all of it melted away. It was bold. It was joyful. It made room for magic.
But something changed when we tried to turn those dreams into “projects” or introduced the idea of funding. The energy shifted. The openness closed in. Young people became careful, trying to be “professional” or “get it right.”
The space shrank. And honestly, it was disheartening. We saw how systems — ones we as donors, program folks, and allies helped build — had unintentionally boxed in youth imagination. We realized we’d created the tiniest caves for their ideas to live in.
As CRIF sharpens its purpose and politics, we’re telling this story through a storybook — a format rooted in childhood, and one that reflects our feminist commitment to storytelling and lived experience.
This storybook isn’t just a reflection; it’s an offering to the children’s rights field and youth movements. It’s a way to make visible how certain donor practices — even well-meaning ones — can limit what youth movements could become. Through the eyes of a child protagonist, readers will follow her path into activism, shaped by curiosity, collaboration, courage and community.
