What's Possible Learning brief 1 - CRIF

we are growing a tree inside the Tiny Cave

we went to

this thing

we shared our hopes

we thought about what can begin to happen within the limitations

of our corners of the cave

and we’ve begun sowing the seeds

Dear Youth What’s Possible Collaborators, We warmly and enthusiastically welcome you to the What’s Possible initiative! We’re humbled and honored to be in collaboration with you. Together, we can and will demonstrate what is possible when donors follow young people’s lead.

As you begin, we want to share with you what we know to be true, our experience so far, and our intentions going forward.

What we know to be true: Too often philanthropy has failed you. We know that. We own that. In fact, like you, our log frames, complex models, and parameters lay heavy on our hearts and stifle our creativity too. While this opportunity is only a sliver of what you (we) deserve, we hope it is still an opportunity for us to define a bold and brave approach to funding – one that works towards liberation.

Our experience so far: The start of this initiative has already enabled us to be brave and bold in ways we’ve been dreaming of for a long time. We joined together because we knew we had to take a step back to remember - to remember why we are all here, why we care, why we love humans (in spite of our messiness), and what young people deserve.

As we collectively launched this work in collaboration with CRIF, we remembered that at the core of our collective humanity is our care for one another, trust in our collective power, and ability to find joy even in our darkest times. With this inspiration, we set the following intentions for our What’s Possible journey with you.

Our Intentions: We hope this experience will be similarly liberating for you as well. Our intentions are to support you to:

· Be bold and brave – too many are only comfortable funding the neat, safe, and reliable ideas. Don’t let the current norms or big trends limit your thinking. This is an opportunity to do what is calling you. Do what you know, what you feel, what you believe

· Care for yourself and each other – sadly but truly, we will all likely need to be dedicated to the pursuit of social justice for all our lives. This requires us to pace ourselves. We must build stamina through rest and fun. You’ll need both to get through whole. Our hope is that this opportunity enables you (and other young people) to care for yourselves and one another, to rest, have fun, and find joy along the way. · Trust Yourself: Trust yourself, fellow youth, and your community. Take what is now a unique opportunity to be brave and show the sector where the future of children’s and youth rights is going!

Right now, this is a unique opportunity. Let’s make it common. Together, by demonstrating What’s Possible, we can change the norm. Thank you for your collaboration and partnership.

In partnership and in pursuit of liberation, Donors What’s Possible Partners