International Women's Day Fundraising Lunch

We are so grateful to The Drinks Association (and its Embrace Difference Council) for selecting us again as their charity partner for their annual International Women’s Day fundraising lunch. Thank you to Georgia Lennon and everyone else at The Drinks Association for your continued generosity – raising a record $22,000 this year!

Phoebe Britten (2024-25 KDF Scholar) talked at the lunch about what the KDF Scholarship meant to her:

“I didn’t grow up surrounded by barristers, judges, or policymakers. I didn’t grow up knowing how to navigate elite institutions. But what I did grow up with was work ethic, curiosity, and a quiet but persistent question: "Could I do more than what I currently see?" The Foundation hasn’t just provided financial support. What has mattered even more was what the Foundation represented. It represented belief. It said, very clearly: You belong in this profession; You belong in these rooms; and You belong in this city.”

Read her full speech below:

"Good afternoon everyone,

It’s such an honour to be speaking amongst you all today - and more importantly, thank you for supporting the Katrina Dawson Foundation.

I grew up in a regional town on the Central Coast of New South Wales. It was a beautiful place to grow up - safe, community-minded, grounded.  It’s the kind of place where everyone knows your name, where community matters, where people work hard and look after one another.

But it’s also the kind of place where certain careers feel… distant.

Lawyers were people on television.

International policy was something that happened in Geneva or Canberra - not something someone from my high school did.

The careers I wanted to pursue - international law and human rights - weren’t really pathways you could see growing up. They were ideas in textbooks, ambitions without knowledge.

I didn’t grow up surrounded by barristers, judges, or policymakers. I didn’t grow up knowing how to navigate elite institutions.

But what I did grow up with was work ethic, curiosity, and a quiet but persistent question:

Could I do more than what I currently see?

That question stayed with me when I moved to Sydney to begin my law degree, becoming one of the first people in my family to move away from home for university.

Like many people in that position, I wasn’t arriving with a roadmap - just a determination to learn how these worlds actually worked, and how I might find my place within them.As a young woman passionate about giving back, I knew I wanted to contribute to something bigger than myself.

And that’s where the Katrina Dawson Foundation came in.

The Foundation didn’t just provide financial support. But what mattered even more was what the Foundation represented.

It represented belief.

It said, very clearly:

You belong in this profession.

You belong in these rooms.

You belong in this city.

Before the Foundation, the question in my mind was: “Can I make it here?”

After the Foundation, the question became: “How far can I go?”

And that fundamental shift - from doubt to possibility - changes everything.

Through the Foundation, I was exposed to extraordinary leaders in the legal profession. People who modelled technical excellence, integrity, innovation, and public service. People who used law not just as a career, but as a tool - to shape policy, to serve clients, to defend rights, and to build stronger institutions at the forefront of our rapidly changing world.

Being in those rooms didn’t just inspire me. It recalibrated my expectations of myself. It expanded my imagination. And when you expand a young person’s imagination, you don’t just support their education - you change their trajectory.

Because of the stability and exposure the Foundation provided, I had the space not just to focus on my studies - but to build.

During my degree, I founded a not-for-profit organisation that provides free tutoring and scholarship support to disadvantaged students across Australia. We’ve helped over 150 students on their journey to University, with 100% of the students we tutor saying they’d be more likely to consider pursuing tertiary education after working with us.

I often reflect on the ripple effect of that.

A scholarship allowed me to study.

Studying at Sydney Law School has allowed me to build networks.

Those networks gave me the confidence to create something of my own.

And that “something” now supports hundreds of students navigating barriers of their own.

That, to me, is the multiplier effect of belief.

The Foundation also broadened the horizons of what I believed a legal career could look like. I’ve begun exploring the intersection of technology, international law and access to justice - how digital tools can expand legal support and are revolutionising the way and disrupting human rights, international governance, and decision-making.

Over time, I’ve found myself stepping into rooms in policy, in leadership, and in global dialogue. And every time I enter those spaces, I am acutely aware that I am there because someone invested in potential before it was fully formed.

That is what the Katrina Dawson Foundation does.

It does so much more than fund scholarships.

It funds confidence. It funds impact. It funds leadership. It funds courage.

And for those of you here today considering your support - I want to make something very clear.

Your contribution is not something that exists in the abstract.

It becomes a student completing a degree they thought was out of reach.

It becomes a young woman raising her hand in a room where she once felt invisible.

It becomes ambition without apology.

Because when you change what someone believes is possible, you change what they go on to build. I like to think that I’m fortunate enough to stand here as one example of that.

And that is the true power of investment in potential and investment in impact.

Thank you for being part of my story, and for being part of the stories of the incredible women the Katrina Dawson Foundation has supported. I hope today you’ll help write the next chapter of what is possible for the amazing young women and young leaders who will inevitably follow."