Francesca Beddie is a former Australian diplomat who served in Jakarta, Moscow and Berlin and was private secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. She created the Australia for UNHCR Beddie Scholarship to support refugees who want to pursue a creative career.
I have always been a giver. As a university student I gave tiny amounts to Amnesty International and would help out by writing lots of letters. It felt like I was doing something good, and I enjoyed the community of it.
But giving has also been part of my cultural life; I guess you could say I’ve had an academic interest in the connection between philanthropy and the arts. It’s something I’ve studied as far back as the Renaissance, and now I’m interested in late 19th century women philanthropists in Russia.
So, it’s always been there, trickling throughout my life but it wasn’t until my mother’s death that I decided to consolidate that trickle into something more meaningful. My mum had a house which she loved, and after she died, I didn’t want to see the money from my share of the sale get fritted away. I wanted to create a legacy for her.
I support causes around education, refugees and poverty alleviation. They're issues that I feel our governments should be doing more about, so in that sense my giving is driven by frustration, but these issues also very much align with my career interests and more broadly my societal ones.
During my first career, I worked in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. I saw a the harm of war and poverty. In Jakarta, I’d come across these kids emerging from slums in their bright little white shirts and red dresses going off to primary school and there was something about this image that opened my eyes to what a privilege education is. Especially coming from a family where education was sacrosanct, knowing that my parents would support me up until I had a university degree; I realised that it’s something a lot of us tend to take for granted. This is what led me to work in adult education and help raise money for education for the underprivileged.
This is the piece of my story that I’d like to emphasise. My mother, Rue Beddie, came to Australia as a refugee. Although she was English, she was born in China and was forced to flee because of the war. I wanted to do something that highlighted the variety of the refugee experience and to stop the demonisation of that word that is so prevalent today.
Rue loved the theatre. My father was involved in international relations, so I had all these ideas swimming around in my head about how to remember them. I decided to focus on storytelling, and approached an organisation with my idea, thinking that they’d appreciate the help. Although I wasn’t offering a large amount of money, it was more money than they could handle, and their lack of enthusiasm for the offerl ended up feeling like a bit of a blow.
My lawyer at the time, who was helping me after Rue’s death, put me onto Australian Philanthropic Services. They helped me set up a sub fund. I started speaking to different people about what I wanted to do and after a year and a half, I partnered with the Public Education Foundation, the Australia for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), and the Australian Film Television Radio School, to establish a scholarship. Together we've created something that is much bigger than when I started out with just a small contribution and a kernel of an idea.
The scholarship is for a refugee who wants to pursue a career in the creative industries. It pays for a bachelor’s degree at AFTRS and also supports living costs. When we were setting it up, everyone thought I was mother duck because I insisted on making pastoral care part of the package. I wanted to make sure we weren’t throwing people into something, without looking after them.
The recipients get a stipend for living expenses, half of which is provided by me and the other half by Australia for UNHCR, which also offers an internship. Most of the refugees who apply have not been in Australia for long and therefore don't have the level of social capital that other students might. The biggest financial contribution comes from AFTRS, which waives the fees for the degree. This signals to refugees, who tend to value education highly, that a career in the creative industries is worthwhile.
As part of my non-financial giving, I chair a tertiary scholarship panel. Most refugee kids want to go into dentistry or engineering because of the potential earning capacity these degrees offer. I want to show them that if a creative pursuit is what you want to do most in life, here is a prestigious scholarship which can help you and will signal to your parents that it’s important.
And it works both ways. The reason AFTRS was interested is because they want to broaden the representation of voices and the people who tell stories. They've done great work in establishing a strong First Nations program there and so far, we've had two scholarship recipients; the first one is from Syria, and she has graduated and the second person, from Afghanistan, is in his third year.
I’ve learned that there are lots of ways to give. I started by sending off a cheque to organisations and that was the extent of it and now it’s become something quite different.
The lesson I’ve found most confronting has been working out what you want to give, finding the right balance. It was really hard when that first organisation said no to the money I was offering, but on reflection I was probably too upfront about my own ideas and didn’t think enough about finding the right fit with their organisation. That fit can take a long time to work out.
I think this is why the partnership aspect of this work has been so valuable. All those involved get along well and it's been very fulfilling to work with the various players and to learn more about the refugee communities.
Some recent research has suggested that ordinary Australians have generally been great philanthropists in terms of their giving small amounts to the Smith Family or Salvos campaigns but now cost of living pressures are impacting on how much they can give.
Although we are seeing an increase in philanthropy from larger organisations and wealthy individuals, we've still got a long way to go in this country. I'd like to think that we could find more opportunities for public-private partnerships and foundations for the arts and greater incentives to encourage us to work together on these things.
Not everyone wants to have their names up in lights, but I think it’s important to shine a light on people who give, like this She Gives campaign is doing. We need to encourage others to see how it can be done. There are lots of new and interesting ways people can give, but we've got to do a lot more work around measuring impact, so people feel inspired to give again. If you give and don’t hear anything about that donation until the next time you are asked for money, organisations are missing out on a real opportunity to show what the accumulation of small donations can do.
Writes and edits history and non-fiction. Her interests are eclectic, bound together by a belief in the power of words to inform, persuade and move people. She is the editor of Australian Garden History.
Francesca is a former Australian diplomat, who served in Jakarta, Moscow and Berlin, as well as private secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. She also worked as a senior official in the then Australian Agency for International Development. From 2002 to 2004 she was executive director of Adult Learning Australia. From 2007 to 2012 Francesca was manager, then general manager, research at the National Centre for Vocational and EducationResearch (NCVER).
Francesca studied history at the Australian National University, has a Certificate IV in training and assessment and holds the Australian Institute of Company Directors diploma. She speaks German, Indonesian and some Russian. She is a member of the Professional Historians Association (NSW & ACT) and the Australian Society of Authors.
