Week 4: You Must Do More Than Write

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By now, you’ve probably figured out that being a successful freelance writer, especially for nonprofit clients, is about much more than knowing how to write well. That’s just not enough. Nonprofits need help with strategy. What should this piece of writing ask someone to do? And who is that someone? They also need help with everything that goes with the words, from the graphic design to the delivery, whether in print or online. They need press releases written, but they also need reporters called.

Nonprofits need writers who understand them, but they also need writers who can work in Dreamweaver, InDesign, and the various email marketing (e.g. iContact) and website or blog content management systems (e.g. WordPress). Nonprofits often want drafts of old documents updated. If a good editor or proofreader has the design program that the document is in (or will be shortly), it is that much easier for everyone. Clients will usually prefer that an editor make changes within a design program or an HTML file, rather than pointing out the changes on a hard copy and leaving the client to type them into the program.

Expand your skills and your software options and you will likely expand your writing/editing clientele too.

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