Available for work
Hannah Austin | ✨🕊️📣 Award-winning writing, editing, comms, and research for non-profits 📣🕊️✨
🏴 🌍 Wales (clients worldwide)
- [email protected]
- Membership Grade
- Professional Member
About Hannah
Since 2006, I've worked with non-profits worldwide to open hearts, minds – and wallets.
🏆 Award-winning writer and editor who understands
not only grammar, tone, and voice but also
messaging, impact, and audience.
📢 20 years of non-profit experience: from local charities to
global NGOs, from emergency helplines to UN committees,
and from comms to policy roles.
💪 Impacts of my work have included new laws, policy
change, increased funding, and prize-winning campaigns.
change, increased funding, and prize-winning campaigns.
🧠 Expert knowledge in human rights, social policy,
social movements, gender-based violence,
and strategic communications.
Whether you need a copy-edit or a campaign strategy, I can help you achieve your goals.
📩 Find out how
I've worked with...
- Amnesty International
- ARTICLE 19
- Chatham House
- Oxfam
- Results UK
- The FrameWorks Institute
- Transparency UK
- UN
- Welsh Women's Aid
... and many others.
Examples of my work
Here are a few recent examples of my work for ARTICLE 19 (an international human rights NGO):
📆 Defending expression since 1987 [audiovisual timeline]: Research, interviewing staff and beneficiaries in 9 offices worldwide, writing, editing, design, sourcing images and videos
📆 Defending expression since 1987 [audiovisual timeline]: Research, interviewing staff and beneficiaries in 9 offices worldwide, writing, editing, design, sourcing images and videos
🇹🇭 A safer, fairer Thailand for all [campaign story]: Research, writing, editing, design
🗣️ The power of our voices [strategy narrative for web]: Writing, editing, sourcing images
What I offer
- Writing (policy reports, campaign content, web narratives, social media content, funder reports, annual reports, impact reports, beneficiary stories... you name it!)
- Rewriting for specific audiences (e.g. translating jargon-heavy research reports into policy briefings, web content, or campaign materials)
- Research (undertaking qualitative research, analysing research findings, conducting literature reviews, advising on research ethics)
- Editing (developmental editing, copy-editing, sub-editing, Plain English editing)
- Proofreading
- Fact-checking
- Strategy (comms, campaigns, messaging, narrative, etc.)
- Project management
- Basic design (e.g. laying out reports, creating infographics, producing audiovisual stories; proficient in Canva, MailChimp, Shorthand, etc.)
Publications
- Political nonfiction: My op-eds, think pieces, and policy critiques have been published in outlets including The Guardian, New Statesman, and Planet: The Welsh Internationalist.
- Creative nonfiction: My creative writing has been published in literary journals including Aesthetica, Panorama, Hippocampus, Journal of Compressed Creative Arts, Litro, The Moth, Mslexia, New Welsh Review, The Real Story, and Wasafiri.
Select awards
📣 Non-profit comms
- Shorthand Awards: Best Brand Story (for an audiovisual history of an international human rights NGO)
✍🏼 Creative writing
- Center for Women Writers’ International Literary Awards
- Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize
- New Welsh Writing Awards
- Arts Council England: Developing Your Creative Practice grant
🚀 Campaigning
- SMK Campaigner Award: Social and Economic Justice Category
- Emma Humphreys Memorial Award (for outstanding work on violence against women)
👩🏻🎓 Academic
- Economic and Social Research Council: PhD scholarship
- University of Leeds (School of Sociology and Social Policy): School Excellence Prize
Education
- PhD Social Policy (University of Bristol)
- MA Gender Studies: Research Methods (University of Leeds): Pass with Distinction
- BA English Literature and Cultural Criticism (Cardiff University): 2:1
Testimonials
I want to thank you for your commitment, professionalism and advice. You are truly incredible at your job, and I have learned a lot.– Silvia ChocarroOffice of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
I am so impressed by your professionalism, and attention to detail, creativity and staying power that I want to say a big thank you. How you managed to tame this unwieldy beast and get to grips with various perspectives on the world of freedom of expression leaves me deeply impressed. Thank you for taking it all on with such good humour and attention to what matters.– Sara WilbourneARTICLE 19
Excellent work. Really pleased with it. You’ve clearly put in a significant amount of heavy work; at short notice and over the weekend too. Your comments were really useful in tidying up those parts of the text where we’d let some woolly language slip in.– Ed Hammond
Centre for Public Scrutiny
I asked Hannah to proofread a scientific research report written by US authors. She did a great job on a very fast timeline and was extremely professional throughout. She corrected for grammar, readability, style and more; applied British style and usage throughout; and sent us back a clean, highly polished draft. We always turn to her first when we have a report that needs proofing for a UK client.– Allison Stevens,
FrameWorks Institute
Hannah Austin worked with us on our academic monograph and proved an exemplary copy editor. As well as an excellent scholarly understanding, Hannah brings good humour and a scrupulous eye for detail. We recommend her highly.– Dr Michael HigginsUniversity of Strathclyde
Thank you so much for a superb job and for providing clear options and guidance. I will certainly be happy to recommend you to colleagues!– Catherine Blampied
RESULTS UK
Thank you very much for your wonderful, detailed notes and the obvious time and care you have taken with this edit. I so appreciate your work and I hope the author will too!– Jess Mitchell
Policy Press
Hannah has a sharp grasp of policy, political and practice issues and is able to communicate her analyses effectively and with impact. Her work provides the basis for action and progress – what more can colleagues ask for?– Shan Ashton
Wales Violence Against Women Action Groupz
Service(s)
Specialisms
Client types
Disclaimer note
The CIEP Directory of Editorial Services should be considered a point of first contact and prospective clients must satisfy themselves that members are capable of the work on offer. The Institute cannot be held responsible for the quality of work provided by any member listed in the directory. The members themselves are responsible for the maintenance and accuracy of their entries in the Directory and the CIEP has not made any attempt to vet them. The institute cannot be held responsible for any inaccuracies in the Directory. Inclusion in the Directory as a freelance does not necessarily mean that the member is self-employed as defined by HM Revenue and Customs and the Department for Work and Pensions.