Katherine Don is an award-winning journalist, book editor, and communications consultant who brings the same passion and care to her client’s projects as to her own. Working across genres, industries, and forms, she is led by the belief that each story holds great power—a power that remains unrealized if the writing itself is hampered by lack of ambition, ambiguity of intent, or the absence of inspiration. 

​

Katherine is a contributing writer and editor at Inside Philanthropy, partnering with the editorial team on articles, reports, and special projects, particularly in the areas of criminal justice reform, the environment, the arts, and gender justice. She was previously a contributing writer at Bustle.com and Romper.com, where she covered politics, health, and entertainment. 

 

As a freelancer, Katherine has written for Salon, The Atlantic online, Huffington Post, and In These Times, among other outlets. She has been an author or contributing writer to eleven nonfiction books, including Dodge County, Incorporated: Big Ag and the Undoing of Rural America (University of Nebraska Press), Power of the Dog (St. Martin’s Press), several books in the Armchair Reader series (West Side Publishing), Real Courage: The Story of Harper Lee (Morgan Reynolds), and The Inside Philanthropy Reader (Inside Philanthropy). 

 

As a communications consultant, Katherine works with individuals, nonprofits, and philanthropic foundations on communications projects large and small. Philanthropy clients have included Foundation for a Just Society, NoVo Foundation, International Planned Parenthood Federation, the United Nations Task Force on Population and Development, and the Harnisch Foundation. 

 

As a book editor, Katherine specializes in developmental editing and book doctoring for both fiction and nonfiction, oftentimes collaborating with authors from the earliest draft up until the moment of publication. Learn more about Katherine’s boutique book editing services here. 

 

Katherine studied anthropology as an undergraduate at Northwestern University, where she entertained reveries about Lara Crofting abroad until she realized you need to write about just one thing while pursuing a PhD, whereas writing about ALL the things is more to Katherine’s liking. After several years working assorted gigs in writing and editing, Katherine was awarded a fellowship to study at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at NYU, where she received her MA in literary journalism. 

 

Katherine's first screenplay, a short film that she co-wrote with a friend, received multiple industry awards and was the first-place winner in the screenwriting category at the Los Angeles Movie Awards. 

 

Katherine lives in Chicago with her partner, two kids, and a feisty hamster called Ginger.