Changing the World Without Losing Your Mind, Revised Edition

by Alex Counts

Overview

One of today's most acclaimed books on nonprofit leadership, Changing the World Without Losing Your Mind is a down-to-earth guide to mission-driven leadership. Drawing on his decades of experience as an acclaimed nonprofit leader, Alex Counts offers practical advice on such vital activities as fundraising, team-building, communications, and management. He shows you how to run an organization-and your own life-both effectively and sustainably, giving joyfully to those around you while also caring generously for yourself.

Changing the World was named one of Forbes magazine's 12 Must-Read Books for Nonprofit Employees, and selected as the Chronicle of Philanthropy's Editor's Pick among nonprofit books of 2019. Now it's available in a revised edition, including a new epilogue on leading in times of crisis, responding to the challenging realities nonprofit leaders have faced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781953943040
Publisher:	Rivertowns Books
Publication date:	05/18/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	328
File size:	900 KB

About the Author

Alex Counts founded Grameen Foundation and became its President and CEO in 1997. A Cornell University graduate, Counts's commitment to poverty eradication deepened as a Fulbright scholar in Bangladesh, where he trained under Professor Muhammad Yunus, the founder and managing director of Grameen Bank, and co-recipient of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize. Since its modest beginnings, Grameen Foundation has grown to become a leading international humanitarian organization.   Counts is also the author of When in Doubt, Ask for More, and 213 Other Life and Career Lessons for the Mission-Driven Leader (Rivertowns, 2020); Small Loans, Big Dreams: How Nobel Prize Winner Muhammad Yunus and Microfinance Are Changing the World (Wiley, 2008), and numerous articles in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, the Washington Post, and other publications. Today he is an independent consultant to nonprofit organizations and an adjunct professor at the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland College Park. Learn more about Alex Counts at www.alexcounts.com.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Muhammad Yunus

Introduction to the Revised Edition

Why This Book?

PART ONE: GETTING STARTED

1. Deciding to Make a Difference

2. Choosing to Be Bold

3. First Lessons in Leadership

4. Learning to Tell My Story

5. Laying a Foundation

6. Running My Own Show

 

PART TWO: LEARNING TO LEAD

7. Fundraising as a Win / Win / Win Proposition

8. Managing Up

9. When Leadership Is a Struggle

10. Turning Points

11. Coping with Success

12. Building a Great Board

13. Forging Partnerships

 

PART THREE; CARING FOR YOURSELF

14. Life in Balance

15. Beginner's Mind

16. Learning Acceptance

17. Living Generously

18. Letting Go

Epilogue: Leading in a Time of Crisis 

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Editorial Reviews

05/17/2021

Counts, the founder of the Grameen Foundation, has dedicated his life to alleviating poverty through microfinance and other innovations. This revised edition of Changing the World Without Losing Your Mind, which pairs accounts of Counts’ career in the nonprofit world with lessons for effective leadership and self-care, updates a book targeted at a specialized audience: nonprofit leaders fighting for societal change. Counts’ practical, engaging advice draws from his decades of experience, in the U.S. and abroad, in holding true to a mission and vision while wrangling grants, board members, staffs, and complex partnerships.

Setting the book apart is his focus on physical and mental self-care: “I’ve seen far too many middle-aged nonprofit leaders who were overweight smokers and whose cynicism and jaded perspectives lived right below the surface of their ossified idealism,” he writes. Attentive to the particular challenges facing leaders in his field, Counts urges readers to commit to hobbies, to “live generously” in their personal lives, and to practice gratitude, suggestions he illustrates with clear, compelling anecdotes. One breakthrough he recounts, in work and in life, has been learning to recognize that people are who they are: “I expected everyone to be motivated, demotivated, amused, saddened, inspired, and troubled by roughly similar things as I was,” he writes. This insight helped him grow beyond that assumption: “every person was a riddle to be solved, joyfully.”

This updated edition closes with a new chapter, inspired by the era of the coronavirus, that centers on nonprofit leadership in a society-wide crisis. Crucially, Counts encourages his readers to take the long view, avoid overreacting, and demonstrate grace and understanding to stressed or even angry supporters. Having faced crises every decade of his career, Counts suggests that nonprofit leaders should anticipate, during boom times, that a bust is inevitable and manage rainy-day funds accordingly. His book offers hard-won insight and guidance to nonprofit workers and leaders committed to living lives of meaning–but not lives of needless stress.

Takeaway: This practical memoir and guide balances nonprofit work with self-care.

Great for fans of: INCITE!’s The Revolution Will Not Be Funded, Dan and Chip Heath’s Made to Stick.

Production grades Cover: A Design and typography: A Illustrations: N/A Editing: A- Marketing copy: A

BookLife Reviews

"Counts eloquently discusses the dangers of work/life imbalance, how to be a constant learner, the importance of gratitude, and the right time to leave a leadership position. The author's keen insights demonstrate that he took the lessons he learned during his career to heart, accepting his failures while celebrating his successes. . . . Noble and enriching leadership advice."--Kirkus Reviews

"Offers hard-won insight and guidance to nonprofit workers and leaders committed to living lives of meaning-but not lives of needless stress."-BookLife Reviews

"A life of service to others and to society can be deeply fulfilling. Anyone who seeks to live a life informed by this insight will benefit from this exceptional, and highly readable, book."--From the Foreword by Professor Muhammad Yunus

"Do you have an idea that would help others that you don't know how to implement? Are you worn out from working in the nonprofit world without achieving results? This book will give you the confidence and skills you need to make a real difference. Alex Counts has been there and done that. Now he shares his vast experience on how to save yourself while you save others."--Mike Enzi, U.S. Senator (R-WY)

"Alex brings us insights on social impact with thoughtful reflection and generous advice. With verve and wit, he distills key leadership lessons from his decades of service building one of the great pioneering organizations in the financial inclusion movement."--Michael Schlein, CEO, Accion

"Remarkably candid, self-reflective, generous, and practical, this book is part memoir, part self-help. Alex is an astute observer whose amazing memory helps him recount his own healing journey in vivid detail, offering stories, lessons, and sage advice that will benefit many readers. You'll love this book, and you'll laugh out loud as you read it!"--Susan Davis, Co-Author, Social Entrepreneurship: What Everyone Needs to Know, Past Chair, Grameen Foundation, and Co-founder, BRAC USA

"Nonprofit leaders and managers need great mentors. Alex Counts's new book lets you experience conversations with a brilliant mentor whose candid sharing of his mistakes and accomplishments will help you avoid pitfalls and multiply your success."--Sam Daley-Harris, Founder, RESULTS, Microcredit Summit, and Civic Courage

"Effective social entrepreneurship is both an art and a science. In this book, Alex Counts generously shares what he learned during more than 25 years addressing pressing issues such as poverty. It will be an invaluable resource to the next generation of entrepreneurs, both social and traditional, especially as it addresses not only how to make an impact but also how to ensure that it does not come at great personal cost."--M. R. Rangaswami, Founder, Indiaspora

"Alex Counts has led a major organization, taken principled moral stands, and made decisions that have helped humanity on a grand scale. As all-consuming as that is, he has also led a life of balance. If you need to get world-changing things done, but you don't want to ruin your life at the same time, Alex is the perfect person from whom to seek advice."i-Mark Levy, Founder of Levy Innovation LLC and author of Accidental Genius

From the Publisher