Alex Counts Book Party Sponsored by Princeton Library & the Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice

Book Party for Changing the World Without Losing Your Mind: Leadership Lessons from Three Decades of Social Entrepreneurship by Alex Counts (Rivertowns Books, May 2019)

Book Focus

Some people are dreamers. They choose a career shaped by dreams of making the world a better place—caring for kids, lifting up the poor, protecting the planet. When your dreams are that powerful, it’s easy to neglect yourself. Both lives and dreams can suffer the consequences.

If you’re one of the dreamers, this is the book for you. 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.

Candid, funny, insightful, and wise, CHANGING THE WORLD WITHOUT LOSING YOUR MIND is a book you’ll refer to throughout your career . . . no matter where your dreams may lead you.

Book Price: $14.95 (paperback); eBooks will also be available

From the Foreword by Nobel laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus: "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."

Author Bio

Alex Counts founded Grameen Foundation and became its President and CEO in 1997, after having worked in microfinance and poverty reduction for 10 years. Initially as a Fulbright Scholar, 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 sparked by a $6,000 seed grant provided by Prof. Yunus (who was a founding board member and continues as a director emeritus), Grameen Foundation has grown to become a leading international humanitarian organization with an annual budget that reached $25 million in 2009.

Counts advanced Grameen Foundation’s philosophy through his writings, including the books Small Loans, Big Dreams: How Nobel Prize Winner Muhammad Yunus and Microfinance Are Changing the World (John Wiley & Sons, 2008) and Give Us Credit (Times Books/Random House, 1996). Counts has also been published in The Washington Post and the Stanford Social Innovation Review. In 2007, he received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Horace Mann School in New York City.

He is a Professor of Public Policy at the University of Maryland College Park, an affiliated faculty of the Do Good Institute, and a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA). A fuller bio can be found here.

Praise for Past Titles by the Author

“Best of all, [Counts’] binational book demonstrates that microcredit isn’t an exotic quick fix but the kind of slow, often frustrating, step-by-step progress that is usually the hallmark of real change.” -- San Francisco Chronicle

“Most banking stories are great cures for insomnia. But this author wisely hones in on the humanity of the borrowing women, whose loans payments are as vital a part of their lives as breathing is to us…. Give Us Credit has the vitality of a work in progress, with human stories that lenders and anyone interested in the human side of business will appreciate.” -- Minneapolis Star-Tribune

“An illuminating book telling the fascinating story of microcredit reducing poverty in diverse parts of the globe. In a brilliant style, it brings the simple concept born in Bangladesh to the world stage. Alex Counts’ own deep commitment and long involvement in the microfinance movement presents a rare, preceptive dimension that makes the book engagingly readable.” – Ambassador A. K. Chowdhury, Former Under-Secretary General and High Representative of the United Nations