Major Articles BY OR ABOUT ALEX
Since 2019, most of Alex’s articles have been posted to his blog which for the first 4 years could be found here and since March 2023 has migrated to his Medium site. However, before that time and occasionally since, he has had articles published by other platforms. The longest and most significant of these articles and posts appear immediatley below, and then we list Alex’s all-time favorites. All (except those mentioned in the next two sections) are listed in chronological order. (Please also check out his podcast which launched in the spring of 2023.)
NEW: “Diaspora Philanthropy 3.0,” Stanford Social Innovation Review, April 7, 2025
“Why Investing in Skills-Based Learning is the Future of Sustainable Philanthropy,” Saathee magazine, March 2025
“The Power of Collective Giving: How Indian Americans Can Drive LargeScale Social Change,” New India Abroad, February 21, 2024
“Twelve Common Myths about Major Gift Fundraising (Part Two),” India Philanthropy Alliance Blog, January
NEW: “Tweleve Common Myths about Major Gift Fundraising (Part One),” India Philanthropy Alliance Blog, December 31, 2024
“India Giving Day 2025: The Next Chapter in Galvanizing More and Better American Giving to India,” (with Yamini Mishra) published on the Indiaspora blog, October 10, 2024
“Making Sense of Bangladesh’s ‘Monsoon Revolution’”, Deseret News, September 22, 2024
Interview in the New Indian Express, August 17, 2024
“Good News: IRS Rules Allow Some Nonprofit Advoacy,” Chronicle of Philanthropy, May 15, 2024
“Untapped Potential: How the Indian Diaspora Can Revolutionize Philanthropy in India,” Saathee magazine, April 2024
“Impact Investing: A Growing Trend in Indian American Philanthropy,” India CSR, March 11, 2024
“The Social Impact Opportunities of AI in India,” Alliance magazine, February 27, 2024
“How and Why to Achieve a Breakthrough in American Philanthropy to India,” IPA blog, February 17, 2024
“Celebrating Diversity: Alex Counts of the India Philanthropy Alliance on How to Build Inclusive Communities,” Authority Magazine, February 14, 2024
“Yunus was Right—Credit is Indeed a Human Right, and Savings is Important Too: Why the Microfinance Sector Must Avoid the ‘Circular Firing Squad’ and Promote Multiple Approaches to Financial Inclusion,” NextBillion.net, August 31, 2023
“Seven principles to realize the potential of diaspora philanthropy for India,” Philanthropy News Digest, July 14, 2023
“Tips for Creating a Successful Young Professionals Program,” (with Sejal Desai and Jay Sehgal), Chronicle of Philanthropy, March 1, 2023
“There are more practical ways to compost,” Letter to the Editor in the Washington Post, February 28, 2023
“How the Indian American Community is Addressing Social and Economic Issues Through Philanthropy,” American Kahani, February 7, 2023
“The Future of Indian-American Philanthropy: Trends,” Times of India, January 31, 2023
“How Nonprofits Can Better Engage Young People,” (with Sejal Desai and Jay Sehgal), Chronicle of Philanthropy, December 15, 2022
“Microfinance and the Backlash,” Stanford Social Innovation Review, Novemeber 8, 2022
“Nonprofit Success Strategies for Partnering with Government: Lessons from India,” co-authored with Nishant Pandey, Indiaspora blog, October 21, 2022
“How Nonprofits Can Establish a US-Based Entity” (with Rahul Shah), India Development Review, August 18, 2022
“Embrace the Process,” published in the Winter 2022 edition of the Stanford Social Innovation Review — this is my review of Cynthia Rayner and Francois Bonnici’s book The Systems Work of Social Change (Oxford University Press, 2021); this review is only accessible to SSIR subscribers but if you are not one and would like to view it, let me know and I will see what I can do
“The India Philanthropy Alliance Two Years On,” published October 1, 2021 on the Indiaspora Blog about the India Philanthropy Alliance, a coalition I helped start and where I am currently (as of December 2021) the part-time director
“Leading in a Time of Crisis,” Stanford Social Innovation Review, July 13, 2021 [An excerpt from the revised edition of Changing the World Without Losing Your Mind]
“Spotting and Fixing Dysfunctional Nonprofit Boards” (Stanford Social Innovation Review, October 5, 2020). This is linked to a detailed case study on my blog.
“How and Why to Shut Down a Successful Nonprofit” (Stanford Social Innovation Review, July 21, 2020, with Gary Hattem). This analysis of the lessons of winding down the a nonprofit I served on the board of is linked to a longer case study of that nonprofit.
“How 11 Humanitarian Organizations Collaborated to Strengthen Indian-Americans’ Giving and Impact,” with Bala Venkatachalam (Stanford Social Innovation Review, October 1, 2019). This was released at the time of the public announcment of the India Philanthropy Alliance.
“Alumni Profile: Alex Counts.” This interview of me published by the Fulbright Association in its June 2019 newsletter pulls together some of the key ideas related to my book Changing the World Without Losing Your Mind.
Interview with me published by NextBillion.org. This also came out around the time that my 2019 book Changing the World Without Losing Your Mind was published.
“Reimagining Microfinance” (Stanford Social Innovation Review, Summer 2008). This article was the basis for a major microfinance industry initiative called Truelift that continues to the present day. (Initially Truelift was called the Seal of Excellence for Poverty Outreach and Transformation, or often simply the Seal of Excellence.)
Toward Reinventing Microfinance Through Solving the “Last-Mile Problem”: Bringing Clean Energy Solutions and Actionable Information to the Poor, by Alex Counts with invaluable assistance from Julia Arnold, Muhammad Nurul Alam, Heather Thorne, and Nicola Armacost
Click to read in English. Click to read in Spanish. Click to read in French.
Factors That Contribute to Exponential Growth: Case Studies for Massive Outreach to the Poor and Poorest by Alex Counts, Roshaneh Zafar, and Erin Connor
Click to read in English. Click to read in Spanish. Click to read in Arabic. Click to read in French.
ALL-TIME FAVORITE ARTICLES (THAT ALEX WROTE)
In this and the following section we pull together resources that Alex finds valuable, some of which he has created or written, and many others that he just finds to be super-useful.
What impact investors could learn from microfinance. Perhaps my most widely read blog post ever.
How to manage a CEO/Founder transition successfully. I wrote this when my transition out of the CEO role at Grameen Foundation was almost complete. I am happy to say that this process was one of the rare smooth transitions of a founder out of the CEO seat.
How to get your first job in international humanitarian work and social enterprise. I had been frustrated for years giving advice to young job seekers so I convened eight people who had been creative and successful in breaking in and I published an edited transcript of what they said to me, and each other, over nearly three hours.
What recent microfinance evaluations really mean. This is based on a speech I have at a World Bank conference that went against the grain of what virtually everyone else was saying – and I still think it is correct.
Review of two memoirs by social entrepreneurs: Rupert Scofield and Jacqueline Novogratz. Two very different books that are equally entertaining and have great insights about what it takes to lead social change.
My tribute to the Microcredit Summit Campaign. I think this Campaign had enormous impact despite its meager budget, and when it came to an end I had no choice but to try to publish something about its legacy.
Behavioral economics and what it means for microfinance. I read the book Scarcity after hearing one of its co-authors speak in London, and then wrote this review (actually part two of two) about what I thought it meant. Here is a link to part one, focused on behavioral economics and its implications for development work generally.
A Review of “The Case for Social Investment in Microcredit.” This was my attempt to draw attention to a great article (that I helped raise the funds for) by Tim Ogden about the achievements of microcredit and the opportunities to build on those achievements by allocating smart subsidy and impact investment.
My ARTICLES/Blog Posts PUBLISHED BY OTHERS
(in chronological order)
Alex has always loved to write, and the blog post and op-ed formats works well for things he has wanted to say. Below are the most significant blog posts and other writings that he has had published on platforms other than this site and that are not mentioned above.
Alex’s letter to the editor of the Washington Post about positive news and the group Solutions Journalism Network that was published on January 15, 2022 can be found here among other letters published that day.
Alex’s letter to the editor of the Washington Post about how the CASA program that I am a volunteer for helps children in foster care, which was published on April 28, 2021 (and in the print edition of the Post on April 29).
Alex’s letter to the editor of the NY Times (one of several letters published together on election reform), October 10, 2020. I dashed this off in 20 minutes and was thrilled it got printed in the Sunday Times. It is about ranked-choice voting, a brilliant approach to making elections more democrating and more accessible to third party candidates.
Life and Career Lessons for Changemakers, published on September 3, 2020 by Arogya World, an organization that does terrific diabetes prevention work in India and the U.S.
Understanding Trauma and Recovery: A CASA Volunteer’s Summary of Two Important Books. When Alex was immersing myself in every aspect of how to be an effective CASA volunteer (whose job is to advocate for abused and neglected children who are in foster care), he read two helpful books and wrote this summary (cheat sheet) for his fellow volunteers, and in so doing extended a family tradition in the field of social work.
Time4Coffee Podcast where Alex was interviewed by Andrea Koppel about how to prepare for, secure, and succeed in a mission-driven career (released August 4, 2020)
How and Why to Shut Down a Successful Nonprofit (with Gary Hattem), published on July 21, 2020 by the Stanford Social Innovation Review. This article is linked to a post to Alex’s blog post about the history of the Deutsche Bank Microcredit Development Fund. The two articles were originally intended to be a single piece but SSIR wanted to publish something emphasizing the lessons learned section.
Leading a Social Impact Organization Through Covid-19: Eight Ways to Navigate the Current Crisis. Alex thought these practical lessons from his book When In Doubt, Ask for More could benefit stressed out nonprofit leaders.
How 11 Humanitarian Organizations Collaborated to Strengthen Indian Americans Giving and Impact. This article, which Alex co-authored with Bala Venkatachalam, describes a new coalition called the India Philanthropy Alliance that I worked for three years to help launch.
8 Things Nonprofit Leaders Could Do Now If Their Work Is On Hold. The original title to this article published by the Chronicle of Philanthropy helped prompt to some negative comments from stressed out nonprofit leaders, but once it was fixed the comments were much more thoughtful and supportive.
Unlock the Secrets to a Strong Bond Between CEOs and Board Chairs. This was Alex’s first article ever published in the Chronicle of Philanthropy. It is available only to Chronicle subscribers. But if you want access, let us know and we can probably arrange that.
Alex’s Review of Anand Giridharadas’ provocative and important book “Winner Takes All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World.” He echoed the parts of this book he agreed with and mainly tried to augment what he felt was its weakest part — its recommendations about what could and should be done.
Scaling Your Social Enterprise — While Handling Your Success: A Q&A With Microfinance Pioneer Alex Counts. Alex enjoyed taking part in this interview with NextBillion.org around his book launch. Good questions from an editor who read the book. A very generous introduction precedes the Q&A.
The Power of Philanthropic Complementarity, (post to the Indiaspora blog, January 2019)
Volunteer are making a big difference for Maryland foster youths, Letter to the Editor in the Washington Post (December 14, 2018)
Growing and Better Recognizing Indian-American Philanthropy: An Emerging Action Agenda (post to the Indiaspora blog, September 2018)
Altering the Trajectory of Diaspora Giving: A Report from the Indiaspora Philanthropy Summit (post to the Indiaspora blog, August 2018)
New Book “Climate of Hope” Show How Climate Solutions are Win-Win (post to the Citizens Climate Lobby blog, October 2017)
The Winning Formula (post to the American India Foundation blog, July 2017)
A Review of “The Case for Social Investment in Microcredit.” This was my attempt to draw attention to a great article (that I helped raise the funds for) by Tim Ogden about the achievements of microcredit and the opportunities to build on those achievements by allocating smart subsidy and impact investment.
A Classic Indian Travel Story, AIF Clinton Foundation blog, October 27, 2016. Alex still can’t believe he made his flight this day given what happened en route to the airport.
Social Entrepreneurship and the Fulbright Program, published on the Fulbright Student Program blog on July 29, 2016. This was one of the most popular posts to this blog in 2016. It was fun to write it and in so doing, allow Alex to relive his first year in Bangladesh and also promote the Fulbright program that I so strongly support.
The Microcredit Summit Campaign: A Legacy of Impact, on a Shoestring (originally published as post to the Grameen Foundation blog in May 2016, and later republished on my blog)
Eight Steps to Successfully Managing a Founder Transition (post to the InterAction blog, December 2015)
Celebrating the Journey: Final Remarks (this was my farewell address when Alex was leaving Grameen Foundation as its CEO, posted to the Grameen Foundation blog on November 13, 2015). A video of the tributes and Alex’s final remarks can be found here.
Part of a Toolbox: Angus Deaton Urges Reconsideration of the Role of RCTs (post to Center for Financial Inclusion blog, October 2015)
How We Talk About Microfinance: A Reply to Dean Karlan (post to the Center for Financial Inclusion blog, August 2015)
Considerations for Pursuit of Financial Inclusion: Beyond Account Access (post to the Grameen Foundation blog, June 2015)
The Success of Graduation Programs for the Ultra-Poor, Microcredit, and Fonkoze (post to my Haiti blog, May 2015)
Principles Into Practice (post to the Center for Financial Inclusion blog, May 2015)
Reflections on the Latest Studies on Microcredit (post to the Grameen Foundation blog, February 2015; reposted on the Center for Financial Inclusion blog and elsewhere)
What Impact Investors Could Learn from Microfinance (post to the Center for Financial Inclusion Blog, March 2015)
Building, Brick by Brick (a post to my Haiti blog about the power of incremental change, August 2014)
The Start of a Movement for Lean Research? (post to Alex’s blog loosely themed around microfinance in Haiti, August 2014)
Contemplating Scarcity and Its Implications for Microfinance and Poverty Alleviation (Part One) (originally a post to the Grameen Foundation blog, January 2014; reposted by NextBillion)
Contemplating Scarcity and Its Implications for Microfinance and Poverty Alleviation (Part Two) (post to the Grameen Foundation blog, January 2014)
What I Learned from the FI2020 Forum (post on the Center for Financial Inclusion blog, November 2013)
Practical Advice on Starting Your Career in International Humanitarian Work and Social Enterprise (post to a blog related to my teaching at the University of Maryland)
Alex Counts on Dean Karlan and Jacob Appel’s ‘More Than Good Intentions’ (book review on Center for Financial Inclusion blog, September 2012)
Two Memoirs to Inspire and Educate Social Entrepreneurs (post to my blog about Fonkoze in December 2011)
“Microcredit is Still a Good Tool to Reduce Poverty,” my letter to the editor published by the New York Times (April 21, 2010)
“Bangladesh: Help the Poor, Not the Rich,” Washington Post, May 14, 1991 (my first op-ed or article published in a major newspaper or periodical)