Customer Reviews

Paradigm Found: Leading and Managing for Positive Change

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"Anne Firth Murray is my heroine. She had the courage to make my fantasy reality. She founded an organization to empower and fund individual women and groups of women all over the world, to help pull them out of poverty and realize their dreams. And now, nearly 20 years later, Anne is semi retired and teaching at Stanford University



Paradigm Found, Learning and Managing for Positive Change, New World Library was published several months ago and is an account of her experience starting The Global Fund for Women in 1987. Anne's vision for The Global Fund was to transform the world through empowering women. Her original goal was to raise and give away 10 million dollars by 2000 and by 1996 she had raised enough money to give away more than 1000 grants totaling more than 6 million USD in more than 100 countries.



Anne is a New Zealander by birth but attended universities in the United States. She worked as a writer at the United Nations; she taught in Hong Kong and Singapore and was an editor with Oxford, Yale and Stanford University presses. Then she discovered the world of philanthropy and has been involved in it for the past 25 years. From 1978 to the end of 1987, she directed the environment and international population program for the Hewlett foundation in California but found herself asking why aren't women singled out for aid?



Women comprise more than 51% of the world's population. "Women worldwide do almost all of the world's domestic work, yet we seldom receive income for the time and effort this work entails. Women provide more healthcare than all the organized health care services, and yet many women lack equal access to health care for themselves. Women grow more than half of the world's food, yet we own only 1% of the world's land. Women make up one third of the world's paid labor force, yet we are concentrated in the lowest paid occupations".....there are 80 million more boys than girls enrolled in primary and secondary schools and women hold no more than 10% of the seats in national legislatures.



At times like these, if we watch the news on television or read newspapers, the world looks doomed by terrorists and fundamentalists. but this book has given me so much hope and encouragement to keep on trying to make my small part of the world a little bit better . And to learn. "The Best thing for being sad... is to learn something. That is the only thing that never fails".(T. H. White, The Once and Future King)



Anne uses her garden, which is magnificent, as metaphor throughout her book. She is an instinctive nurturer and my friends who met her when she visited me in El Pitillal, Mexico three years ago remember vividly her emphasis on inclusion and how vital it is to listen and encourage everyone. She showed us how compassion and connection come easily for women. Anne

Ms. Murray describes Paradigm Found as the "book for people who want success in making the world a better place and who want to be inspired by specific evidence that positive change is possible"



(Reviewed in Bay Vallarta Magazine June 15, 2006)

Anne Firth Murray has written a truly marvelous and thought-provoking book, straight from the heart. It is hard to classify in one particular genre or another. Rather it is written in a unique style as a combination of a memoir, a good story, a motivational/inspirational book, and a manual. I really enjoyed not only learning about the history of the Global Fund for Women and all the wonderful, dedicated people that made it happen, but also learning more about Anne Firth Murray's life and the ideals she describes in her book.

It satisfies those who love good autobiographies and inspirational stories. And it also satisfies those who seek to learn about how one builds a strong organization from the roots up, from meaningful ideals to meaningful change. For me, this book was rejuvenating and energizing to read. It gave me new ideas and has inspired me all over again. I would think that each new reader who flips through its pages will experience similar self-reflection and inspiration in her or his own way.

This is a treasure of a book. I think it is a great book for all to read--young and old, women and men, and people working in all capacities. Students and young people are who starting out in pursuit of careers in human rights or in non-profit work will benefit in particular from the inspirational guidance that this book offers.

This is not just a book for charities and foundations. Anyone trying to build something that has meaning - that's meant to make a difference - will find this book to be invaluable.

Paradigm Found is Anne Firth Murray's personal story of creating and building The Global Fund for Women. But it's also an inspiring look at the growth of an organization and the importance of knowing what you stand for and building it into everything you do.

This book is an excellent resource for those who are just starting out with their non-profit ventures or those who already have. Anne gives a nice list of principles that worked for the Global Fund that can easily be put to practice by other organizations. She also describes the down side of some of these principles and does give a few examples.

I do however have a few complaints to add to the praise: My first complaint is that while there is a lot of discussion of the principles, there aren't enough concrete examples of how exactly these were put into place or what exactly some of them mean when put into action. I also found one contradicting point in the philosophy: The guiding principle is "no hierarchy"... yet it seems the organization very much follows a hierarchy with Anne at the top. But to her credit, she does try to create an atmosphere of equals, although I wonder how much of this is a dream and how much reflects reality... to be a bit of a critic.

Anne Firth Murray is the founder of The Global Fund for Women and shares her insights on leading a non-profit organization in Paradigm Found: Leading and Managing for Positive Change. Written in a highly accessible style, Paradigm Found spans the genres of memoir, manual, and motivational. Though based on her experiences with leading a specifically focused global non-profit organization, Murray's words transcend the separation between industries and sectors as she speaks to the need of a new style of leadership on a larger span.

She discusses many different aspects of positive leadership throughout the text including leading by inclusion, self realization and actualization, the importance of communication, developing and staying true to your mission, effective succession planning, and knowing when to pass the torch. One of her statements that stuck most with me is the way she described the path of leadership as spending the first 30 years of life gathering knowledge and clarifying beliefs, the second 30 years of life applying that knowledge to make the world a better place, and the next years still learning and supporting others by sharing experience and knowledge.

Though her sentiment for change is urgent, her words stress the value of thorough introspection, discussion, and inclusive collaboration. To her, our new paradigm is lead by respect, compassion, and connection.

What I find fascinating about this book is that the insights it provides come from a stand, a way of life and a passion. The author's vision has taken the shape, among other things, of the Global Fund for Women. Her vision continues to inspire others in their endeavors through the pages of this wonderful book.

This book is packed with a multitude of tips and recommendations for people who intend to create their own organization. The ones that I find the most inspiring are: Learn! Listen!

I found Paradigm Found a page-turner. I couldn't put it down, and not because it is a thriller, but because of the authentic and clear voice in which this story is told. I continue to go back to it to find inspiration and I continue to recommend reading it to anyone interested in how to make a dream come true.

Awakening the Energies of Love: Discovering Fire for the Second Time

Anne Firth Murray's book is beautifully written, organized, and clear as a bell for people wanting to use her work as a model when starting new organizations to serve the world. I'm particularly grateful for her honesty and for the many ways she helped the Global Fund for Women operate so closely to her values . A must-read for those managing non-profit organizations.

This book is terrific and continues to be so helpful to me in my own endeavor. I found so many parallels in our life experiences, and with me just starting my own nonprofit empowering future nurses in disease-burdened nations, reading this wonderfully relevant and important book could not have come at a better time. I learned a great deal and Anne Firth Murray's book makes me feel as though I have a mentor to guide and give invaluable counsel in this process. There are so many things to take from this book, especially for those who are "quietly angry" and see a need follow their dreams and are "willing to do anything to make it work." I would recommend this book to anyone starting off on their own. This will inspire. It has me.

On one level, Paradigm Found (great title) is a how-to book for those with interest in organizing for global social justice through small NGOs. On a deeper level, it's a how-to book for living a life with meaning. Written in a clear and consistent voice.

Is this a "follow that dream" book? A "find a need and fill it" book? I suppose you could say it's both but "Paradigm Found" is far more than that. It is a well written and richly rewarding story by an amazing woman, Anne Murray who founded a not-for-profit organization called the Global Fund for Women. Although I found the entire book interesting, two areas particularly piqued my interest: the `care and feeding' of a non-profit corporation's board of directors and the entire concept of "giving." The author's experience coupled with her clarity of thought and writing gave me new insight into both these areas with which I'm involved in pro-bono board and fund raising work. The concept of "micro-financing" of projects was unheard of in foundations when the Global Fund for Women started it many years ago. They trusted people of few means in far away places to spend small grants as they saw fit to benefit their projects, and it worked with amazing success. The GFW was daring in being exclusively international and not making grants within the U.S. There were so many new and innovative things that Anne did in her journey. Paradigm Found makes for reading that's hard to put down.