This is a preview of the forthcoming audiobook edition of Beyond Altruism: Building Social Impact in a Purpose-First Economy by Rich Jones.
This sample includes the opening sections of the book: the acknowledgements, the introduction, and the first chapter. Together, they set the tone for the journey that follows - thoughtful, honest, and quietly challenging.
Beyond Altruism begins with a simple but unsettling question: what if doing good, as we currently understand it, isn’t enough?
Drawing on years of experience across charity leadership, social innovation, and community-based work, Rich Jones invites listeners to pause and reflect on the systems we have built to address poverty, inequality, and injustice - and the ways those same systems can unintentionally sustain the very problems they seek to solve.
The introduction frames the book not as a rejection of charity, but as a deeper interrogation of it. It explores why good intentions are often insufficient, why impact can become distorted by funding structures and institutional habits, and why dignity must sit at the centre of any meaningful social change.
The opening chapter takes this further, examining how traditional models of altruism have shaped civil society - for better and for worse - and why a shift towards a purpose-first economy may be necessary if we are serious about long-term transformation. Along the way, the book weaves together personal reflection, practical insight, and systems-level thinking, offering listeners both challenge and hope.
This book is written for practitioners, leaders, funders, volunteers, policymakers, and anyone who has ever felt the tension between compassion and effectiveness. It speaks to those who care deeply about social impact but sense that something in the current approach is incomplete.
The full audiobook will continue this exploration, unpacking themes of power, agency, identity, and institutional design, while offering a constructive vision for reimagining how we organise care, resources, and responsibility in society.
If this sample resonates, the complete audiobook of Beyond Altruism will be available soon on Audible and via direct download.
Listen carefully. This is not a call to do less good - but to do good better.
