In this uplifting presentation as part of the TED Talks series, Monitor's Katherine Fulton sketches the new future of philanthropy -- one where collaboration and innovation allow regular people to do big things, even when money is scarce. Giving five practical examples of crowd-driven philanthropy, she calls for a new generation of citizen leaders.

Monitor Group, one of the world’s leading advisory and consulting firms, and Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei, a leading international research center, based in Milan, Italy, released, “Weathering the Storm: Sovereign Wealth Funds in the Global Economic Crisis of 2008,” a new annual report analyzing the effects of the global economic crisis on the behaviors and financial transactions of sovereign wealth funds (SWFs).

A new report from Monitor Group, an in-depth profile of 13 sovereign wealth funds based in the Middle East and North Africa, finds the variation in performance is greater than expected "and indicates that the more mature funds have better risk management systems and organizational architecture better attuned to rapidly changing circumstances," said Monitor's CEO, Mark B. Fuller, who is speaking about the report at the World Economic Forum on the Middle East. 

"It is no surprise that risks have increased worldwide over the last year, as the latest release of the Opacity Index shows." So write Joel Kurtzman, a member of the Monitor Talent network, and Glenn Yago, in their report for the Milken Institute, "Opacity Index 2009: Measuring Global Risks."

Nearly half of the world lives on less than $2 a day. The persistence of massive global poverty cries out for new approaches to improving the lives of people living at the base of the income pyramid. Monitor Group released this first-of-its-kind report based on comparative research in 20 countries that explores financially sustainable and scalable enterprises that succeed in low-income markets and highlights their promise to accelerate genuine social change.

Why do organizations get blindsided by market transformations that could have been anticipated?  This article from Strategy & Leadership guides you through a systematic process for incorporating plausible but challenging future scenarios into your organization’s learning processes, to help mitigate risk and decrease the likelihood of being unprepared for discontinuities.

A growing group of investors around the world is seeking to make investments that generate social and environmental value as well as financial return. This emerging industry of impact investing has the potential to become a potent force for addressing global challenges. But how might it succeed or fail? Will it take the next five to 10 years? 25 years? Or will it not happen at all?

This report, by Monitor Institute's Jessica Freireich and Katherine Fulton, examines impact investing and how leaders could accelerate the industry's evolution and increase its ultimate impact in the world. It explores how impact investing has emerged and how it might evolve, including profiles of a wide range of impact investors. The report also provides a blueprint of initiatives to catalyze the industry.

“Paths to Prosperity; Promoting Entrepreneurship in the 21st Century,” a new Monitor Group study, interviewed entrepreneurs in 22 countries to determine attitudes and critical policies required for entrepreneurship to thrive in different regions around the world, including the importance of a society's fostering of entrepreneurial skills and tax policies that encourage R&D.

In the third quarter of 2008, as the global financial crisis continued to worsen, Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) sought to limit their exposure to the riskiness of OECD markets while putting more capital to work in their domestic economies, according to research by Monitor Group. This report is part of a quarterly series Monitor is producing to track the behavior of SWFs.

These are unprecedented times for corporate executives—incredible volatility in the markets, sinking consumer confidence, a new financial crisis every week.  As a result, executives need to act quickly to tackle short term problems while setting the stage for long term growth. While we’ve dealt with recession before, the level of volatility and structural change posed by this crisis calls for a radically different playbook of options for achieving growth. 

In our view, there are certain, key levers companies can pull to find real growth and address the uncertainty.  The topics covered here can help shape your leadership agenda.