History

• Letter of Gift
  
• Archives
  
• The Russell Sage Foundation: A Brief History
  
• The Russell Sage Foundation Celebrates 100 Years of Social Science Research
  
• RSF President Eric Wanner on "The Open Mind" television show
  

The Russell Sage Foundation, one of the oldest of America's general purpose foundations, was established in 1907 for "the improvement of social and living conditions in the United States." In its early years, the Foundation played a pioneering role in dealing with problems of the poor and the elderly, in efforts to improve hospital and prison conditions, and in the development of social work as a profession. The Foundation was also responsible for early reforms in health care, city planning, consumer credit, labor legislations, the training of nurses, and social security programs. Since World War II, the Foundation has devoted its efforts to strengthening the social sciences as a means of achieving more informed and rational social policy. To that end, the Foundation established a research center at its headquarters in New York City where visiting social scientists can pursue their writing and research, often in collaborative groups. The Foundation also supports external research projects that advance its programmatic objectives and publishes under its own imprint many of the books that result from the research it supports.