Co-funded Research

In 2014, the Russell Sage Foundation launched research collaborations with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Over the last two years, 7 projects have been co-funded with the Kellogg Foundation and 9 projects have been co-funded with the MacArthur Foundation.

Also in 2014, the Russell Sage Foundation launched a study with the Washington Center for Equitable Growth that examined how differences in home environments may play a role in explaining the skills gaps, and whether home environments, especially for disadvantaged children, are deteriorating relative to those of affluent children over time.

That same year, the Russell Sage Foundation completed a study with the Spencer Foundation that focused both on the educational performance of disadvantaged students, as well as on the differences in outcomes between rich and poor students. The study resulted in two books: Whither Opportunity? and Restoring Opportunity (Harvard Education Press, 2014).

In 2015 the Russell Sage Foundation partnered with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation on an initiative exploring the social, economic and political effects of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Research funded through this collaboration addresses important questions about the consequences of health care reform in the U.S.—from financial security and family economic well-being, to labor supply and demand, participation in other public programs, family and children’s outcomes, differential effects by race/ethnicity/nativity or disability status, and politics and views of government.

In 2016, the Russell Sage Foundation partnered with the William T. Grant Foundation to build the Stanford Education Data Archive, a data archive developed by Sean Reardon and colleagues that covers every public school and school district in the United States, and to co-fund two rounds of small grants for research projects that analyze these data to deepen our understanding of educational opportunity and success.

In 2017, the foundation partnered with the Carnegie Corporation to launch a special initiative on Immigration and Immigrant Integration and with the Ford Foundation to launch a special initiative on Integrating Biology and Social Science Knowledge. RSF also partnered with the Robin Hood Foundation for a forthcoming RSF journal issue on anti-poverty initiatives in the U.S. and with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for a RSF journal issue on using administrative data for science and policy.

In 2018, the foundation partnered with the JPB Foundation in the special initiative on Integrating Biology and Social Science Knowledge (BioSS). This joint initiative supported new research and training on how individual biological processes interact with the social environment and influence the ways that social inequalities are initiated, maintained, and transmitted from one generation to the next.

In 2018, the foundation extended its partnership with the William T. Grant Foundation to co-fund two additional rounds of Educational Opportunity Monitoring Grants.

In 2019, the foundation partnered with the Economic Mobility and Opportunity program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to launch the Pipeline Grants Competition. This program funds projects by early-career researchers in an effort to promote diversity in the social sciences broadly, including racial, ethnic, gender, disciplinary, institutional, and geographic diversity. The foundation also partnered with the Sloan Foundation for an RSF journal issue on U.S. labor market trends in the twenty-first century and the growing disparities among American workers.

In 2020, the foundation partnered with the Carnegie Corporation of New York for an RSF journal issue on the historical and contemporary landscape of legal immigration to the United States.

In 2021, the foundation partnered with the JPB Foundation for a second time to co-fund projects that focused on the social, political, economic, and psychological consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as research projects on systemic inequality and the mass anti-racism protests in 2020. The foundation also partnered with the Rockefeller Brothers Fund for an RSF journal issue on the legacy of the Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court ruling.

In 2022, the foundation partnered with the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research to fund additional Dissertation Research Grants focused on employment-related topics. Additionally, the foundation partnered with the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation for an RSF journal issue on the changing natures of work and family in the United States.

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