Russell Sage Foundation

Philanthropic foundation that primarily funds research relating to income inequality

Soon after its establishment, 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 new profession in the early 20th century. The Foundation was also responsible for early reforms in health care, city planning, consumer credit, labor law, the training of nurses, and social security programs. In 1907, the foundation funded the Pittsburgh Survey, the first systematic effort to survey working class conditions in a large U. S. city. Considered a major Progressive Era achievement, the findings inspired labor reforms and helped end twelve hour days and seven day weeks for steel workers. During this period, the foundation supported a number of prominent female researchers, such as Mary van Kleeck and Lilian Brandt. Between 1909 and 1922, the Foundation spent nearly a sixth of its capital to build Forest Hills Gardens, a model suburban community for working families designed by architect Frederick Law Olmsted in Queens, New York. The aim was to demonstrate the economic and social viability of an intelligently planned suburban community. The first lots sold for $800, and a new suburb began thriving by 1917. But with the growth of the New York metro area, housing prices in the new development soon soared beyond the reach of the families they were intended for. The RPA was not opposed to the growth of the area and its population, but believed that for the development to be efficient and orderly, it had to be properly managed; only in this way could businesses continue to grow and the city maintain its global influence. The Foundation also provided support for social feminists such as Mary van Kleeck, founder of the International Industrial Relations Institute. Van Kleeck headed up the Foundation's Department of Industrial Studies for four decades, becoming a passionate socialist as a result of her work and research.

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. It launched a variety of programs to draw the social sciences closer to decision makers in other professions, from policymakers to health care providers. This initiative included funds for research on "social indicators", a collection of data that measure the quality of life. Mary Van Kleeck, who headed the foundation in the late 1940s, was also a member of the American Labor Party. She served on a committee for the Progressive Party in 1948. In the 1950s, the Foundation supported research on the practice and aims of philanthropy. It established the Foundation Center, a non profit that maintains data on organized philanthropy. It was also the first to publish The Foundation Directory, a comprehensive listing of the nation's several thousand largest foundations. During this decade, the foundation also received money from the Ford Foundation ($554,000) to support research in the "practical utilization of the behavioral sciences". In the 1960s and 1970s, the Foundation turned to exploring issues in medical ethics, including patients' rights, the rationale of extreme measures to sustain life that were possible with new technology, and the use of human subjects in research. Foundation supported books from this period include Bernard Barber's Drugs and Society (1967) and The Dying Patient (1970).

The Foundation was an early force in the development of behavioral economics, launching the Behavioral Economics program in 1986 with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Books on behavioral economics published by Russell Sage include Quasi Rational Economics (1991) and Advances in Behavioral Finance (1993). In 1993, the Foundation also established the Behavioral Economics Roundtable, In 2000, the Foundation partnered with the Population Reference Bureau (PRB) to produce The American People: Census 2000, edited by Reynolds Farley of the University of Michigan and John Haaga of PRB. From 2014 to 2016, the Foundation entered into research collaborations with a number of other foundations on a variety of topics related to its core interests. Co funders include the Carnegie Corporation; the William T. Grant Foundation; the W. K. Kellogg Foundation; the MacArthur Foundation; the Spencer Foundation; and the Washington Center for Equitable Growth. In 2015 the Foundation partnered with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation on an initiative exploring the social, economic and political effects of the Affordable Care Act. Also in 2015, the Foundation launched RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, a peer reviewed, open access journal of social science research.

The Russell Sage Foundation has established a center where Visiting Scholars can pursue their writing and research. Each year, the Foundation invites a number of scholars to its New York City headquarters to investigate topics in social and behavioral sciences. The Foundation particularly welcomes groups of scholars who wish to collaborate on a specific project during their residence at Russell Sage. Typically Visiting Scholars work on projects related to the Foundation's current programs. In 2015, the Foundation established a Visiting Journalists program to support journalists undertaking original research on social, political, and economic conditions in the United States. The Foundation also established the Margaret Olivia Sage Scholars program, which provides the opportunity for distinguished social scientists to spend brief periods in residence at the Russell Sage Foundation, in 2015. On an occasional basis, the Foundation considers applications for short term fellowships by scholars who are conducting research relevant to the Foundation's priority areas through its Visiting Researchers program.

In 1990, Robert K. Merton became the first Foundation Scholar at Russell Sage, recognizing his long and invaluable service as an adviser to the administration and a mentor to other visiting scholars. In 2000, Nobelist Robert M. Solow became the second Foundation Scholar, following Merton's retirement. In 2003, the position was renamed the Merton Scholar in Merton's honor.

When the Foundation was formed, it attempted to locate its offices in the United Charities Building on Park Avenue South and East 22nd Street in Manhattan, but was unable to do so as the building was fully rented; instead, the new foundation spread out to a number of locations in the area. In 1912, Margaret Sage and Robert W. DeForest decided to construct a headquarters building for the Foundation which would also serve as a memorial to her late husband. They engaged Beaux Arts architect Grosvenor Atterbury, who had designed the Forest Hills Gardens model housing project for the Foundation in 1908, to design the building, and purchased property at 120 East 22nd Street at the corner of Lexington Avenue, just down the street from both United Charities Building and the Church Missions House of the Episcopal Church, and a short block from Gramercy Park. The building, which was originally nine stories before a penthouse was added in the 1920s, was constructed between 1912 and 1913 and altered in 1922–1923. A fifteen story extension on East 22nd, which Atterbury also designed, connected to the original building with a five story "hyphen", was added between 1930 and 1931. Atterbury's design took the form of a Renaissance Florentine palazzo. Because it was both headquarters for the Foundation and a physical memorial for Sage, the building was more opulently constructed than would generally be the case for a charity. Atterbury utilized expensive materials in the interior, such as rare Kingwood sandstone in the elevators. and is part of a proposed extension to the Gramercy Park Historic District.

Since 1981, the Foundation has been headquartered in a Philip Johnson designed International Style building at 112 East 64th Street between Park and Lexington Avenues, built in 1958 1960 for the Asia Society and Japan Society. The building is in the Upper East Side Historic District.

Odencrantz, Louise Christine. Industrial Conditions in Springfield, Illinois: A Survey by the Committee on Women's Work and the Department of Surveys and Exhibits, Russell Sage Foundation (Russell Sage Foundation, 1916). online