The Russell Sage Foundation is the principal American foundation devoted exclusively to research in the social sciences. Located in New York City, it is a research center, a funding source for studies by scholars at other academic and research institutions, and an active member of the nation's social science community. The foundation also publishes, under its own imprint, the books that derive from the work of its grantees and visiting scholars.

The Russell Sage Foundation is an operating foundation directly involved in the conduct and dissemination of social science research. In its effort to improve the social effectiveness of social research, the Foundation

• Invites individual scholars and collaborative groups working in areas of Foundation interest to participate in the Foundation's Visiting Scholar Program to pursue their research and writing projects;
• Provides support for scholars at other institutions to pursue research projects that advance the Foundation's research programs;
• Ensures widespread access to the research that the Foundation supports through its own book publishing program;
• Sponsors special seminars and working groups aimed at developing new topics in social science;
• Participates in the planning of each study or program as an active partner and reserves the right to publish any resulting manuscripts;
• Collaborates with other foundations, granting agencies and academic institutions in studies of social problems. 

RSF Research Programs

• Program on Behavioral Economics focused on research that incorporates insights of psychology and other social sciences into the study of economic behavior.
• A program of research on the Future of Work concerned primarily with examining the causes and consequences of the declining quality of jobs for less- and moderately-educated workers in the U.S. economy and the role of changes in employer practices, the nature of the labor market and public policies on the employment, earnings, and the quality of jobs of American workers. 
• A program of research on Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration concerned with the social, economic, and political effects of the changing racial and ethnic composition of the U.S. population, including the transformation of communities and ideas about what it means to be American.
• A program of research on Social Inequality focused on whether rising economic inequality has affected social, political, and economic institutions in the U.S., and the extent to which increased inequality has affected equality of opportunity, social mobility, and the intergenerational transmission of advantage.

RSF’s Working Groups

A working group in the Social Inequality program examining the mechanisms through which economic elites influence politics, and the relationship between money, politics, and inequality.

• A working group in the Cultural Contact program on the impact of racial, ethnic, and gender-based attitudes on law enforcement. The group is working with metropolitan police departments across the U.S. to develop policies to reduce racial bias in law enforcement.
• A working group in the Cultural Contact program examines immigrant life outside of customary gateway cities such as New York, Miami, or Los Angeles, with an emphasis on the cultural frictions resulting from the rapid growth of the foreign-born population in the United States at a time of high economic uncertainty and political polarization.