1941: Russell Sage Foundation

By charter the purpose of the Russell Sage Foundation is the 'improvement of social and living conditions in the United States of America.' It was established by Mrs. Russell Sage in 1907 with an original endowment of $10,000,000, to which in her will some ten years later she added $5,000,000. Its income in 1941 was approximately $580,000.

In pursuing its purpose the Foundation investigates social problems and conditions in order to disseminate information aimed to assist the public in endeavors to ameliorate, remedy or prevent conditions deemed harmful to families and individuals. More than 60 per cent of its income is devoted to work carried on by its own staff. Among the more important areas in which the staff has made studies in recent years are: organization of charitable and relief work, child welfare, city and regional planning, consumer credit and loans to the small borrower, delinquency and penology, family welfare, handicrafts, housing reform, labor relations, interpretation of social work to the public, recreation and the improvement of leisure time, social case work, social statistics, and social surveys.

While it is not primarily a contributing organization, the Foundation does make grants of upwards of 35 per cent of its income in cases where particular pieces of work seem likely to be carried on with greater economy and efficiency by other agencies. Among the types of activity or studies assisted in this way recently are: adult education; city planning; family welfare; education and training for social work; child welfare; placement and vocational service; legal aid; crime prevention; social welfare publications; improvement of race relations, social research, and social phases of the arts.

The Foundation has published over 130 books and over 200 pamphlets. Distribution of books, pamphlets, educational measuring scales, forms, catalogues, etc., in recent years has averaged more than 200,000 pieces annually. Among its recent publications are: Your Community, by Joanna C. Colcord; Housing for the Machine Age, by Clarence A. Perry; Consumer Credit and Economic Stability, by Rolf Nugent; Civil Service in Public Welfare, by Alice Campbell Klein; (The) American Miners' Association, by Edward A. Wieck; and the Social Work Year Book, 1941, edited by Russell H. Kurtz.