What this program funds
The Russell Sage Foundation funds social science research on social, political, and economic life in the United States. Grants are organized around a small set of standing program areas — in recent cycles these have included behavioral science, the future of work, race, ethnicity and immigration, and social, political and economic inequality, along with occasional special initiatives. The foundation supports both smaller awards and larger project grants, and favors rigorous empirical work: original data collection, analyses of existing datasets, and field and survey experiments.
Eligibility in plain English
- Applicants generally hold a doctorate in a social science discipline; confirm current requirements for co-investigators without one.
- Projects must fit a current program area or initiative — this is a threshold question, not a formality.
- The research focus is the United States (comparative work is sometimes considered when it illuminates U.S. questions — confirm with current guidelines).
- Grants are typically administered through your institution.
What you'll need to submit
- Letter of inquiry (LOI) first — a short summary of the question, design, data, and budget ballpark. Full proposals are by invitation only.
- If invited, a full proposal: project narrative, detailed budget and justification, timeline, CVs, and a clear description of data sources and access (including permissions or licensing status for restricted data).
Tips for this mechanism
- Treat the LOI as the real competition. Most applications end at this stage. The LOI needs a sharp question, a named dataset or feasible collection plan, and an obvious fit to a program area — not a compressed literature review.
- Name your data and its status. "We will seek access to..." is a red flag; "we hold an approved data-use agreement for..." is a strength. Reviewers here are unusually attentive to feasibility.
- Map your project to the program area's own framing. Read how the foundation describes the area's core questions and echo that framing honestly — projects that make reviewers do the mapping tend to lose.
- Size the ask to the evidence. First-time applicants often do better seeking a smaller award for a well-bounded study than a maximum-size project grant.
Related programs
- Spencer Foundation Small Research Grants (education-focused)
- NSF programs in the social, behavioral, and economic sciences
- Social Science Research Council fellowships and grants