About us
The RSA has been turning possibility into progress since 1754. We are not a think tank. We are not a club. We are a home for human connection, curiosity, inspiration and the ideas that spring forth.
The RSA is the original home of Practical Idealism. The RSA has never been an ideological project. It is, and always has been, a practical one: a belief that people who disagree on almost everything can still agree to improve the world around them. Adam Smith, Edmund Burke, Karl Marx. The architects of capitalism, conservatism and communism – all Fellows of the same institution. It rather says it all.
Our rooms have hosted Benjamin Franklin’s experiments and Nelson Mandela’s hopes. Stephen Hawking, David Attenborough and Tim Berners-Lee, Marie Curie and Caroline Haslett have all been Fellows – all part of our tradition of turning insight into action
Founded in 1754 in a Covent Garden coffee house, the Society began as an Enlightenment wager – that human ambition, properly directed, could serve the common good. Reward ideas, not wealth. Honour ingenuity, not inheritance. And it worked.
A famous history of impact
We pioneer progress. The RSA was the first royal society to admit women as Fellows and the first to champion education for all, and in the early 1800s created Britain’s first independent examination system for trade exams and the blueprint for exam administration. We championed the idea – now gospel – that companies exist to serve all stakeholders, not just shareholders. And we coined the word “sustainability” before anyone knew how much they’d need it, offering medals for reforesting Britain watching 60 million trees rise from the soil.
We find brilliant people and ideas and back them into action. From funding inventions to end child chimney-sweeping, to spotting a 10-year-old artist named Edwin Landseer, giving him a silver medal, and watching him grow into one of Britain’s great painters. We created the prestigious Royal Designers for Industry (Britain’s highest design honour, held by leading figures such as Vivienne Westwood, James Dyson and Jony Ive).
The RSA today
Today tens of thousands of Fellows in 80 countries continue the same grand experiment: practical idealism in action. They are proving that social mobility depends as much on collaboration as on individual talent. We are tackling school exclusion, exploring the future of work, celebrating human ingenuity through our Albert Medal. The method remains the same: identify what’s broken, design a fix, hand it to the institutions that can sustain it and move on.
Our values
We envisage a world that is resilient, rebalanced and regenerative, where everyone can fulfil their potential. We are open, optimistic, courageous, rigorous and enabling.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
We believe in a world that is resilient, rebalanced and regenerative, where everyone can fulfil their potential. Read our diversity, equity and inclusion statement.
Become an RSA Fellow
The RSA Fellowship is a unique global network of changemakers enabling people, places and the planet to flourish.
Governance
Access our Annual Impact report, meet our trustees and find out more about how we are governed.
The Albert Medal
The RSA Albert Medal is awarded annually to recognise the creativity and innovation of individuals and organisations uniting people and ideas in collective action to create opportunities to regenerate our world.
Contact us
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