Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc.

What Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc. does

The Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc. (SCA) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational organization founded on May 1, 1966, in Berkeley, California, and currently headquartered in Scotts Valley, CA. It is the largest international living-history society dedicated to the research and re-creation of pre-seventeenth-century skills, arts, combat, and culture, serving over 30,000 paid members organized across 20 kingdoms that span the United States, Canada, Europe (UK, Finland, Sweden, Germany, Austria, Netherlands), Australia, New Zealand, and parts of Asia and Africa. Participants engage through hands-on activities including armored combat, rapier, archery, thrown weapons, equestrian jousting, siege engines, feasts, royal courts, classes, and crafts — distinguishing SCA from spectator-style Renaissance Fairs via its participatory, persona-based structure with registered SCA names and heraldic devices.

The organization's core operational technology is a web-based infrastructure consisting of the sca.org website, SCORES (SCA Online Registration and Event System, which supports PayPal-integrated event registration), a member portal hosted at sca.app.neoncrm.com, the SCA Scores website for tracking inter-kingdom archery and thrown-weapons competitions, and a centralized Document Library housing the Corpora, by-laws, marshal handbooks, financial policies, and archival board meeting minutes dating to 2000. The corporate office maintains a small paid staff of roughly 1–10 people plus a large volunteer officer corps including a Society Seneschal, Society Marshal, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Laurel Queen of Arms, and Kingdom-level officers.

Revenue is generated from five streams: membership dues (Sustaining $55, International $56, Associate $40, Family $15 each capped at $45 — all annual), event fees (with a $10 member discount on adult admission), publications (Tournaments Illuminated $25/year, The Compleat Anachronist $30/year, Known World Handbook $25), merchandise/document sales through the SCA Marketplace, and tax-deductible donations including the Signorotti Membership Assistance Fund. The organization is governed by a seven-member Board of Directors serving 3.5-year terms and operates through wholly-owned subsidiaries including Pennsic War Inc., Gulf Wars Inc., and state-level entities (e.g., SCA Illinois Inc., SCA Pennsylvania Inc.) used for regional financial and operational management.

Name

Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc.

Legal name

The Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc.

Website

https://sca.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1966

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

The Society for Creative Anachronism is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational organization that researches and re-creates pre-17th-century skills, arts, combat, and culture for over 30,000 paid members across 20 global kingdoms, operating via membership dues, events, publications, and donations.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Living History Education

NAICS

Business Associations (813910)

SIC

Services-Membership Organizations (8600)

akta.pro primary industry

Arts, Culture, Entertainment & Fan Conventions Organizers (THAHABAN)

akta.pro secondary industries

Cultural Festivals & Events Organizations (BPAGAHAG), Student Organizations & Club Administration (EDALAHAB)

Keywords

• Medieval reenactment community
• Living history education
• Heraldic society membership
• Pre-17th century arts
• Historical combat sports

Headquarters

HQ city

Milpitas

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Membership Dues: Annual membership fees provide liability coverage for chapters, maintain rules and standards throughout the Society, grant voting privileges, provide event fee discounts, and enable subscriptions to SCA publications.
2. Event Fees: Revenue generated from event admissions, with paid members receiving a $10 discount on adult event admission fees.
3. Publications and Subscriptions: Sales of Tournaments Illuminated magazine ($25/year), The Compleat Anachronist ($30/year), the Known World Handbook ($25), kingdom newsletters, and back issues through the SCA Bookshop/Marketplace.
4. Merchandise and Document Sales: Revenue from the SCA Marketplace selling participant and officer handbooks, periodicals, membership cards, and promotional materials.
5. Donations: Tax-deductible charitable donations to the SCA General Fund and the Signorotti Membership Assistance Fund, which helps participants who cannot afford dues.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

The Society for Creative Anachronism is an international nonprofit educational membership organization that provides tiered annual memberships, recurring publications, and a global event-based infrastructure for participants to research and re-create pre-17th century skills, arts, combat, and culture. Its core deliverables are the annual membership program, the Tournaments Illuminated and Compleat Anachronist publications, and access to a 20-kingdom federation of tournaments, feasts, classes, and martial activities supported by liability insurance, an online registration system, and the Signorotti Membership Assistance Fund.

Product overview

The Society for Creative Anachronism is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational organization focused on researching and recreating pre-seventeenth century skills, arts, combat, and culture. It is not a technology product company but rather an international membership organization operating across 20 kingdoms. Its primary offerings consist of membership programs (Sustaining, International, Associate, and Family tiers providing event discounts, voting rights, and newsletter access), publications (Tournaments Illuminated magazine, The Compleat Anachronist research booklet, the Known World Handbook, and Kingdom Newsletters), a Marketplace for purchasing handbooks and publications, the SCA SCORES online event registration system, the SCA Scores website for competitive archery/thrown-weapons tracking, insurance certificate services, a library of legal waiver forms, and the Signorotti Membership Assistance Fund for participants needing financial support with dues. These offerings collectively support the organization's educational mission and provide infrastructure for its volunteer-led medieval reenactment activities worldwide.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• SCA Annual Membership Annual membership program with Sustaining ($55), International ($56), Associate ($40), and Family ($15 each, $45 cap) tiers. Members receive $10 event fee discounts, voting privileges in local group governance, kingdom newsletter subscriptions, and eligibility to hold SCA offices or participate in combat.
• Tournaments Illuminated Magazine Quarterly SCA magazine featuring kingdom news, war reports, research articles on pre-seventeenth-century culture, humor, book reviews, and event listings. Subscriptions are $25.00/year.
• The Compleat Anachronist Quarterly research publication featuring in-depth articles on weaponry, armor, poetry, board games, and historical crafts relevant to the SCA's studied time period. Subscriptions are $30.00/year.
• Known World Handbook Comprehensive reference compendium covering over 80 articles on SCA topics for both new and long-time participants. Available from the SCA Bookshop for $25 each with bulk discounts.
• SCA Marketplace / Bookshop Online storefront for purchasing participant and officer handbooks, back issues of Tournaments Illuminated and Compleat Anachronist, the Known World Handbook, and organizational publications including governing documents.
• SCORES (SCA Online Registration and Event System) Online event registration system enabling SCA event stewards to set up and manage event registration, with PayPal payment integration.
• SCA Liability Insurance Certificates Liability insurance coverage certificates provided for SCA events, demonstrations, equestrian activities, and practices. Includes Additional Insured Certificates, Equestrian Insurance for mounted activities, and Golf Cart and Host Liquor policies.
• Signorotti Membership Assistance Fund Financial assistance fund supporting SCA participants who cannot afford membership dues. Accepts tax-deductible donations and provides aid to eligible individuals upon request.

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Colonial Williamsburg: Colonial Williamsburg is the largest living-history museum in the world, using costumed interpreters to recreate 18th-century colonial life. It shares SCA's core methodology of immersive historical recreation but focuses on a later period and operates a fixed-site, paid-admission model rather than a member-run event network. Highly comparable mission, different operating model.
• English Heritage: English Heritage is a UK charity that manages over 400 historic sites and runs a large membership program (over 1 million members) with educational programming, events, and reenactment activities. Comparable as a heritage-education nonprofit using membership fees and event-driven engagement, with similar cultural-recreation objectives in the same pre-17th-century periods SCA covers.
• Smithsonian Institution: The Smithsonian Institution is the world's largest museum and research complex, operating as a 501(c)(3) educational nonprofit with membership programs, publications, events, and educational programming. While at vastly larger scale and with fixed sites, it operates a comparable nonprofit educational mission with membership dues, publications, and event-based programming similar to SCA's revenue model.
• Royal Armouries: The Royal Armouries is the UK's national museum of arms and armor, operating public galleries in Leeds, London, and Fort Nelson. It directly intersects with SCA's combat, armor-making, and martial-recreation activities and serves as a reference/archive resource, but operates as a public museum rather than a participatory member society.
• Plimoth Patuxet Museums: Plimoth Patuxet Museums operates living-history exhibits recreating 17th-century Plymouth Colony and Native Wampanoag life, with costumed interpreters and immersive programming. Shares SCA's methodology of participatory historical recreation and 501(c)(3) educational nonprofit status, but operates as a fixed museum complex rather than a distributed member-run network.
• Medieval Times: Medieval Times is the largest medieval-themed dinner theater chain in North America, operating multiple castle venues that combine theatrical jousting, feasting, and period pageantry. While it delivers passive entertainment rather than SCA's participatory recreation, it competes for the same discretionary-spend audience interested in medieval experiences and represents the broader addressable market SCA participants also engage with.
• Historic Royal Palaces: Historic Royal Palaces is an independent charity that operates unoccupied royal palaces in the UK, including the Tower of London. It combines historical preservation with immersive public programming and membership tiers — overlapping structurally with SCA's nonprofit membership-funded model, though anchored to physical heritage sites rather than volunteer-led events.

Others

• National Geographic Society: National Geographic Society is a large nonprofit scientific and educational organization that funds historical and cultural research and produces related publications and programming. While not directly comparable in format, it represents the type of educational-mission nonprofit with similar grantmaking, publication, and member-engagement infrastructure that SCA operates within at a smaller scale.

Emerging players

• Renaissance Festivals (e.g., Minnesota Renaissance Festival): Large commercial Renaissance festivals like the Minnesota Renaissance Festival serve a similar medieval-Renaissance enthusiast audience with immersive entertainment, costumes, and period crafts. They differ fundamentally in being passive, paid-admission, performer-driven experiences rather than SCA's participatory member-run model, but they compete for the same cultural interest and discretionary spend.
• Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA) Federation: The HEMA Alliance is a community of practitioners of Historical European Martial Arts who train and compete in historical fencing traditions. It overlaps with SCA's martial activities (rapier, armored combat) and shares its volunteer-led, event-driven structure, but focuses exclusively on combat rather than SCA's broader arts/sciences/cultural scope.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/scasocial
• YouTubeyoutube.com/c/SCASocietyForCreativeAnacronism/playlists
• Facebookfacebook.com/currentmiddleages
• Instagraminstagram.com/scasocial
• Pinterestpinterest.com/scasocial
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/society-for-creative-anachronism-inc.

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles12 records

Subsidiaries16 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc.