The Századvég Foundation has been working in its current form since 1993. However, it actually was begun in 1985, when the journal Századvég was founded. Századvég was an important social science journal of that period, and the young generation of its founders participated in the regime changes in Hungary and took an active role in formulating a democratic state of law. At the beginning, in addition to publishing the journal, it also published long-needed political and social science books and textbooks, but the actual publisher was not part of the foundation, later it worked under the name of Osiris-Századvég, which was the predecessor to Osiris Publishing, one of the most significant publishers in Hungary now. Századvég Publishing re-started in 1996, this time within the framework of the Foundation. It has continued publishing books, textbooks and journals that discuss significant issues in political and social science today.

The Századvég School of Politics was opened in 1991. It became known as a unique "school of tolerance" educating experts in political science. The program was initially one-year long and became an accredited two-year program in 1994. Administratively it was part of the Postgraduate Faculty at Budapest University of Economics, but it was based on the teaching activity and experience of the Századvég School of Politics. Students of the School are either members of political parties, public administration, unions, minority organizations, civil society organizations or journalists. Today the School has hundreds of alumni, who actively contribute to forming the political culture of young democracies.

In addition to these areas, a research center for the Foundation was founded in 1996 under the name "Századvég Policy Research Centre". At the beginning it conducted research in the fields of electoral behavior and party preferences, governmental politics, civil organizations, and youth problems.

Due to its mix of educational, research, and publishing activities, the Foundation has been able to be described as a think-tank since 1995, although the undertaking of a conscious thin-tank role became evident for the Hungarian public only in recent years.

The founding president István Stumpf 's study visits to the United States played an important role in the conversion to conscious think-tank activity (he was a recipient of scholarships in 1991 and in 1992-93). There he was able to observe significant institutes such as the John Kennedy School of Government, the Graduate School of Political Management, and the Brookings Institution.

There was also another important factor: the electoral research conducted in cooperation with Tárki. The most important research results were published regularly by the Center for Political Research, and governmental research commenced in 1997. The most important aim of the research program called Governance 2000 was to work out professional proposals, based on public policy analyses, for effective and professional governance that would create the conditions for Hungary 's accession to the European Union. The research was intended to enhance the professional justification of the necessary steps. The research mapped the then actual state of governmental activity, analyzed and presented the structural and contextual problems, and drafted recommendations for restructuring and the contextual advantages of governance working for the interest of the public good. In this period the Foundation organized several important conferences (e.g. Elections '94, the status of the constitutional state in Hungary, or television and elections) with famous speakers, such as György Csepeli, Ferenc Gazsó, Csaba Gombár, László Kéri, László Sólyom, István Schlett, György Baló, and Ádám Levendel.

In the following period, all sub-fields were further extended in their scope of activity. The Foundation launched its government review series in 2002. The first volume was called "In the drift of promises: The first year of the Medgyessy-government". It includes the previous year's chronology of the coalitional government and an analysis of its activity. The Foundation published a volume that contains the outcome of the scientific research for the interested public in a form that is easy to understand, thereby making it commonly available. This comprehensive analysis emphasized Századvég's function as a think-tank. Additional volumes are titled "The Second year of the Medgyessy-government, and Bankruptcy of the welfare regime changes" and "The First year of the Gyurcsány-government."

The Századvég Civil Academy was founded in 2004, and has provided a framework for the Foundation's research on the civil sector which has been conducted so far, and also provides education for representatives of the civil sector.

In 2005, the Foundation further expanded, adding a Public Administration Academy and acting as a professional forum for ideas aimed at the renewal and development of the public administration in Hungary.