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A Saint Andrew's Society or Caledonian society is any of a variety of independent organizations celebrating Scottish heritage. They are found all over the world, and are especially common in areas of large-scale historic immigration from Scotland, though medium-to-large cities anywhere may have enough Scottish diaspora to support such a club. They are generally not-for-profit or charitable organizations. Some have alternative names such as "St Andrews & Caledonian Club of [Place]", "[Place] Scottish Association", "North British Society of [Place]", "[Place] Scots Club", etc.
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Early groups of this sort were founded primarily as friendly societies or other mutual-aid societies, pooling financial contributions to provide post-immigration and other assistance to members and their families, invest in Scottish-owned businesses, provide scholarships for descendants, etc. Most today have branched into (or were more recently founded to focus entirely on) organising social, cultural, and arts activities, as well as promoting the preservation of Scottish heritage [1] – often without any remaining financial charitible programmes, especially among the smaller clubs. [2] Such a society is often involved in (or may be the sole organiser of) annual public Highland games and dance events in their area, though some of the larger events, including Grandfather Mountain HG and Stone Mountain HG, are their own non-profit organisations with input from multiple Caledonian/St Andrew's societies in their regions.
When an area has had more than one such organization (e.g. both a Saint Andrews Society and a Caledonian club), it is common for them to eventually merge (sometimes also with a literary Burns Club in the same area), especially as their activities increasingly shift toward socio-cultural events and away from charitable grant-making.
Some such societies limit membership to people born in Scotland, but more often they are open to Scots' descendants (or have no membership criteria). Those that provide scholarships and other charity services may limit them to Scots by birth or descent. A few still only accept male members, though this is increasingly rare (a hold-over from the early groups often being founded as men's fraternal benefit orders); some that still operate this way have closely affiliated (or subsidiary) sister organisations for women.
Some diasporic clubs are associated loosely with the original Saint Andrew's Society of Edinburgh, Scotland, but many are not.
 | This section needs expansionwith: list entries (in all countries) with "Caledonian", "Scottish", etc. in their names instead of "St Andrew's". You can help by adding to it.(August 2025) |