The charter of the Mensa Education & Research Foundation states that one of its purposes as ‘assisting intellectually gifted people in the development of their intellectual and social abilities so that they can better benefit society.’ One of the purposes of Mensa International Ltd is to ‘identify and foster intelligence for the betterment of humanity.’ In pursuit of these two goals, Mensa International and the Mensa Foundation have founded an award recognising a specific accomplishment that benefits society, the International Award for Benefit to Society.

Melissa Sterry of Gloucestershire was recently presented with the 2010 Mensa Education & Research Foundation International Award for Benefit to Society. Melissa's work has been focused on two areas – creating knowledge sharing and capacity building initiatives. Melissa is the founding director of multi award-winning sustainable innovation think tank and laboratory Societás which, established in 2004, has become internationally recognised for its work developing groundbreaking new sustainability initiatives in design, media and the visual arts.