When member Norman T. Ollestad published Inside the FBI, a book that gave an “unflattering” depiction of Hoover, he was expelled from the Society on the basis that his book was “detrimental to the good name or best interests of the society.”[3] When Clint Eastwood and Leonardo DiCaprio were researching their movie J. Edgar on the life of J. Edgar Hoover, they sought help and advice from the agency and from the Society.

Praising J. Edgar Hoover in the newspaper article, the Society President stated: "Devotion is probably a good word for my generation and up.

For example, when famed former Number 3 man at the FBI Cartha DeLoach died, his extensive obituary in the New York Times included quotations from his "2007 oral history interview with the Society of Former Special Agents of the F.B.I.

"[7] In 2012, when the FBI was celebrating the 40th anniversary of the first hiring of female Special Agents, the federal agency cited the work of the Society in preserving the story of these pioneering women.

[9] In accordance with the Society's goal of advocating for issues of importance to its members, the Society has resolved to oppose clemency for Leonard Peltier, who is serving a life sentence for the 1975 murders of FBI agents Ronald Williams and Jack Coler, and to oppose the release of Jose Echavarria, who was sentenced to death for the 1990 murder of FBI agent John Bailey.

In February 1937, during a time when the activities of the FBI had achieved nationwide popularity in the wake of its successful campaign against gangsters such as John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, the Ma Barker Gang, and others from the Public enemy era, a group of retired Special Agents met in New York City's Lincoln Hotel to discuss the creation of an organization to preserve the "mutuality of interests of the agents, the memories of pleasures enjoyed and adversities shared.

As a secret base for FBI electronic counterintelligence operations during World War II, the house was instrumental in U.S. efforts to prevent Nazi Germany from developing an atomic bomb and from acquiring accurate details of the D-Day invasion.

[14] In 1957, the SFSAFBI created the "Former Agents of the FBI Foundation", which has distributed millions of dollars in medical and disaster assistance to Society families and the law enforcement community.

The Foundation created the "Frances Keogh Memorial Fund" (named after a former Executive Director of the Society) to distribute financial assistance to local, community-based organizations devoted to the care of the sick, the poor, and the homeless.

[4] In 2012, the FBI announced a $1 million reward for information leading to the safe recovery and return of Society member Bob Levinson, who disappeared in Iran in 2007 while working as a private investigator.