OVERVIEW: The Phillip and Susan Ragon Foundation is the charitable outfit of tech billionaire Phillip Ragon and his wife, Susan. Much of the couple’s philanthropy takes place in the Boston area, where they focus on health, education, religious institutions, and Boston community.
IP TAKE: As IP’s Mike Scutari has recently written, the Ragon Foundation is a “lean operation” that distributes in grants almost every penny it takes in, and since its founders are its only staff, “low administrative overhead […] enables them to devote more money to grants and less toward other qualifying distributions, like salaries.” This is great news for grant size, but it also means new grantseekers struggle to get noticed here. Many of the same organizations see long-term support and receive multi-year commitments. Also, this funder does not have a website or maintain much of a web presence, which limits transparency and our ability to see the full scope of its giving beyond what’s in its 990s.
PROFILE: Established in 2003, the Phillip and Susan Ragon Foundation is a private foundation based in Massachusetts. Phillip Terry Ragon is the son of a U.S. Air Force fighter pilot. He grew up in variety of states and spent his senior year at a high school in Bogota, Colombia. Ragon graduated from MIT in 1971, and is the founder, CEO, and sole owner of InterSystems, a health database management services company. Ragon’s wife, Susan, is Vice President of Finance, Administration and Recruitment at InterSystems. The couple are Giving Pledge signatories. The foundation’s grantmaking areas of interest include health, education, religious institutions, and Boston community.
Grants for Health and Medical Research
The Ragon Foundation’s largest funding area is to health and health research organizations.
- The couple established the Ragon Institute in partnership with Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard and his alma mater MIT, to pursue the development of an HIV vaccine.
- The couple donated $100 million over a ten-year period toward the project, which is focused on finding a vaccine for the disease, as well as other autoimmune and infectious diseases, and, in 2019, the Ragon’s announced an additional $200 million gift to endow the institute.
- Massachusetts General Hospital is also home to the Phillip and Susan Ragon Building, currently under construction.
- Other Boston health organizations that have seen support include the Joslin Diabetes Center and Boston Children’s Hospital Trust.
Grants for Education and Community Development
In education, the Ragon Foundation made gifts totaling over $50 million to Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Phillip’s amla mater.
- The couple are steady supporters of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation and the Boys and Girls Club in Boston.
- Other community improvement and human services grants include support for Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, Cambridge Community Foundation, Camp Harbor View Foundation, Project Place Gatehouse, and Charles River Conservancy.
Other Grant Opportunities
The couple has supported several Boston-based churches and religious outfits.
- Recent money has gone to Archdiocese of Boston, St. Peters Parish, St. Mary of the Sacred Heart Church, Cathedral of the Holy Cross, among several others.
Important Grant Details
Foundation grantmaking has generally totaled around $500,000 annually, although this can vary widely depending on the number and size of transformative gifts awarded that year. The average grant size is around $20,000.
- Intersystems is headquartered in Cambridge, and the Ragons live in the Boston area.
- Therefore, this foundation makes a lot of grants in and around Boston.
- Learn more about foundation giving in its recent tax records.
- The foundation does not publicize its grantmaking guidelines or accept unsolicited funding requests.
- The Ragon Foundation’s phone number is 617-225-3001.
PEOPLE:
Search for staff contact info and bios in PeopleFinder (paid subscribers only).
CONTACT:
PO Box 380281
Cambridge, MA 02238-0281
