SOURCE OF WEALTH: Argon ST
FUNDING AREAS: Education, public health, religious causes
OVERVIEW: Victor Sellier and family do their grantmaking through the Sellier Family Foundation, which supports education and public health. This funder is particularly active in the Mid-Atlantic area.
BACKGROUND: Victor F. Sellier graduated from Georgetown University and holds an MBA in international business from American University. He worked for Engineering Research Associates. From 1995 until 1999, he was vice president and assistant general manager of the Falls Church division of Raytheon E-Systems. Sellier went on to co-found Argon Engineering, now Argon ST, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Boeing.
ISSUES:
EDUCATION: Education is the Sellier Foundation’s largest area of giving. Higher education funding mainly goes to Catholic University, where Sellier served on the board of trustees. Other grants mainly go to private K-12 schools, including the Georgetown Visitation School, the Bolles School in Jacksonville, Florida and the Heights School in Potomac, Maryland, where his son teachers.
HEALTH: Public health is a much smaller area of grantmaking for the Sellier Foundation. Its main recipient in this area is the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh Foundation.
RELIGIOUS: In recent years, the Sellier Foundation has supported the Arizona-based organization Scriptures in Use, which “equips and empowers local, indigenous leaders to reach their communities with the Gospel in their native language.”
LOOKING FORWARD: Sellier retired from Argon ST at the end of last decade and started his family foundation. Grantmaking has remained relatively stable in the $500,000 to $600,000 range over the past several years, with grants going to a select corps of recipients. Sellier is likely to continue in this direction.
CONTACT:
Sellier Family Foundation
3 Clarks Branch Rd.
Great Falls, VA 22066
(703) 759-4152
