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.
FUNDING AREAS: Health, education, religious institutions, Boston community
IP TAKE: A centerpiece of the couple’s philanthropy is the Ragon Institute of Harvard, MIT, and Massachusetts General Hospital, which focuses on HIV research. The foundation has no website and does not accept unsolicited requests.
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’s grantmaking areas of interest include health, education, religious institutions, and Boston community.
The Ragon Foundation does not have a website to guide grantseekers. However, the couple has supported a number of Boston-based churches and religious outfits. Recent money has gone to St. Peters Parish, St. Mary of the Sacred Heart Church, Cathedral of the Holy Cross, among several others. 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 has pledged $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 diseases. Other Boston health organizations that have seen support include the Joslin Diabetes Center and Boston Children’s Hospital Trust. The couple has also been a steady supporter of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation and the Boys and Girls Club in Boston.
Foundation grantmaking has generally totaled under $500,000 annually. Many of these institutions have been funded on an annual basis, though grants for each rarely exceed $50,000 a year. Learn more about foundation giving in its recent tax records. Intersystems is headquartered in Cambridge, and the Ragons live in the Boston area. Therefore, this foundation makes a lot of its grants in and around Boston. The foundation does not publicize its grantmaking guidelines.
Also, this foundation does not accept unsolicited funding requests. The foundation’s phone number is 617-225-3001.
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