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FUNDER PROFILEein: 23-7066873 Richard and Helen DeVos FoundationA report by the Center for Public Integrity said the couple, of Ada, contributed more than $2.3 million in 2003 and 2004, including more than $1.8 million to party committees registered in Michigan. [From Axis of Ideology, NCRP, 2004] The Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation, incorporated in 1970, ranked ninth in total assets ($97,049,407) among the top 20 conservative foundations studied and third in total grants ($26,574,754) in 2001. The foundation's grantmaking has grown dramatically in the past decade, from only $4 million in 1990 to more than $25 million in 2001. The foundation is the oldest and wealthiest of the DeVos family foundations, which also include the Dick and Betsy DeVos Foundation (1990), the Daniel and Pamela DeVos Foundation (1992), and the Douglas and Maria DeVos Foundation (1992). Richard DeVos is co-founder of Amway Corporation and owner of the Orlando Magic (2004), and served as the finance chairman of the Republican National Committee. He ranks in the Forbes 400 and is, according to Forbes, amoung the world's richest people, with an estimated worth of $1.7 billion in 2003122. DeVos attended the Christian Calvin College, and he has been associated with numerous other Christian and conservative organizatons, such as the Council for National Policy, the Chairman's Council of the Conservative Caucus, the Free Congress Foundation, and the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy. His foundation's grantmaking reflects these conservative Christian te3ndencies and affiliations. In fact, Helen DeVos told the Grand Rapids Press that "our biggest priority is to give back to Christian causes.123" The foundation ranks eighth in the top 50 U.S. foundations awarding grants for religion, circa 2000, as published by the Foundation Center. Among the top 20 foundations studied, the Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation ranks fifth in total conservative policy giving, providing $12,159,101 between 1999 and 2001 to groups such as Focus on the Family, the State Policy Network, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute and other nationally influential public policy organizations in the fields of education, advocacy, research, religion, media and law. The foundation also provides grants to local (for instance, western Michigan and central Florida) churches, arts groups, ministries, and Christian Schools. For example, the foundation contributed $4 million to the Grand Rapids Christian School Association in 2000. The foundation also established and continues to fund the Urban Leadership Initiative, a national program designed to "identify and train emerging youth ministry leaders in local urgban communities.125" However, DeVos cautions that the foundation's social service grantmaking is intended to help people move out of poverty, not to "make 'em too comfortable there."126" Almost all of the grants are unrestricted. The grantmaking of the other DeVos family foundations is similar to that of the Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation. The Dick and Betsy DeVos Foundation provides funding to many of the same organizations as the Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation (detailed below). However, the other smaller foundations tend to give less to large national organizations and more to local Christian, arts and social service organizations in Michigan. The contributions of the Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation have helped to promulgate Christian, conservative ideals. Most explicitly, they donated $635,386 in 1999 to Compass Arts, a nonprofit advertising firm that creates Christian ads for organizations such as Michigan Right to Life. On a national level, the foundation provides numerous grants to Christian organizations that work to influence public policy and public opinion, such as Focus on the Family, the Foundation for Traditional Values, and the Traditional Values Coalition. People for the American Way calls Focus on the Family "the largest international religious-right group in the United States,"127 with almost 1,300 employees, a budget exceeding $120 million, 6,000 radio facilities worldwide, and 2.3 millino subscribers to its magazines. Using these resources, the organization endorses prayer in schools, private school vouchers, and "reparative therapy" for gays and lesbians, while it opposes female reproductive choice, hate crime legislation and comprehensive sexual education. The Foundation for Traditional Values works to stop the deterioration of Judeo-Christian values "by clearly, and dynamically, revealing the role of God, faith, religion and morality in our national heritage."128 The organization hopes that public education efforts in this vein will strengthen citizen involvement. The Traditional Values Coalition acts as a lobbying and grassroots organizaton, lobbying Congress itself and organizing local churches in lobbying efforts. The coalition's work revolves around homosexuality, reproductive rights and school curricula regarding sexuality and evolution. It sponsors voter education programs that suppy information about how various candidates voted on certain issues. It has influenced a great deal of legislation at both the state and national levels regarding hate crime, discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, political contributions by churches, and health education curricula. In addition to its support for Focus on the Family and the Foundation for Traditional Values, the Dick and Betsy DeVos Foundation also supports the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty, where Betsy DeVos serves on the board. The Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation has supported the institute in the past. The Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty attempts to link economics with religion and traditional virtues and sponsors workshops for business executives, religious leaders, professors and others involved in religion, business and economic research. The institute also publishes a number of documents in order to disseminate its view to the general public, policymakers and other leaders. The Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation also contributes to the aforementioned Council for National Policy, where Richard DeVos has served on the executive committee and board of governors and which has been described as "very dangerous and dangerously secretive"129 in the eyes of liberals. Because of its secretive nature, it is difficult to fully ascertain the activities of the council. However, it is clearly a conservative organization that works to effect public policy changes at the national level. It was founded in part by the Rev. Tim LaHaye, leader of the Moral Majority, and it strives to combat what it sees as liberal control over the country and focuses on issues in domains ranging from social to economic. ABC News reported that "it provided a forum for religiously engaged conservative Christians to influence the geography of American political power."130 The council supports a strong national defense, Christian values, conservative morals and limited government. Like the F.M. Kirby Foundation, the Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation supports the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies, the Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institue for Public Policy Research, and the Media Research Center. The Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation also supports the State Policy Network, an association of 40 conservative state agencies nationwide. More locally, the foundation provides funding to the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, which uses its research to propose and promote various policies in Michigan. It analyzes issues such as private school vouchers, charter schools, privatization, taxes and welfare reform, and presents its evaluations and recommendations to individuals working in policy, academia, business and the media. Like many of the organizations listed abgove, the Mackinac Center promotes private, rather than government, solutions to policy issues. The Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation also provides grants to the Free Congress Foundation (FCF), which claims that its main focus is on the "Culture War." It hopes to "return [America] to the culture that made it great, our traditional Judeo-Christian, Western culture."131 It opposes multiculturalism, political correctness and liberal politics. The foundation's National Empowerment Television carries conservative Christian messages into millions of homes nationwide through its 24-hour programming, including Borderline (focusing on immigration policy), Cato Forum (taxes and government regulation), Legal Notebook (crime), Straight Talk (family), and On Target with the National Rifle Association (gun policy). The organization has four main centers to address issues like law and democracy, judicial selection, cultural conservatism and technology policy. In addition to their contributions to the Council for National Policy, the Heritage Foundation, the Federalist Society, and the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, the Dick and Betsy DeVos Foundation also funds the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the National Center for Policy Analysis. The Competitive Enterprise Institute is "dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government."132 It prides itself not only on researching regulatory issues (e.g., environmental policies and antitrust legislation) but also on publicizing and advocating its analyses and ideas to the general public, policymakers and judges. Thus, as the organization is "engaged in many phases of the public policy debate,"133 it plays an important role in influencing policy at the national level. The National Center for Policy Analysis endorses privatizing Social Security, as well as the few remaining public components of the nation's health care, education, welfare, and criminal justice systems. The Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation also funds a number of academic sector organizations, including the Intercollegiate Studies Institute and the Leadership Institute. It has provided substantial funding to Calvin College, the Christian alma mater of Richard DeVos, which "pledge[s] fidelity to Jesus Christ, offering our hearts and lives to do God's work in God's world."134 The foundation provided primary funding for the DeVos Center for Communication Arts and Science at the school. Richard DeVos comments that the center will provide a place where "our future leaders can be trained in the art of communications in the context of a Christian background."135 Similarly, the foundation has helped to fund a tennis center, a student recreation center, and, most recently, a new College of Education at Lee University, which calls itself a "Christ-centered liberal arts university."136 Richard and Helen DeVos suppoort the school because of its "strong commitment to the cause of Jesus Christ."137 The foundation has also supported broader efforts to bring Christianity to education facilities across the nation by funding groups such as Young Life at the high school level and Campus Crusade for Christ on college campuses. The mission of Young Life is "introducing adolescents to Jesus Christ and helping them grow in their faith,"138 while Campus Crusade for Christ performs a similar function on the university level. The Dick and Betsy DeVos Foundation also funds Calvin College, Campus Crusade for Christ, and Young Life. Dick and Betsy DeVos have been leaders in the "school reform" movement. Dick DeVos served on the Michigan Board of Education in the early 1990s and strongly endorsed the use of school vouchers. Now, he and his wife work through organizations such as the Education Freedom Fund, Of the People, the Children's Scholarship Fund, the American Education Reform Council, and the Great Lakes Education Project to privatize public education. Dick DeVos sits on the board of the Children's Scholarship Fund (CSF), which provides scholarships to low-income families, so that their children may attend private schools. In 1993, Michigan Republican State Sen. Dick Posthumus, a proponent of parental choice in children's education, invited Dick and Betsy DeVos to co-chair his newly established Education Freedom Fund (EFF). The EFF works in a similar capacity to the CSF but serves only families in Michigan. When the CSF provided $7.5 million to the EFF, Dick and Betsy DeVos matched the grant. Their foundation also covers all of the administrative costs of the organization. Dick DeVos also serves as chairman of the Great Lakes Education Project, a PAC that backs candidates who support education reform. Betsy DeVos was co-chairperson of Of the People, which has worked to get a parental rights amendment passed in a number of states. The amendment increases parental influence over public school curricula and provides for the implementation of vouchers for religious schools. The American Education Reform Council provides information about vouchers, tax credits and charter schools and works with individuals and groups interested in these programs. The Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation also supports the work of several of these organizations through grants, even though the pair are not as intimately involved in the organizations themselves. Footnotes122. http://www.forbes.com/richlist2003/rich400land.html. 123. Wilkerson, Roland. "Untold Millions...Amway founders quiety funneling cash to causes near and dear, big and small." Grand Rapids Press. April 26, 1998. A1. 124. Foundation Center. "Top 50 U.S. Foundations Awarding Grants for Religion, circa 2001." 125. Richard & Helen DeVos Foundation 2000 Form 990-PF, Attachment for Part IX-A. 126. Wilkerson, Grand Rapids Press, 1998. 127. "Focus on the Family." Right Wing Watch. 128. http://www.ssi-online.org/ftv 129. Ambinder, Marc J. "Vast, Right-Wing Cabal? Meet the Most Powerful Conservative Group You've Never Heard of." abcnews.com, May 2, 2002. 130. Ibid. 131. http://www.freecongress.org/about/index.asp. 132. http://www.cei.org/pages/about.cfm. 133. Ibid. 134. http://www.hillsdale.edu/ 135. Molinari, Deanne. "DeVos, Prince families fund Calvin expansion." Grand Rapids Business Journal, Vol. 16, No. 30. July 27, 1998. B1. 136. http://www.leeuniversity.edu/ 137. Finger, Gerrie Ferris. "College gift holds bit of Magic." The Atlanta Journal and Constitution. 19 December 1996. 5D.
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OTHER LINKSRichard and Helen DeVos foundation at Guidestar
Right Wing Watch Anatomy of a Voucher PushLast week the Utah House of Representatives narrowly passed a bill that could become the nation’s first universal voucher program. If this voucher scheme is passed into law, Utah taxpayers will be forced to finance religious education in private Christian and other religious schools– and Utah public schools will be robbed of much needed resources. Even in one of the most conservative states, the voucher movement has faltered in previous attempts to privatize public education. This year, however, sketchy campaign contributions and dirty tricks may help the extreme right-wing pull one over on the people of Utah.
Billy Manes Look who's knockingOrlando is linked with Amway in the minds of sports fans everywhere. That's not necessarily a good thing On Dec. 11, the news came that the TD Waterhouse Centre was to become, under a $1.5 million naming rights deal, the Amway Arena. Amway would also be in on the naming of the future events center scheduled to replace the arena in 2010.
Kathleen Gray Granholm says the voters know little about DeVosShe assails ties to center; his camp is disappointed In one of her sharpest attacks of the campaign, Gov. Jennifer Granholm said Wednesday that voters will reject her Republican opponent Dick DeVos when they find out more about his ties to conservative economic and social causes.
Who got the gravy? (blog) Amway Exposed, Part Five: Amway Money in PoliticsAmway has a long history of exchanging campaign contributions for political influence and favorable legislation. As Betsy DeVos famously put it, "I have decided, however, to stop taking offense at the suggestion that we are buying influence... they are right. We do expect some things in return."
Hector Solon (MI - Gov) DeVos Doctrine: Mission ala D. James Kennedy...While the real objectives of the DeVos Doctrine are basically simple self-enrichment and profit, the Doctrine and Dick DeVos for Governor campaign in Michigan are infused with a special sort of Christian Fundamentalist rhetoric and the ambitions of political power using organizations within the Christian Right, many of which were setup and financed directly by the DeVos Family for their select purposes and coordinated with other groups with likeminded agendas and goals. They form a cooperative network of burrowing idealogues and market fundelmentalists.
Talk to Action Dick DeVos, son of Amway scion, running as Republican for Governor of MichiganPundits say DeVos may spend $100 million on race ...my eyes almost popped out when I read ...about the announced Republican candidate for governor [of Michigan]...surely you know that if Richard ("Dick") DeVos wins, Michigan will have fallen prey to religious right fervor in the worst case scenario. You wouldn't know from the Michigan media, but the DeVos family, and Dick DeVos lock-step with them, are among the most prominent funders and fans of the religious right.
Ken Thomas Amway's ruling familes are biggest political spenders, study findsDeVos couple and late Jay Van Andel top list of individual donors in 2004 cycle Republicans Dick and Betsy DeVos of Michigan were the nation's largest individual campaign donors during the 2004 election cycle, according to a study released Thursday. A report by the Center for Public Integrity said the couple, of Ada, contributed more than $2.3 million in 2003 and 2004, including more than $1.8 million to party committees registered in Michigan.
Bill Berkowitz Amway's GOPyramid SchemeHow the multi-billion dollar worldwide corporation recruits ordinary folks into the 'system,' and uses well-connected politicians and pastors to become Masters of Deception
Grand Rapids Press DeVos creates buzz as GOP meets hereDick DeVos has sought advice from top Republicans on whether he should run for governor [of Michigan] and has heard a consistent theme: Gov. Jennifer Granholm is vulnerable, and he would be the right man to take her on The former president of Alticor has kept his intentions closely guarded since his name began popping up last month as a possible challenger in 2006.
Detroit News [Michigan] GOP looks for leader as [Betsy] DeVos steps downThe jockeying to replace Michigan Republican Party Chairwoman Betsy DeVos has begun
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Recipients of Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation grants, in descending order
The Resurrection of Charles Colson
