One of the top families in philanthropy to watch these days is the conservative DeVos family.
The DeVoses’ wealth sprouts from direct marketing. But it worked out well for Richard DeVos, whose present-day net worth of $5 billion makes him one of the wealthiest people in the United States.
With this much wealth on hand, it’s not surprising that the DeVoses are also heavy contributors to charity. Richard and his wife, Helen, run the Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation from their home state of Michigan. Giving by this couple and their kids has touched many areas, but the DeVoses are probably best known as key pioneers in education reform philanthropy.
“School choice” supporters were practically a fringe movement circa 2000: Over the two preceding decades, 25 state ballots proposing new school-voucher programs had ended with 25 majorities of voters saying “nay.” We could very likely chalk up some of it or maybe more than some to the DeVos family, which altogether has three philanthropic foundations to their name, and a remarkable talent for moving money by the truckload into socially conservative causes and putting it to work to shift voters’ and lawmakers’ mindsets in a rightward direction.
Religious charities are their foundation’s favorite kind of grantee. The foundation’s also issued grants to the Inner City Christian Federation, which used the money to provide emergency shelter and counseling to homeless youth and families in Kent County, Michigan; and the Young Life, which spent the money on faith-focused summer camps and after-school clubs.
The foundation likewise has long been a stalwart funder of conservative policy groups. Dick also ran for Michigan governor in 2006, but was bested by the Democratic incumbent.
Dick’s married to Betsy Prince DeVos, and the two run a charitable operation of their own, the Dick and Betsy DeVos Family Foundation, which they started in 1989 with an intention to “serve as faithful stewards” of greater society through “projects that build a strong community.” School choice is one of its areas of interest, along with community health, the arts, and neighborhood revitalizations. It’s awarded grants to such endeavors as Potter’s House, a Michigan Christian organization that runs two faith-based schools (an elementary school and a high school) within the state; and West Michigan Aviation Academy, an aviation-focused charter school in Grand Rapids. Not as controversial, though, as the DeVos’ well-known conservative political persuasions: Steve Lambert, one recent ArtPrize winner, pledged to return his winnings because the DeVos family is on the “wrong side of the fight for civil rights for LGBT people” (You can read more about all of these criticisms of ArtPrize here).
Betsy DeVos is quite the political ringleader in her own right.
