West Michigan Foundation Watch: The DeVos Family Foundation(s)

Philanthropy is just reputation laundering for the oligarchy. 

It is that time of the year again, when GRIID posts about the various West Michigan Foundations from families that make up the Grand Rapids Power Structure. I start with the DeVos family, which has 5 different foundations. 

The DeVos Family Foundation

GRIID has always begun our Foundation Watch work by looking at the foundations associated with the most powerful family in West Michigan, the DeVos family. Four weeks ago I looked at the Dick and Betsy DeVos Foundation, then three weeks ago I investigated the Doug and Maria DeVos Foundation. Two weeks ago it was the Dan and Pamela DeVos Foundation, and last week it was the CDV5 Foundation, which is the Cheri DeVos Foundation. Today, I want to look at the DeVos Family Foundation. 

According to GuideStar, in 2023, the DeVos Family Foundation contributed $4,372,976 leaving them with $4,825 of funds left in their foundation account.

The DeVos Family Foundation made contributions to dozens of entities in 2023, but there are some clear categories of groups they contributed to, such as the Religious Right, Think Tanks, Education-centered groups, and social service entities, to name a few.

However, what is different about the DeVos Family Foundation in relation to the other DeVos Foundations is that this foundation is what remains of the Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation, which is why as of 2023 there was only $4,825 of funds left in that foundation account. You can also see from the 990 document for 2023, there are several Florida-based recipients, which makes sense, since this was where Rich and Helen DeVos spent more of their time in their final years. 

Here is a list of some of the Florida-based recipients, followed by a list of the contributions to DeVos created entities.

Florida-based recipients:

• AdventHealth Foundation Central Florida – $150,000
• Covenant House Florida – $60,000
• Education Foundation Osceola County – $15,000
• Every Kid Outreach – $15,000
• First Tee of Central Florida – $10,000
• Foundation for Orange County Public Schools – $15,000
• Foundation for Seminole County Public Schools – $15,000
• Habitat for Humanity Greater Orlando and Osceola County – $150,000
• Harbor House of Central Florida – $95,000
• Lift Orlando – $150,000
• New Image Center – $60,000
• United Against Poverty – $45,000
• Urban Think Foundation Inc. – $30,000
• Zebra Coalition – $30,000

DeVos-owned, created or connected groups

• Alliance for Children Everywhere – $500,000 – Amway provides material support and several DeVos Foundations are partnersChicago Cubs Charities – $10,000
• Corewell Health Foundation – $1,000,000
• Degage Ministries – $300,000 – someone from RDV Corp sits on the Board of Directors
• Orlando Magic Youth Foundation – $385,000
• Start Garden LLC – $360,000

Foundations are tax shelters for the rich

Since the DeVos Family Foundation appears to be phasing out, it is an excellent time to talk about how much money the DeVos family has collectively put into their foundations to avoid that wealth from being taxed.

If you add up the assets from the five DeVos foundations that we have looked at the total comes to $206,104,533.00, which is just shy of a quarter of a billion dollars that the DeVos family has is not taxed. 

According to inequality.org, “Private foundations are only required to payout 5 percent of assets annually to charities and donor-advised funds (DAFs) have no payout requirement.  To make matters worse, some wealthy donors are playing shell-games to fulfill these minimal obligations.”

In a 2023 report published by inequality.org, entitled, The True cost of Billionaire Philanthropy, the report provides some interesting findings:

• $73.34 billion in tax revenue was lost to the public in 2022 due to personal and corporate charitable deductions.
• If we include just the little data we have about charitable bequests and the investments of charities themselves, the revenue loss is pushed up to roughly $111 billion.
• And if we also include the capital gains revenue lost from the donation of appreciated assets, the true revenue costs of charity likely add up to several hundreds of billions of dollars each year.

Thus, while billionaires like the DeVos family love to brag about their philanthropic giving, the foundations are not only tax havens, they are another mechanism to fund far right and religious right organizations, which is ultimately subsidized by regular taxpayers.

This is why I continue to say during public presentations and on the GRIID blog that while I have nothing but contempt for the DeVos family, it is a mistake if we ignore how strategic they are with their wealth. I am convinced that they are brutal and cruel in how they use their money, but they are not stupid, and it would be a mistake to think so.