West Michigan Foundation Watch: The Stephen and Amy Van Andel Foundation

“In any case, the hidden hand of of foundations can control the course of social change and deflect anger to targets other than elite power.”

– Joan Roelofs, Foundations and Public Policy

The Stephen and Amy Van Andel Foundation

I have already written about the five different DeVos Foundations, with my most recent post on the DeVos Family Foundation. Last week I shifted to the David and Carol Van Andel Foundation, so today I want to look at the Stephen and Amy Van Andel Foundation.

The Stephen and Amy Van Andel Foundation gave $5,502,833 in 2024, with $102,271,034 left in total assets in that foundation.

The Stephen and Amyl Van Andel Foundation made contributions to dozens of entities in 2024, 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.

Before I dive into how the David and Carol Van Andel Foundation distributed their funds, I wanted to point out that Steve Van Andel is co-chair of the board of directors of Amway and is currently the vice chair of the Hillsdale College board of trustees.

Religious Groups

• Bethel Community Education – $47,000
• Guiding Light Mission – $5,000
• Mel Trotter Ministries – $5,000
• Northpoint Christian Schools – $5,000
• Saint Thomas Educational Foundation – $100,000
• Wedgewood Christian Services – $25,000

These religious groups practice varying degrees of conservative politics, which fit into the ideological framework that the Van Andel family is committed to.

Education-centered institutions

• Grand Valley State University – $10,000
• School Emergency Response Coalition – $20,000

Government entities

• Ada Township – $1,250,000
• City of Rockford – $300,000
• Grand Rapids Public Museum – $50,000
• The George W. Bush Foundation – $2,000,000
• Traffic Squad Fund Inc. – $45,000

Pro-Capitalist and Far Right Groups

• American Enterprise Institute – $10,000
• The Heritage Foundation – $10,000

The American Enterprise Institute is one of the most influential think tanks in the country and is tied to so much of the conservative political agenda. The Heritage Foundation also has decades of being connected to the political right and was instrumental in crafting the political agenda for the incoming Reagan Administration in 1980 and the most recent Trump Administration in 2025, specifically with the document Project 2025.

Van Andel created or connected groups

• Corewell Health of West Michigan Foundation – $110,000
• Van Andel Research Institute – $23,000
• Worldmaker International Inc. – $30,500

Groups receiving Hush $

• Baxter Community Center. – $30,000
• Brody’s Be Cafe LLC – $500,000
• Children’s Healing Center – $348,333
• Equest Center for Therapeutic Riding Inc.  – $110,000
• Family Promise of Grand Rapids – $25,000
• Friends of Grand Rapids Parks – $20,000
• Heart of West Michigan United Way – $10,000
• Holland Home – $80,000
• Hospice of Michigan Inc. – $337,500
• Kids Food Basket  – $50,000
• Literacy Center of West Michigan – $25,000
• Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital – $1,015,000
• McLaren Northern Michigan Foundation – $50,000
• Senior Neighbors Inc. – $10,000
• Trillium Institute – $1,000,000
• University of Michigan Health West – $2,035,000

These groups all provide some sort of social service – those who are housing insecure, people with disabilities, adoption and food insecurity. There are root causes to all of these issues, but these groups are not likely to address root causes and larger systems of oppression. When Van Andel family foundations make contributions, this will increase the likelihood that systems of oppression will not be addressed by these groups.

Foundations rarely make contributions without strings attached. The Stephen and Amy Van Andel Foundation has a long history of funding far right and religious right groups, which GRIID began documenting over a decade ago when I started this project. Lastly, it is worth noting that the Stephen and Amy Van Andel Foundation, like all of the foundations by members of the Grand Rapids Power Structure, compliments the campaign contributions they make to further impact public policy and promote their religious and capitalist ideologies.