Roughly 75 people gathered at Calder Plaza, which included some 30 students, most of which are students in the Grand Rapids Public Schools (GRPS) system.
Students invited people to use sidewalk chalk to express their concerns and their demands. Several students then spoke about the demands they were presenting, as well as speaking about their own lived experiences as Black, Latinx and immigrant students. There was also a student that spoke about the history of student organizing in Grand Rapids, with his comments making it clear that students have always been involved in organizing and an essential part of social movements.
Before going up to attend and speak at the City Commission meeting I was able to interview one of the student organizers, a bright and articulate student named Colette.
At the City Commission there were several opportunities for people to speak, but most people and the students chose to speak during the Public Hearing that was held specifically to the issue of the FY2027 Budget, which I wrote about in a previous post.
One student begins by asking people to raise their lands if they feel unsafe around police, with half the room raising their hands. This student then went on to demand that less money go to the GRPD and more funds be invested in public safety models that are not based on fear and force.
Another student talked specifically about an encounter she had while going to school, an encounter with cops. She also said she came to use her voice to speak for her parents and for her immigrant community.
A third student spoke about the need to reduce funding for the GRPD and redirect funding to community needs, like housing, mental health resources, and long term sustainable efforts that truly promotes community safety.
One of the students got up and said that they were dedicating their time to the families who have had loved ones deported.
One theme that emanated from several students was the fact that they were frustrated that the needed to come to the City Commission meeting instead of focusing on their studies, by talking about the horrific realties of harm and danger that is happening in this city, specifically at the hands of cops.
There were also several members of Together West Michigan who have spent the past two years working to get safety on Kalamazoo, safety for street calming, lights and better signage to keep residents safe. Residents in that neighborhood are jaded and feel ignored. At the same time billionaires get a free pass when the city agrees to use millions in taxpayer dollars to support the DeVos/Van Andel Three Towers Project.
Another resident brought up the irony around the issue that of the $2.9 million for Oversight and Public Accountability, $1.7 million of this is for Axon contract including body cameras. How is it accountability when $1.7 million goes to a private corporation? That is nothing more than a corporate handout.
While many of the dozens of people who spoke during the Public Hearing on the FY2027 budget were inspiring with sound arguments, especially the comments from students, I don’t expect that this City Commission will actually hear what people have said. As I wrote yesterday, “holding one public hearing on this matter is a pitiful display of public engagement and what people should be demanding is a full blown participatory budgeting process that would essentially allow for a full year of discussion, debate and development of a budget that would truly meet the public’s needs.”
As always I don’t invest hope or faith in government officials, but in the people who do the hard work, people in the streets, people who organize and resist state carceral violence. La Lucha Sigue!
“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
Cheri DeVos 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. So far I have done posts on the Dick and Betsy DeVos Foundation, the Doug and Maria DeVos Foundation and the Dan and Pamela DeVos Foundation, which are some of the largest in West Michigan. Today I want to focus on the Cheri DeVos Foundation.
Cheri DeVos is the founder and owner of the Baton Collective, which includes Michigan Sports Academies, Discover Ada, Ada Hotel, Ada Village, Otter and Foxtail Coffee. The Cheri DeVos Foundation gave $4,172,500 in 2024, while maintaining $82,141,217 in total assets in that foundation.
The Cheri DeVos 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. Below is a listing of each from these categories, with a dollar amount and a brief analysis.
I also include groups that are DeVos owned or created, along with liberal non-profits. With the liberal non-profits, we believe that funding from foundations like the DeVos family foundations is a form of hush money. When we say hush money, we mean that these entities will not publicly challenge the system of Capitalism, the wealth gap, structural racism and other systems of oppression, which the DeVos family benefits from and perpetuates through their own political funding.
However, before I get to how they distributed their foundation funds for 2024, I think it is important that the Cheri DeVos Foundation paid two DeVos-owned entities to manage how their foundation money was used in 2024, along with another independent company. The Cheri DeVos Foundation paid RDV Corporation $174,338.00 and Ottawa Avenue Private Capital $92,154.00. The independent company was Northern Trust Securities Inc., which received $106,868.00.
Religious Groups
- Bethany Christian Services – $20,000
- Bridge Street Ministries – $22,5000
- Degage Ministries – $80,000
- Partners Worldwide – $30,000
- Roosevelt Park Ministries Inc. – $60,000
- Safe Haven Ministries – $75,000
- Young Life Central Grand Rapids – $40,000
These religious groups practice varying degrees of conservative politics, which fit into the ideological framework that the DeVos family is committed to.
Political Organizations
- Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation – $500,000
Education-centered groups
- Ada Christian School Society – $125,000
- Grand Rapids Christian Schools – $50,000
- Grand Rapids Public Schools Foundation – $225,000
- Potters House – $150,000
- Rehoboth Christian School association – $150,000
Most of the education groups that the Cheri DeVos Foundation contributes to are conservative Christian Schools. The Ada Christian School society is where several of the DeVos family members have sent their children. Betsy DeVos has had a special relationship with Potter’s House school, and the Rehoboth Christian School Association is one of those old school missions for Indigenous children. It is important to note that the DeVos family foundations have contributed millions to the Grand Rapids Public Schools Foundation over the last decade or so, with the goal to always influence GRPS practices and policies.
DeVos-owned, created or connected groups
- Chicago Cubs Charities – $10,000
- Corewell Health Foundation – $10,000
- Grand Action Foundation – $1,000,000
- Grand Rapids Initiative for Leaders – $60,000
Of course all these entities that were created by DeVos family members, also promote their ideological religious and capitalist values. On top of that, it also means that DeVos family members are funding their own entities and using their foundation to fund their own pet projects, and arts and culture institutions that cater primarily to members of the Capitalist Class.
Groups receiving Hush $
- AYA Youth Collective – $40,000
- Baxter Community Center – $45,000
- Boys and Girls Clubs of Grand Rapids – $100,000
- Children’s Advocacy Center of Kent County – $30,000
- Community Food Clubs – $60,000
- Exalta Health – $110,000
- Family Promise of Grand Rapids – $45,000
- Grand Rapids Children’s Museum – $40,000
- Grand Rapids Opportunities for Women – $100,000
- Heart of West Michigan United Way – $75,000
- Housing Kent – $200,000
- ICCF Community Homes – $45,000
- Kent County Habitat for Humanity – $100,000
- Kids Food Basket – $75,000
- LINC UP Community Revitalization – $20,000
- Moms Blossom Inc. – $80,000
- Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services – $1,850,000
These groups all provide some sort of social service – people fleeing domestic violence, those who are housing insecure, people with disabilities, adoption and immigration. 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 the DeVos 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 Cheri DeVos 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 Cheri DeVos Foundation, like all of the DeVos family foundations, compliments the campaign contributions they make to further impact public policy and promote their religious and capitalist ideologies.
Yesterday’s post was about the rally and demands that students in Grand Rapids will be making during the Grand Rapids City Commission meeting. They will be demanding that the city adopt the 6 sanctuary policies that Movimiento Cosecha has been demanding since January of 2025, along with demanding justice for Da’Quain Johnson who was shot and killed by the GRPD in February.
Besides the student demands the City of Grand Rapids will be holding a public hearing during the commission meeting on Tuesday night (May 12th) to discuss the FY2027 City Budget. According to a late April announcement from City Manager Mark Washington, the FY2027 budget proposal is for $785.4 million.
People will have an opportunity to weigh in on the budget during this meeting, even though holding one public hearing on this matter is a pitiful display of public engagement and what people should be demanding is a full blown participatory budgeting process that would essentially allow for a full year of discussion, debate and development of a budget that would truly meet the public’s needs.
However, since nothing like this will happen any time soon and since people will already be attending the meeting to demand sanctuary policies and justice for Da’Quain Johnson we can be focusing in on the following budget items:
- $75.4 million for Police, including $1.3 million allocated for 10 police officers that were added in FY26 in anticipation of increased state revenue for public safety.
- $2.9 million for Oversight and Public Accountability – $1.7 million of this is for Axon contract including body cameras; $400,000 will need to be programmed for crime prevention efforts based on enhanced state revenue for public safety.
- $13.5 million for 61st District Court.
- $56.6 million for Economic Prosperity and Affordability of which $36.8 million is for corridor improvement districts and special authorities.
Now, in recent years there have been attempts to Defund the GRPD, especially since
2020 when there was a national call by the Movement for Black Lives to Defund the Police and a local campaign called Defund the GRPD. On June 26, 2020, Defund the GRPD held its first Press Conference, where they announced clear demands for defunding the Grand Rapids Police Department. After generating thousands of letters in support of reducing the GRPD budget there was some support at the City Commission level to move in that direction. July 8, 2020 – After weeks of pressure from community groups to Defund the GRPD, 3 City Commissioners were set to propose defunding the GRPD to the 32% City Charter mandated minimum. However, the City Manager and the City Attorney stepped in and prevent such a vote, making the claim that the City Commission did not have the legal authority to do so. City Manager Mark Washington did say that they would revisit possible reduction in GRPD funding later that year.
Defund the GRPD did a lot of organizing around the FY2022 City Budget proposal in April/May of 2021, which involved education on the budget, mobilizing people to come to the public hearing on the budget, sending electronic messages to Grand Rapids City Officials, organizing a demonstration with Justice for Black Lives to draw attention to continued police repression in Grand Rapids, and putting out their own list of demands for the 2022 Grand Rapids City Budget. Those demands were completely ignored by Grand Rapids City officials.
Why we need to reduce funding for cops and the prison industrial complex in Grand Rapids
For me and for many people I organize with, abolishing the police and the Prison Industrial Complex is the goal. However, I recognize that there isn’t sufficient support for that to happen right now, but we can focus on reducing the amount of taxpayer dollars going to the GRPD and the court system in Grand Rapids. Here are some talking points that people can use at the City Commission’s public hearing on the city budget.
- The GRPD does not prevent most crimes and they do not promote public safety. From my own news monitoring work from 2024 and 2025 the majority of news stories involving public safety showed that the GRPD showed up after a crime has been committed. In my 12 months local news study in 2024, out of 673 stories that centered around crime, there were only 11 stories about the GRPD actually preventing crime. In my 6 months local news study from 2025, I found that out of 433 stories that were about the GRPD, the courts or public safety matters, only once was there a story where the GRPD prevented a crime or violence.
- We know that the communities that invest in meeting the needs of the people who live there, that the need for cops is significantly reduced. For example, if the GRPD Budget was reduced by $5 million, which would still give them $70.4 million, that would mean $5 million could be redirected on housing needs. For example, $5 million could provide enough money to cover the cost of rent for 277 people for a year (for those who pay $1500 a month in rent). In addition, $5 million could provide 100 families the opportunity to put a deposit of $50,000 towards a new home.
- The $2.9 million for the Office of Oversight and Public Accountability is a joke. There has been no evidence that this department in the City of Grand Rapids has done anything to hold the GRPD accountable. $2.9 million could cover rent ($1500 a month) for an entire year for 161 households.
- The $13.5 million for 61st District Court is also problematic, since most of the court rulings negatively impact BIPOC people. Also, most of the people in the Kent County Jail are in for non-Violent offenses, which is not only unnecessary, but only increases the chances of those who remain incarcerated to fall further into poverty. For more data on the Prison Industrial Complex in Grand Rapids/Kent County go here.
Now if, we added the proposed amount for the GRPD, the Office of Oversight and Public Accountability, the 61st District Court and the Economic Prosperity and Affordability of which $36.8 million is for corridor improvement districts and special authorities, which is essentially for businesses and not for the most economically vulnerable communities, that would amount to $128.6 million. Imagine if this amount of money was re-directed to meet real community needs like housing, transportation, child care, education and health care. We need to stop funding carceral violence and the cops and we need to stop funding developers and business interests and start supporting BIPOC and working class families.
On Tuesday, beginning at 5pm at Calder Plaza, Grand Rapids area students will be holding a rally with speakers, music, sidewalk chalk and other activities before going to the Grand Rapids City Commission meeting.
Student organizers will be demanding that the City of Grand Rapids adopt the 6 sanctuary policies that Movimiento Cosecha has been demanding since January of 2025, along with demanding justice for Da’Quain Johnson who was shot and killed by the GRPD in February.
One of the student organizers I spoke with said that they want safe communities and safety for their families. They also said that they don’t want to constantly be worried about whether or not their families will be abducted by ICE or if the GRPD will kill them.
Many of the students who are involved in organizing the rally have been the same students that have organized school walkouts to protest ICE. GRIID has written about three of those student walkouts that were organized at the Museum School, Southwest Middle and High School, along with Innovation Central High School.
Many of the these same students have also been organizing as part of the SALT student union, which has been making demands of the Grand Rapids Public Schools for several years now over a variety of issues. Over the past year GRPS students have been demanding that the GRPS adopt firm sanctuary policies for the district. Since last fall these same students have also been making demands to increase the salary of GRPS teachers and supporting the teacher’s union.
Students are inviting people to go up to the City Commission chambers around 6:30pm in order to get a seat.
A brief history of students and social movements in Grand Rapids
In 1965 South High students organized for cultural autonomy it what became known as the Mustache Affair.
High School and College students organized against the Vietnam War, with protests, marches, draft resistance and other forms of direct action.
In the early 1970s at the first Earth Day in Grand Rapids, Grand Rapids Junior College students organized a protest.
During the South African Anti-Apartheid Movement students and community members got the Grand Rapids Public School Board to divest. This action was followed by students at Calvin College who also got that school to divest.
In the 1980s, during the Central American Solidarity Movement, there were high school and college students who were involved with a variety of action, such as street theater and holding concerts to raise funds for solidarity work.
During the lead up to the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 and after the US war on Iraq had begun, there were high school and college students involved in the anti-war movement, some who participated in civil disobedience and were involved in numerous public protests.
One last example involve GVSU students that were part of the Students Against Sweatshops movement that were involved with a campaign to support the bus driver’s union fight for a new contract. Because of their solidarity efforts, the Mayor of Grand Rapids sent cops to the student’s homes to intimidate them, which resulted in a letter of condemnation from the United Farm Workers.
I can’t really imagine how the countless number of immigrant mothers are dealing with the violence done to their families by ICE. There is the issue of family separation, plus the trauma and the fact that separated families have less money coming in to support themselves.
Then there is the mother of Da’Quain Johnson, who had her son taken from her by the GRPD and the so-called legal system, which would not prosecute the cops that killed her son. In March there was a rally to demand justice for Da’Quain, where his mom spoke, along with several other mothers who have had their sons taken from them by the state carceral system, by cops.
Today people all across the country will celebrate Mother’s Day, but how many people know how this holiday started? Like so many American holidays, Mother’s day has been commercialized and sanitized. Mother’s Day began in America in 1870 when Julia Ward Howe wrote the Mother’s Day Proclamation. Written in response to the American Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War, her proclamation called on women to use their position as mothers to influence society in fighting for an end to all wars. She called for women to stand up against the unjust violence of war through their roles as wife and mother, to protest the futility of their sons killing other mothers’ sons.
Julia Ward Howe’s declaration rings true today, not just as an anti-war cry, but as a statement against all state violence.
Arise, then, women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts, Whether our baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly: “We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies, Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We, the women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.”
From the bosom of the devastated Earth a voice goes up with our own. It says: “Disarm! Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice.” Blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor violence indicate possession. As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war, Let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead. Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means Whereby the great human family can live in peace, Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar, But of God.
In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask That a general congress of women without limit of nationality May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient And at the earliest period consistent with its objects, To promote the alliance of the different nationalities, The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.
Imagine if the ideas and ideals of Julia Ward Howe were alive and well today. Imagine if we celebrated mothers while demanding an end to state violence, whether it is war, ICE separating families, the carceral state tearing families apart or cops killing the children of so many mothers.
Mothers deserve better, they deserve our solidarity, our care, and they deserve justice. Arise, then, mothers of this day!
Mayor LaGrand claims the GRPD is not sharing Flock camera data with the federal government
Recently, Grand Rapids Mayor David LaGrand was interviewed for a show on GRTV and the subject of Flock cameras came up.
One of the Cosecha demands is to get the City of Grand Rapids to adopt a formal policy that would prevent them from sharing Flock camera data with ICE. At 33:35 into the interview someone asks a question about Flock cameras and surveillance.
LaGrand begins his response by saying that he opposes surveillance and then continues to talk about ring cameras, cell phones and Alexa systems as giving away our privacy to big corporations.
He eventually mentions Flock cameras and talks about them as tools for taking pictures of license plates, but then quickly makes the comment that cops have for decades run people’s license plates without their consent. The Mayor thinks this is a disarming response, when in fact he is acknowledging that cops engage in surveillance all the time, thus his response strengthens the arguments against surveillance.
LaGrand then talks about having a Ring camera on the front of his house because the Chief of Police told him to. The Mayor then further avoids talking about Flock cameras by talking about Ring cameras and the compromises we all have made for some sense of security.
Beginning at 38:58 into the video the Mayor states, “Grand Rapids does not share Flock data. That is what the Police Chief told me….and was public about. Now, maybe he is lying and maybe Flock is lying. Assuming he is not lying and assuming that Flock is obeying the rules we have a very tight limit on what our flock cameras can be used for. So, we don’t even share that information with other law enforcement agencies. We get information from law enforcement agencies in Georgia, but we don’t give. So, we are a little selfish on our Flock use and I approve of that. I would be very nervous about sharing that data wider and we absolutely do not share it with the federal government, just so we’re clear.”
The thing is that the GRPD has been saying since Cosecha began their came to get the city to adopt 6 sanctuary policies in January of 2025 that they do not cooperate/collaborate with ICE. We know this to be untrue, since we have documented instances that the ICE arrest of Byron Martinez, where the GRPD assisted. We also have lots of first hand accounts where GR Rapid Response to ICE volunteers have witnessed the GRPD collaborating with ICE, along with numerous examples where the GRPD threatens to arrest GR Rapid Response to ICE when they are either attempting to interfere with ICE taking immigrants or when doing accompaniment with immigrants.
Personally, it is hard for me to trust what the GRPD and Mayor LaGrand are saying when people have evidence and first hand accounts that say otherwise. Mayor LaGrand can say that the city does not share Flock data with the federal government all he wants to, but if the GRPD is already collaborating with ICE (a federal government agency), then it seems likely that they are sharing Flock data with ICE as well.
Last June someone sent GR Rapid Response to ICE research on Flock, demonstrating that the GRPD was also using the technology. They wrote:
These are logs from the Flock License Plate Reader System that I obtained that show the searches that Grand Rapids Police have used on the system. It shows the plate searched, the officer that conducted the search, the reason for the search and the time of the search.
In the image above, you can see the data described in the research, with the reasons listed, many of which were Deportation Warrant. If the GRPD is not sharing Flock camera data with ICE, then why do they have Deportation Warrant as a designation on their logs?
The person doing the interview than asks LaGrand about being able to FOIA the GRPD drone data, but that currently the public can’t FOIA the GRPD on Flock data. The Mayor confirms this to be the case and says that the Flock cameras were grandfathered into the old surveillance policy and it needs to be updated under the new policy.
One of the 10 principles of journalism is that it must serve as an independent monitor of power.
Now, I don’t claim to be a journalist, more of a media watchdog, but I do engage in movement media. Movement media is reporting and documenting what social movements are doing, which is what I have been trying to do with GRIID since 2009.
However, since I have been monitoring what I call the Grand Rapids Power Structure for nearly two decades, it seems like a good idea to do a Monitoring the Rich and Powerful in Grand Rapids segment.
There are two issues in this segment of Monitoring the Rich and Powerful in Grand Rapids that I want to draw attention to.
First, the thoughts and beliefs that members of the Capitalist Class are always instructive, and infuriating. In a recent article by Dick DeVos, entitled God Loves Work, the eldest son of Rich DeVos shares his insights around the subject of work. Here are three excerpts:
But work, in all eras, is inherently meaningful and important to life. In my book Rediscovering American Values, I wrote some years ago now that too many children were never taught the value or dignity of hard work. That concern feels even more urgent today, as social media and AI increasingly promote an alternative and often dismissive view of work, and all too often frame success as more the result of “good timing” or “luck” than diligence, patience, and hard work.
If our attitude toward our work is right and we still don’t derive satisfaction from it, it may be that what we are doing does not line up with our God-given talents. I believe that we are called by God to utilize the skills He gave us to perform certain kinds of work. When we perform our work with integrity, it becomes a form of ministry. My faith teaches me that all work should be done for the glory of God. Therefore, all work is significant regardless of its financial reward.
My parents gave me a firm foundation when they taught me the joy of utilizing my God-given talents and working to the best of my ability. And no matter how menial the task seemed, it was significant, whether I was weeding the flower beds or scrubbing the bathroom floor. Now having been blessed with success, I must work even harder to achieve new goals.
It is worth acknowledging that Dick DeVos was born into a family that was already wealthy. Dick took over for his father to help run the Amway Corporation, then transitioned to being co-founder of the Windquest Group, which owns multiple businesses you can find here.
Dick DeVos has contributed millions to political candidates during his adult life, which has generally benefited him through buying politicians who will support legislative policies that benefit his financial interests.
Dick also has multiple homes (one with a helicopter pad), several planes, yachts and lots of other material assets. Dick and his family made money off of the labor of others, as all capitalists do, yet he thinks we all will somehow benefit from his insights into work. The arrogance of wealth.
The second example of the rich and powerful in Grand Rapids comes to us via the GR Chamber of Commerce-created group Housing Next. Housing Next recently hosted someone from the American Enterprise Institute to talk about housing construction policies that would primarily benefit developers.
Housing Next has also announced a Housing Summit on August 6th. The keynote speaker is Keynote Coby Lefkowitz, Author of Building Optimism, who cofounded a real estate development firm in 2021. The summit will also feature Sam Cummings, Managing Partner of CWD Real Estate Investment, who will talk about “regional housing trends.”
At a Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce event this past Spring, Sam Cummings talked about a state law that was adopted in 2023, which amended the Brownfield Redevelopment Financing Act. This amendment made housing development projects, like the One Eleven Lyon project eligible for brownfield capture. Cummings made these remarks at the Spring conference held by the GR Chamber of Commerce, which contributed to LaGrand’s campaign for Mayor and subsequence campaigns for State Representative, which is nothing more than influence peddling by people like Cummings, who has a long history of using public funds to expand his wealth.
Sam Cummings also supported the ordinances that Grand Rapids adopted in 2023 that criminalized the unhoused, plus Sam Cummings has a long history of public looting.
The West Michigan Policy Forum was created as a project of the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce in 2008. Their whole objective is to get Michigan legislators to adopt policies that fit their Neo-liberal agenda, like ending the business tax, eliminating real retirement benefits, opposing livable wage standards, opposing the shut down of Line 5 and adopting education policies that support charter and private schools.
In a recent Facebook post, Chase Bolger, the President and CEO of the West Michigan Policy Forum made a pitch for Michigan to opt in to the federal government’s education voucher program called the Education Tax Freedom Credit.
The Trump Administration says:
“If your governor opts in, your family may be eligible to benefit from this transformative program and could use these resources to send your child to a new school, pay for private tutoring, or provide other educational support.:
The America First Policy Institute, which was created in 2020 by former Trump administration officials and has ties to the Council for National Policy, a right wing group that has been around since the 1970s and has been supported by the DeVos family for decades. This is what the America First Policy Institute says about the Education Freedom Tax Credit:
The education freedom tax credit (EFTC) allows taxpayers to claim up to $1,700 in dollar-for-dollar federal tax credits for contributions to Scholarship Granting Organizations (SGOs). These SGOs can then fund scholarships to students, which can be used for a range of K-12 educational expenses, including private school tuition and homeschooling.
Then there is the Koch brothers created American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which also is promoting the federal school voucher plan, stating:
The Education Freedom Tax-Credit Scholarship Program is a generational opportunity for every state. States that have opted in are prioritizing parents and students over systems of education while unlocking tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions, of dollars in potential annual scholarship funds at no cost to the state. Opting in to this program is the easiest and most commonsense step a state can take toward unlocking more learning options for students and families.
While she was Secretary of Education under the first Trump Administration, Betsy DeVos also pushed for a federal policy that was similar to the Education Freedom Tax Credit. DeVos called it Education Freedom Scholarships. In 2019, I wrote:
According to DeVos, “The policy will make a historic investment in America’s students, injecting up to $5 billion yearly into locally controlled scholarship programs that empower students to choose the learning environment and style that best meets their unique needs.”
The Michigan Education Association (MEA) had a much different take on the so-called Education Freedom Tax Credit. They wrote, “The nation’s first federal school voucher scheme was tucked inside the tax cuts and spending plan that Republicans in Congress passed and President Donald Trump signed into law.”
The MEA also states, “The evidence is overwhelming in states where universal vouchers have been enacted:
- Vouchers drain funds from public schools, harm student achievement, and lack any oversight or accountability.
- By a 3-to-1 margin, tax credits and vouchers go to wealthy families whose children already attend private schools.
- Rural schools face the biggest pressures from vouchers because they generate less local revenue and rely more on state and federal funds.
For those who are concerned about the future of Public Education in Michigan, it is imperative that we come to terms with the influence that groups like the West Michigan Policy Forum have on public education policy. What I find interesting, and alarming, is that teacher unions, Democrats, School Boards, parent groups and community-based organizations rarely even mention groups like the West Michigan Policy Forum. It is my contention that not only should they be monitoring what the WMPF is doing, they should develop clear strategies for countering their policy agenda.
“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
Dan and Pamela DeVos 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. Two weeks ago I posted an article on the Dick and Betsy DeVos Foundation, and last week an article on the Doug and Maria DeVos Foundation. Today, I am focusing on the Dan and Pamela DeVos Foundation, which has been one of the largest in West Michigan.
Dan DeVos is currently the CEO of Fox Motors, a co-owner of CWD Real Estate Investments and owns numerous professional sports teams. According to GuideStar, in 2023, the Dan and Pamela DeVos Foundation contributed $11,461,500.00 leaving them with $8,826,827.00 of funds left in their foundation account.
The Dan and Pamela DeVos 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. Below is a listing of each from these categories, with a dollar amount and a brief analysis.
I also include groups that are DeVos owned or created, along with liberal non-profits. With the liberal non-profits, we believe that funding from foundations like the DeVos family foundations is a form of hush money. When we say hush money, we mean that these entities will not publicly challenge the system of Capitalism, the wealth gap, structural racism and other systems of oppression, which the DeVos family benefits from and perpetuates through their own political funding.
However, before I get to how they distributed their foundation funds for 2024, I think it is important that the Doug and Maria DeVos Foundation paid one DeVos-owned entity to manage how their foundation money was used in 2024. The Dan and Pamela DeVos Foundation paid RDV Corporation $174,338.00.
Religious Groups
- Keystone Community Church $75,000
Far Right Think Tanks and Pro-Capitalist groups
- Acton Institute – $10,000
- Mackinac Center for Public Policy – $75,000
Think Tanks influence public policy in individual states, like the Mackinac Center for Public Policy does in Michigan. The Mackinac Center for Public Policy is a right-wing pressure group based in Michigan. Founded in 1987, it is the largest state-level “think tank” in the nation. It was established by right-wing activists to promote “free market,” pro-business policies.
Political Organizations
- Ada Township – $1,000,000
- Downtown Grand Rapids Inc. – $30,000
- Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation – $500,000
- Kent County Sheriff’s Office Traffic Squad – $67,500
Education-centered groups
- Davenport University – $527,500
- Grand Rapids Christian Schools – $230,000
- Grand Valley State University – $250,000
- Hope College – $25,000
- Northwood University – $4,075,000 (Dan DeVos is on the Board of Trustees)
- Northern Michigan University Foundation – $1,000,000
Half of the Education groups that the Dan and Pamela DeVos Foundation contribute to are conservative Christian Schools. GVSU and Northwood University received foundation money, since both of the schools departments and buildings named after the DeVos family, along with the fact that they have influenced business policies at those schools, along with social policies, like delaying GVSU from providing domestic partner benefits by more than a decade because of DeVos funding. In 1994, when faculty and staff at GVSU were meeting with then President Lubbers over the university’s willingness to offer domestic partner benefits, word got out that this was going to happen. At the time GVSU was raising money for a proposed health education building on Michigan St and Peter Cook and Rich DeVos had pledged millions. Once DeVos and Cook found out about the proposal by GVSU to offer domestic partner benefits, they threatened to withdraw their financial support if the university would support a domestic partner benefits policy. GVSU acquiesced to the wish of DeVos and Cook.
DeVos-owned, created or connected groups
- Chicago Cubs Charities – $10,000
- Corewell Health Foundation – $35,000
- Grand Rapids Art Museum – $285,000 (Pamela DeVos is an honorary Trustee)
- Grand Rapids Griffin’s Youth Foundation – $35,000 (Dan DeVos owns the Grand Rapids Griffins
- Grand Rapids Initiative for Leaders – $30,000
- Grand Rapids Symphony Society – $1,200,000 (Pamela Roland is a Board member)
- I Understand Love Heals – $70,000 (Pamela DeVos is an honorary Board member)
- John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts – $255,000 (Pamela DeVos is a Trustee)
- Orlando Magic Youth Foundation – $40,000 (Dan DeVos owns the Orlando Magic)
- West Michigan Aviation Academy Foundation – $31,000
Of course all these entities that were created by DeVos family members, also promote their ideological religious and capitalist values. On top of that, it also means that DeVos family members are funding their own entities and using their foundation to fund their own pet projects, and arts and culture institutions that cater primarily to members of the Capitalist Class.
Groups receiving Hush $
- Family Promise of Grand Rapids – $20,000
- Gilda’s Club Grand Rapids – $20,000
- Great Lakes Center for the Arts – $1,110,000
- Heart of West Michigan United Way – $110,000
- Mental Health Foundation of West Michigan – $60,000
- Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services – $500,000
- Grand Rapids Public Museum – $250,000
- West Michigan Sports Commission – $72,500
These groups all provide some sort of social service – people fleeing domestic violence, those who are housing insecure, people with disabilities, adoption and immigration. 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 the DeVos 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 Dan and Pamela DeVos 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 Dan and Pamela DeVos Foundation, like all of the DeVos family foundations, compliments the campaign contributions they make to further impact public policy and promote their religious and capitalist ideologies.
“I’ve got just the place for low-cost housing. I have solved this problem. I know where we can build housing for the homeless: golf courses! It’s perfect! Just what we need. Plenty of good land, in nice neighborhoods, land that is currently being wasted on a meaningless, mindless activity engaged in primarily by white, well-to-do male businessmen who use the game to get together to make deals to carve this country up a little finer amongst themselves.” George Carlin
A few years ago Grand Rapids City officials approved a multi-million dollar driving range that would also include a restaurant/bar to “attract people to visit this city. There was a serious lack of truly affordable housing then, just as there is now.
About three weeks ago Crain’s Grand Rapids Business posted an article about a similar project in Walker, Michigan, one that also caters to golfers, but in a much more elitist way. According to the article:
Bunker Social GR and planned future locations will lean into corporate use and larger event bookings, said David Roden, one of Bunker Social’s four founders who is also the director of growth and operations at Concierge Medicine of West Michigan.
“The general golf simulator business model leans towards hourly rentals and it limits corporate use, and larger event utilization,” Roden said. “Our whole model is based around events, corporate accounts and we’ll have corporate office space for when members want to come in and have a small meeting and then hit golf balls.”
Bunker Social GR is a business run by several men and is a 30,000 square foot indoor golf and social club designed for:
- Host Corporate events
- Provide Championship-level simulator play
- Premium hospitality with a bar setting
- Real sand bunkers & short-game training
If you want to be a members there are three different options for membership fees. The ACE membership only costs $4,491 a year, but comes with the most perks, followed by the Eagle membership at a mere $3,141 per year with less perks and lastly the Birdie membership at $1,791 per year with the least perks.
Then there are corporate memberships at three different levels. The Executive membership is just $22,500 per year that provides full access to 10 employees, followed by the Director membership at $11,250 per year for 5 employees, and lastly the Associate membership at $5,625 per year for 3 employees.
Businessmen get to enjoy this elitist game in an air conditioned setting, drink bourbon and discuss ways to screw working class people even more. Just one more indication of how Grand Rapids continues to be designed to benefit the wealthier, more privileged class of people while so many people can’t even afford the basics. It’s a dystopian future for the greater Grand Rapids area unless we organize a real resistance.
Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy 