The Dick and Betsy DeVos Family Foundation

The Dick and Betsy DeVos Family Foundation

Founded in 1989 by Dick and Betsy DeVos, the foundation channels multigenerational wealth from two dominant Michigan industrial families. Dick DeVos is the son of Richard DeVos Sr., co-founder of the global multi-level marketing giant Amway, where Dick later served as president. Betsy DeVos is the daughter of Edgar Prince, whose Prince Corporation pioneered illuminated sun visors and other auto components before its sale to Johnson Controls in 1996. The couple consolidated their philanthropy under this vehicle, establishing a grantmaking presence anchored in Grand Rapids. The foundation deploys capital primarily through direct charitable grants rather than an investment portfolio, with a dual focus on advancing school choice and strengthening West Michigan institutions. Education freedom is the organization's most visible national priority — it has been a sustained funder of voucher programs, charter schools, and advocacy groups that promote alternatives to traditional public education. Clinically, the foundation supports projects in the arts, health, and children's causes within its home region. Notable grantees over time include the American Enterprise Institute, where Betsy DeVos served on the board, and a range of locally rooted cultural anchors. Operations intersect with a broader family ecosystem that includes the RDV Corporation, the family office that manages the DeVos fortune, and Windquest Group, the private investment firm where Dick DeVos serves as president. The foundation's scale is modest relative to the family's total wealth, which Forbes estimated at $5.4 billion in 2024. Betsy DeVos chaired The Philanthropy Roundtable, a network of conservative donors, and Dick DeVos led the Council for National Policy, reinforcing the foundation's integration with policy-focused giving circles. Recent activity reflects continuity: the foundation maintains a programmatic rather than endowment-growth posture, with grantmaking levels that fluctuate year-to-year based on giving priorities set by the founders. The foundation's structural identity is inseparable from the political biography of its principals. Betsy DeVos served as U.S. Secretary of Education from 2017 to 2021, making the foundation one of the few philanthropic vehicles whose co-founder moved directly from the grantmaking chair to the federal agency overseeing the same policy domain. This blurring of private philanthropy and public governance — on an issue the foundation had funded for decades — sets it apart from most family foundations, where the donor's policy advocacy typically remains external to the federal apparatus.