Posted on 04/20/2006 8:48:48 AM PDT by Kieri
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Republican gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos and his wife gave the private foundation they run more than $29 million during a recent three-year period and handed out nearly $10 million from the foundation to schools, think tanks and various charities over that time.
They were the only contributors to the Dick and Betsy DeVos Foundation, which donated an average of $3.3 million annually in 2002, 2003 and 2004.
The largest beneficiary of the foundation those three years was the Education Freedom Fund, which got $978,000. Dick and Betsy DeVos are on the board of the fund, which gives scholarships — usually around $1,000 each — to low-income students who want to attend private schools.
The foundation's second-largest contribution went to The Potter's House, a private K-12 parochial school that serves largely low-income and minority students in Grand Rapids.
In all, the foundation spent more than $3.6 million over the three-year period on education-related groups, including colleges and charter schools, according to an Associated Press computer analysis of the foundation's annual reports filed with the Internal Revenue Service.
Dick DeVos said Wednesday that the Education Freedom Fund has helped children attend schools of every stripe, from religious schools tied to Christianity, Judaism and Islam to public schools outside of a student's home district.
"We have thousands of parents who every year are looking for some help to try to send their child to a school that is going to work better for their child, but which they cannot afford themselves," he said. "We just want every child to have access to a great education. So we just do what we can to help."
The foundation also poured a lot of money into charities — roughly $2.2 million. In other giving, churches or groups promoting religion got more than $1.9 million, while conservative think tanks got nearly $200,000 and other conservative groups got $485,000.
Health charities got around $607,000, while community development groups got nearly $208,000, arts groups got around $198,000 and $138,000 went to education lobbying groups. The foundation also gave money to several sailing groups and foundations, and to a ski and snowboard club in Aspen, Colo.
Most of the foundation money stayed in Michigan, with groups in the state getting $7.3 million, or 73 percent, of the donations from 2002-2004. The biggest share of the Michigan donations went to Grand Rapids — $5.4 million — while nearby Holland got about $500,000.
Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm and her husband, Dan Mulhern, gave $11,853 to charity in 2005, according to their federal tax return. Among the recipients were the United Way, the American Red Cross, St. John Student Parish in East Lansing and Focus:HOPE in Detroit.
Granholm campaign spokesman Chris De Witt said that it's hard to measure how generous the DeVoses have been because the couple will not release their tax returns.
"This could just be one day's interest on all the money that he has," De Witt said. "Clearly there is a need for him to disclose his taxes."
The foundation totals do not include money the DeVoses gave that didn't flow through the foundation, although Dick DeVos said Wednesday the bulk of the couple's giving goes through the foundation. The foundation contributed to 256 groups over three years, some of them annually.
The couple gave $5.2 million to the foundation in 2002, $10 million in 2003 and $14 million in 2004, the most recent year available. The foundation ended that year with $27.1 million in assets.
"We have not hidden the fact by laying out in our disclosure that we have been blessed financially," Dick DeVos said. "Part of that responsibility is to be a blessing to others."
Much of the foundation's giving continues the push for school choice that Dick and Betsy DeVos have backed for more than a decade. In 2002, the foundation gave $390,000 to Choices for Children, a think tank formed by Betsy DeVos to promote school choice.
The think tank, which Dick DeVos said no longer is in operation, was started after the failure of a 2000 ballot measure that would have allowed public dollars to be used for vouchers students could use at private schools.
Dick DeVos, then president of Amway Corp., led the effort to get the ballot measure passed, co-chairing the Kids First! Yes! campaign. Betsy DeVos left her job as chairwoman of the state Republican Party earlier that year after then-Gov. John Engler, also a Republican, opposed putting the voucher measure on the ballot. The DeVoses contributed more than $500,000 to the Kids First! Yes! campaign.
The couple also started the Great Lakes Education Project, a political action committee that contributes to candidates who support school choice.
Since he began his run for governor, Dick DeVos says he still believes in school vouchers but won't pursue the idea because voters soundly defeated the ballot proposal.
The foundation continues to contribute millions of dollars to groups that support school choice, private schools or scholarships used at private schools.
The American Education Reform Council, a school choice advocacy group in Wisconsin, got $101,000 over the three years, while the Michigan Association of Public School Academies, a Lansing-based group that represents charter schools, got $25,000.
Besides the $978,000 that went to the Education Freedom Fund for private school scholarships, the foundation also gave $12,950 to the Hugh Michael Beahan Foundation, which provides scholarships for students attending St. Andrew's School in Grand Rapids.
It also provided $75,000 to Children First America, a national clearinghouse of information on privately funded voucher programs for low-income children based in Austin, Texas, and $25,000 to Florida P.R.I.D.E, a Tampa-based group that provides information about school choice in Florida.
Several Detroit charter schools or groups that run charter schools received contributions, including New Urban Living, which got $179,000. The nonprofit group manages University Preparatory Academy in Detroit.
Rehoboth Christian School, founded in Minnesota by the Christian Reformed Church as a boarding school for Native American students, got $250,000.
Colleges also did well. The foundation gave $662,000 to higher education over three years, with nearly half the money going to Calvin College, Betsy DeVos' alma mater in Grand Rapids.
Princeton University in New Jersey, which one of the DeVos children attends, got $53,500, while Davenport University in Grand Rapids, Grove City College in Grove City, Pa., Hope College in Holland and Thunderbird, The American School of International Management in Glendale, Ariz., each got at least $50,000.
Among the charities that received money from the foundation, many were faith-based groups that focused on children, such as Kids Hope USA, which got $300,000 over three years to help link mentors from churches with schools and students.
The foundation also gave $525,000 to Little Star Inc., an Aspen, Colo.-based group headed by former tennis star Andrea Jaeger that helps children with cancer and other life-threatening diseases, or those who are at risk or abused.
Of the more than $1.9 million that went to churches or to organizations promoting religion, churches got nearly $600,000, including $431,000 for Mars Hill Baptist Church in Grandville.
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EDITOR's NOTE: Kathy Barks Hoffman heads the Lansing AP bureau and has covered Michigan politics since 1986.
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On the Net:
DeVos for Gov.: http://www.devosforgovernor.com/
Granholm for Gov.: http://www.granholmforgov.com/
This should have read, "DeVos and Wife Donate over $29 Million to Charities."
"This could just be one day's interest on all the money that he has," De Witt said.
So ... Granholm gave $11,000 in 2005. DeVos gave $29M over 3 years. But, looked at the right way (a painful pretzel-shaped way) Granholm might be the more generous of the two.
Mmmmmmmm-kay.
It is refreshing to see someone put their money where their mouth is. Mr.& Mrs. DeVoss certainly have done that, and are to be commended for it.
Just because someone claims to be a conservative and a Christian, doesn't mean they are.. AMWAY is the biggest offender of pretend Christian values... because calling people with regular jobs "losers" and telling members to cut off ties with family and friends who won't get with the plan is SOOOOO Christian.. not to mention the billions they've made scamming people.. yeah.. great people
Yeah, but they are conservative and republican so that's ok.
Anyone that has anything to do with Amway should be shunned by all honest republicans. The founder of the company should be clearly and publicly rebuked, or possibly shot. He is the architect of one of the largest scams in American history, and a total disgrace. If you ever want to find some interesting reading about shattered lives, Google “amway + scam”.
Hmmm...somebody has a little hate. Try getting informed instead of spitting out nasty little bits like this. Amway was created as a system for people to own their own business and sell products. If you understood how it actually worked you would know that Amway/Alticor doesn't control everything its distributors do, and that a small number of them (particularly in the US) have abused the system by creating their own cults of personality and hype. Using a statement like "one of the largest scams in American history" is not helpful at all, and is in fact a complete lie.
This is mainly aimed at Minn, joesbucks & Awestruck:
The Amway Corporation itself is NOT a scam. Just like other Corporations and many small businesses, they make fantastic products and employ thousands of people in the manufacture of those products all over the world.
The part of the business that you are apparently referring to is the Independent Distribution System which consists of Individuals who are NOT employees of Amway, and are free, within reason, to run their busnesses as they see fit with no interference from Amway except to enforce the Rules of Conduct set down by the Corporation and the Distributors' Board. While there have been some people who have run their businesses in a less than ethical manner, what's different in that as opposed to an employee of, let's say General Motors or Ford committing a crime while in the employ of those companies? Does that make GM or Ford a scam? I submit an answer of NO. When I worked for Ford, a guy was arrested for killing someone. Was Ford a killer?..NO, the guy was. Is Amway a SCAM because a few distributors out of the millions of distributors all over the world scams someone? Huh? I can't hear you...The answer, just like the Ford and GM answer, is NO. For some reason people who have had what they see as a bad experience with a single Amway distributor tends to label the whole Corporation as whatever they say that distributor is. Why don't you do that to Ford or GM? If there is a real SCAM going on in any business, it's when a company tells you that if you come to work for us, and work for us all your life, we'll take care of you in your retirement years. Or the Government starting a so called "Social Security" program and saying you'll be taken care of in you Old Age. A lot of companies don't even treat their employess right while they work for them, let alone their golden years! How many companies are now reneging on their Retirement Plans? Will Social Security be there when you retire? Will you be able to Live on it? Will your Company honor it's commitment to you when you get older and grayer?
I have been a Freeper now since almost the beginning in 1996. There are some Freepers who say things that are off-color and that they definitely shouldn't say. Is Free Republic a bad site because of those few egg-heads? I'll leave you to answer that one. I've made it too easy for you in this post so far. Time to work for yourself.
Flame Away!!!
Isn't Sugar Mama TeRAYza Heinz Kerry's foundation set up the same way?
I don't know enough about Amway, but what you wrote is true about any company. I hope we never hire someone who robs, steals, or kills, but if it does happen, I would hope we were not blamed for what someone else did. Works for me!!
But more accurately the DeVos and Van Andels were in cahoots with the big names in the distributorship and lots of those millions they donated came from ripping off people lower in the downline of Amway organizations. They made a lot of people pay a lot of money using a wide variety of tactics buy their "tools" and attend very expensive seminars. But it is nice that at least they donated it to a charity I guess?
Not at all. I’ve never been personally touched by Amway or any of the other bogus pyramid schemes like Shaklee, Nuskin or that stupid $35 juice that Andy Willoughby deceptively hawks with his wonderful 3 Step Plan. I just find the topic of MLM very interesting and have researched it extensively.
I just got curious one day when a relative in-law called with a sales pitch about some cream that prevents cancer. This man, that I had previously like and respected, acted like a complete jerk when I began to ask him how he knew that anti-cancer cream really worked. Maybe he wouldn’t have gotten cancer without it. After finally getting rid of him, I asked myself: “How could otherwise smart people be so stupid”? I decided to do research. I’ve reached the same conclusion that anybody with half a brain reaches after reviewing the facts.
Amway’s MLM business model is a pyramid scheme plain and simple. It should be illegal for the same reason chain letters are illegal. The soap is simple a cover for the endless recruitment of suckers at the bottom of the pyramid. The vast majority of the soap purchased and consumed goes to hapless “business owners” (ha ha) that are pressured to rid their homes of “negative products” from Target that are far cheaper, and usually better. 99.9 percent of all the saps sucked into it walk away poorer, friendless, and with a basement full of soap and $6 cassette tapes. The other .1 percent are shysters and jerks preying on the gullibility of the rest.
Try getting informed instead of spitting out nasty little bits like this.
I’ve spend hours and hours getting informed, thank you.
Amway was created as a system for people to own their own business and sell products.
No, it was created to separate suckers from their money through high pressure sales of moronic motivational materials and tickets to creepy rallies where hapless recruits are stripped of their skepticism, then taught to deceive themselves while deceiving others.
If you understood how it actually worked you would know that Amway/Alticor doesn't control everything its distributors do, and that a small number of them (particularly in the US) have abused the system by creating their own cults of personality and hype.
Amway is a partner in crime with the Yeagers and Britts of the world. The corporation is more than happy to sit idly by while massive fraud and cult practices are perpetrated in their name. They are completely unconcerned that nobody, absolutely nobody, ever succeeds at getting rich selling the soap or pushing “The System” on their friends. The only ones that ever make real money are the ones that get a cut of the tools income.
Using a statement like "one of the largest scams in American history" is not helpful at all, and is in fact a complete lie.
Actually it’s completely factual. Name one scam that has bankrupted more people, alienated more people from their friends and family, or broken up more marriages. You can’t. I know, I know. I’m a “Dream Stealer”. And if you believe in Amway, you’re a dupe. Always remember: “Fake It Till You Make It”.
Amway and it's sucessor companies have never dealt honestly with the upline distributor abuses with regard to books and tapes or other abuses. Their code of ethics say A but their actions have always been B.
Also, just Ford employed a murder, has no correlation with the way Amway and it's upline distributors act with the public. Amway and it's sucessor companies again have a code of ethics to be a distributor. There is in general no code of ethics to work at Ford.
In addition, you'll never see the murdered honored at Ford functions after the fact, yet Amway will continue to honor the slimey as well as the legitimate upline distributors for their contributions to the company.
In addition Amway has an honesty policty in in it's code of ethics. When I've been approached and shown the "plan", I'm always told how easy it is to build a business, a downline and the few hours a week to build a legitimate home based business. Hardly. In the old days, the plan presentation showed BV and PV values as being equal. There was a vast difference between them and especially for the catalog items. That's honest? Anyone police this or lose a distributorship over it?
A no question return policy? Hardly.
Amway talks about honesty and family values. I've only touched the tip of the iceburg with examples of how they are far from that. A family building structure? Ask the Victors. What of the various ethical problems of Dexter Yeager or Don Held? All held up as glowing examples of the family values of Amway.
Only it’s entire distribution network and business model is.
While there have been some people who have run their businesses in a less than ethical manner, what's different in that as opposed to an employee of, let's say General Motors or Ford committing a crime while in the employ of those companies?
GM and Ford don’t depend on massive numbers of employees, repeatedly engaging in unethical dishonest behavior to sell their cars. Amway’s profitability and survival depends on fraud committed by its distributors. It has full knowledge of this activity and either condones it, or lacks the will to do anything about it.
When I worked for Ford, a guy was arrested for killing someone. Was Ford a killer?..NO, the guy was.
Ridiculous. Ford’s survival isn’t dependent on its employees killing anybody. It doesn’t profit from it. Amway’s survival depends on distrubutors bilking other distributors.
Is Amway a SCAM because a few distributors out of the millions of distributors all over the world scams someone? Huh? I can't hear you...
This is a written medium. You’ll never hear anything. It isn’t a few. Anybody actively recruiting others to join this scheme is perpetrating fraud. They may themselves be deceived, but that doesn’t lessen the damage done to their victims.
The answer, just like the Ford and GM answer, is NO.
The answer is unequivocally YES! Ford and GM sell their product via a legitimate distribution network of dealers. Amway sells their product through pyramid scheme that is destined to fail for nearly everybody that tries it.
For some reason people who have had what they see as a bad experience with a single Amway distributor tends to label the whole Corporation as whatever they say that distributor is.
Why don't you do that to Ford or GM?
Once again, for those of you that have trouble with simple concepts: Ford and GM are legitimate business with perfectly legitimate and workable distribution networks that tend to be profitable for those involved in distribution and satisfactory to the end user. The end user is not the distributor, and will never be asked to become one. Amway on the other hand, is an illegitimate business operating a distribution system that is clearly a pyramid scheme. If the FTC was properly interpreting current law Amway would be shut down, or forced to completely reorganize.
If there is a real SCAM going on in any business, it's when a company tells you that if you come to work for us, and work for us all your life, we'll take care of you in your retirement years.
I’ve never heard that line. What company are your referring to? Companies I’ve worked for say: “You come to work every day and we give you X dollars for your effort. When the arrangement doesn’t work anymore we’re both free to walk away from it at any time”. They don’t ask me to pay them for the privilege. They don’t tell me what to buy with the money they pay me. They don’t encourage me to hang around malls looking for marks. They don’t make me a big liar and phony.
Or the Government starting a so called "Social Security" program and saying you'll be taken care of in you Old Age. A lot of companies don't even treat their employees right while they work for them, let alone their golden years! How many companies are now reneging on their Retirement Plans? Will Social Security be there when you retire? Will you be able to Live on it? Will your Company honor it's commitment to you when you get older and grayer?
I assume there’s a point related to Amway in there somewhere, but damned if I can see it. All I know is that anybody making minimum wage at one of these evil employers is doing a hell of a lot better than almost anybody working “The System”. And he has his evenings and weekends free.
I have been a Freeper now since almost the beginning in 1996. There are some Freepers who say things that are off-color and that they definitely shouldn't say. Is Free Republic a bad site because of those few egg-heads?
No, because FR is basically a good thing, while Amway is basically a fraudulent pyramid scheme. See the difference?
Time to work for yourself.
That’s what happens when you get a marketable skill, sell your labor at a good rate, then save and invest the proceeds. It also happens when you have a legitimate business of your own. With Amway you don’t work for yourself, you work day and night for months and years on end, for nothing.
just keep drinking the kool-aid....
How about the ford family and the ford (left wingnut) foundation?
The Rockefeller foundation?
does the kendy family trust funds count as charities?
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