DeVos is a heart transplant recipient, the owner of pro basketball's Orlando Magic and formerly the Orlando Miracle, and recently donated $20 million to help build the DeVos Place Convention Center in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He is a past president of the Council for National Policy, and was also the 23rd largest individual donor to 527 groups during the 2004 US election. He donated $2 million dollars to the Progress for America fund 1. DeVos, Sr. also sits on the board of trustees of Northwood University. He donated the funds for Northwood's MBA graduate school, which carries his name (Richard DeVos Graduate School of Management) and was honored by the university, in 1983, as an Outstanding Business Leader.

Rich DeVos was president of Amway when it was fined the largest sum a Canadian court ever levied in a criminal case. During the 70s, Amway was charged with defrauding the Canadian government of millions in tax revenues under an elaborate scheme. Amway attributed the issue to their unconventional business model, but nevertheless admitted guilty corporate criminal fraud, as part of deal that saved DeVos and his partner Jay Van Andel from imprisonment.

His son Dick DeVos is currently seeking the Republican Party nomination for the 2006 Michigan gubernatorial race. One of his sons-in-law, Bob Vander Weide, was expected to take ownership of the Orlando Magic by the end of 2005.