Hope Florida Foundation releases records; program executive director resigns

The nonprofit group associated with Hope Florida, which has been at the center of a probe by the Florida House that has drawn the wrath of Gov. Ron DeSantis, finally released details of some of its operations on Wednesday, a day before the Hope Florida Foundation is scheduled to hold a public meeting.

The foundation records were posted online the same day that news emerged that Erik Dellenback, who has been executive director of Hope Florida since January, is stepping down from his post in the governor’s office. He also resigned as chair of the Florida Faith and Community Advisory Council.  He did not mention his pending resignation from Hope Florida when he testified in a House hearing this week.

Hope Florida is an initiative launched by First Lady Casey DeSantis to help steer people off public assistance programs. The foundation’s finances have come under scrutiny by the Florida House. Gov. DeSantis has criticized the probe as a “hoax” even as some House Republicans have questioned the legality of some transactions involving the Hope Florida Foundation, the program’s direct-support organization.

News of Dellenbeck’s resignation, first reported by Florida Politics, came as the Hope Florida Foundation made available its IRS form 990 for Aug. 25, 2023, through June 30, 2024, listing nine entities that made contributions.

Hope Florida Foundation president Joshua Hay acknowledged this week that work on these tax documents did not begin until just a few weeks ago.

Ron DeSantis’ motto?

House Speaker Daniel Perez told reporters Wednesday that the chamber’s probe into Hope Florida wouldn’t end when the legislative session is scheduled to wrap up on May 2.

“It is very clear by what has been put out there that Hope Florida could have been run better. That maybe transparency would be a benefit for Hope Florida. [The governor] refuses to acknowledge that; at least the chair of Hope Florida had the courage to do so,” Perez said. “Why is it that everyone around him has to abide by a certain set of rules?

“Rules for thee but not for me. That seems to be the motto of Ron DeSantis today.”

The board of directors will meet virtually Thursday to discuss the documents, which include bylaws and other material routinely associated with not-for-profit organizations. The board is also slated to discuss the state of the organization, its corporate governance, finances, public records, and public meeting laws, all to ensure it is furthering its mission and the Department of Children and Families’ priorities. That’s one of several agencies through which Hope Florida operates.

IRS Form 990 is the federal government’s tool for gathering information about tax-exempt organizations and is required to be submitted annually.

Medicaid managed care connection

The IRS Form 990 shows that the foundation had $809,293 cash on hand at the end of the reporting period.

The document doesn’t list the dates the contributions were made, only the time frame in which they were made.

Two state-contracted Medicaid managed care plans that were vying for lucrative new contracts made contributions to the Hope Florida Foundation. The contracts are the largest of their kind for the state and, according to the House of Representatives, the managed care plans will be paid $143 billion over the next six years to provide health care to the state’s poor, elderly, and disabled who rely on Medicaid for their health care.

The tax form shows that the Hope Florida Foundation received contributions from Simply Healthcare Plans and Centene, which contributed $98,408 and $95,223, respectively.

The state Agency for Health Care Administration announced plans to award new contracts in April and a second round of announcements in July. The decisions expanded statewide Simply Healthcare’s footprint in the Medicaid managed care marketplace. The new contracts have a requirement for the plans to work with Hope Florida and to report information about their members to Hope Florida. 

Meanwhile, the St. Joe Community Foundation made the largest contribution, according to the tax form: $200,000. The second largest contribution ($123,408) came from Tampa Electric Co.

Tidal Basin Government Consulting contributed $48,408; The Steven and Natalle Herring Family Foundation contributed $100,000; Lennar Foundation Inc. contributed $46,815; Gray Robinson contributed $23,408; and Baldwin Risk Partners contributed $25,000.

Second Centene payment

That was the first of at least two contributions health care giant Centene made to the foundation. In September 2024, Centene made a one-time $10 million “donation” to the Hope Florida Foundation, first disclosed by former Department of Children and Families Secretary Shevaun Harris during a House Health Care Budget Subcommittee meeting earlier this month.

The $10 million was part of a larger settlement the Medicaid managed care plan signed with the state to resolve overpayments for pharmacy benefits and services.

The foundation channeled the $10 million to two groups that turned around and contributed to another group battling last year’s initiative on recreational marijuana. The DeSantis administration organized opposition to that and the abortion-rights amendment using state resources. Both proposals were broadly popular but fell narrowly short of the required 60% approval rate.

DeSantis’ anti-pot committee, Keep Florida Clean, was run by James Uthmeier, then DeSantis’ chief of staff, whom the governor subsequently appointed as state attorney general following Ashley Moody’s departure for the U.S. Senate.

Dellenback’s connection to faith office, anti-abortion campaign

‘I represent government,’ DeSantis appointee says during event against abortion amendment

Scrutiny over Hope Florida also surfaced in the Senate the day before Dellenback’s resignation became public. Senators expressed doubts Tuesday about advancing a proposal, SB 820, formalizing in statute the Office of Faith and Community, which Dellenback also led.

Both Democrats and Republicans raised concerns about the connection between Hope Florida and the Governor’s Faith and Community Initiative through Dellenback’s leadership.

Senate Democratic Leader Jason Pizzo pointed out Dellenback’s involvement in both programs during the Tuesday meeting of the Senate Appropriations Committee on Agriculture, Environment, and General Government.

“I don’t dislike it enough to vote no on it, but I am very concerned. I think we need to think carefully now that more information has come forward in this own committee meeting,” Winter Haven Republican Sen. Colleen Burton said. “I think we need to be very, very careful that if we do enshrine this in statute, that this office stands on its own two feet, that it’s not associated with other organizations.”

The House companion to that bill, HB 293, is scheduled for its final committee hearing on Thursday. 

Before the election, Dellenback joined Florida Family Voice’s tour throughout the state advocating against the passage of the ballot initiative to protect abortion access in the state constitution. 

During the Tallahassee stop of the anti-abortion tour, Dellenback thanked the people on behalf of the governor and first lady.

“Tonight, I represent government, but I have spent way more time as a faith person than I have as a government person. And this was a biblical issue before it was a political issue,” Dellenback told the crowd of nearly 100 people at Four Oaks Community Church in Killearn, a capital city suburb.

This story has been updated to reflect that Dellenback resigned as chair of the Florida Faith and Community Advisory Council.