Tag: Hope Florida Foundation

TALLAHASSEE

Three board members have left the Hope Florida Foundation, including the president and public face of the charity, amid questions over its transfer of $10 million from a Medicaid settlement for Gov. Ron DeSantis’ political purposes last year.

The Department of Children and Families chose not to reappoint board president Joshua Hay, the president of a technology company that contracts with the state.

The department also didn’t reappoint board members Stephanie White, a Pensacola adoption attorney, and Tina Vidal-Duart, executive vice president of major state contractor CDR Maguire.

Both had asked for more information on the legality of the $10 million transfer during an April board meeting.

The announcement, made during the organization’s board meeting Monday, came as a surprise to observers and wasn’t mentioned in its agenda. But the foundation’s lawyer, Jeff Aaron, said the board members were originally appointed to serve two-year terms, which recently expired.

“Three of the board members had completed their full two-year term, and they rolled off the board onto other things,” Aaron said.

“They all completed their term, and obviously grateful for their service,” he added.

Hay did not respond to a request for comment from the Herald/Times. White declined to comment.

“My term expired beginning of September,” Vidal-Duart said in a text message.

The Department of Children and Families, which oversees the state-created charity, did not say why the three weren’t reappointed. The organization’s bylaws state board members “may be appointed to successive terms without limit.”

“As is common among non-profit boards, Mr. Hay, Ms. Vidal-Duart and Ms. White left their appointments following their respective two-year terms, and the Department remains grateful for their service to support the mission of the Foundation and the Department,” department spokesperson Morgan Jones said in a statement.

The department chose three replacements:

• Bradford Smithy, a partner at Minneapolis-based wealth management firm Elevation Point

• Elizabeth Butler, who told the board her background was in “engineering and management consulting”

• Yaffa Popack, a DeSantis fundraiser and Miami Beach real estate investor whom he appointed to the Florida International University board of trustees in 2023.

“Hope Florida is an amazing, amazing foundation,” Popack told board members Monday.

Smithy did not attend Monday’s meeting.

The foundation was created by the Legislature in 2023 to help the Department of Children and Families carry out its mission for Hope Florida, a state program championed by first lady Casey DeSantis and intended to steer Floridians off of government assistance and toward aid provided by charities and nonprofits.

The Hope Florida Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, is supposed to take in donations and distribute the money to churches and nonprofits that help people.

It fell under scrutiny this year when the Herald/Times began questioning why it held a secret board meeting last year in which it accepted $10 million from a state legal settlement with the Medicaid contractor Centene.

The foundation quickly gave $5 million each to two organizations, one of which was controlled by the Florida Chamber of Commerce.

The two organizations then gave nearly all of the money to a political committee controlled by DeSantis’ chief of staff that was dedicated to defeating last year’s recreational marijuana ballot initiative. DeSantis later appointed his chief of staff, James Uthmeier, as Florida’s attorney general.

Four former federal prosecutors told the Herald/Times that the use of money from a Medicaid settlement for political purposes could amount to a theft of government funds or other potential crimes. The state attorney in Leon County has an open criminal investigation relating to it.

DeSantis has said the state did nothing wrong.

The $10 million transfer could jeopardize the foundation’s nonprofit status because it could be construed as lobbying under IRS regulations. The foundation’s board has never directly addressed the issue.

Amid the scrutiny over the transfer, the charity was found to have been operating without a budget or approved bylaws in violation of state law, had not filed its taxes and wasn’t holding public meetings or keeping minutes of those meetings.

“Mistakes were made,” Hay told a House committee in April.

On Monday, the board approved the first budget and grant policy in its history, requiring grants of more than $50,000 be approved by a majority of the board. Hay approved one of the $5 million grants on his own.

The budget includes approval to hire a new executive director at up to $175,000 per year and to spend up to $120,000 for a general counsel. Aaron, the current general counsel, told the Herald/Times that his contract is capped at $60,000 and that the additional $60,000 would be for any additional legal work.

It projects to raise $700,000 in donations and give away $250,000 in grants.

The organization’s new president, Bob Schafer, said it was a “conservative” budget that will help the organization move forward.

“This is by no means carved in stone,” Schafer said. Schafer’s background has not been released or mentioned by the organization.

State Rep. Alex Andrade, a Pensacola Republican who has led the House’s probe into the $10 million transfer, watched Monday’s meeting.

“It was bizarre to see board members replaced without notice and for this brand new board to immediately approve a budget that anticipates spending far more on overhead than on issuing grants,” Andrade said.

Herald/Times staff writer Alexandra Glorioso contributed to this report.

This story was originally published September 29, 2025 at 7:23 PM.