The Everglades Foundation is an environmental advocacy group focused on supporting Everglades National Park in southern Florida. The organization engages in research, public education, and conservation efforts.

The Everglades Foundation was co-founded by billionaire financier Paul Tudor Jones. Both the foundation and Jones have been criticized for associations with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), who in 2022 opposed a major development bill that threatened Everglades conservation efforts.

Senate Bill 2508

In 2022, Captains for Clean Water (CCW), an environmentalist nonprofit, worked with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) to oppose Senate Bill 2508, a bill that would have altered many existing state commitments that critics claimed would jeopardize the preservation of the Everglades, including removing mandatory spending on the Everglades and extending water access for commercial purposes. CCW members wrote 156,000 emails and made 1,500 phone calls to legislators, and attended a press conference with Governor DeSantis. ^{1 2} The Governor vetoed the bill in June 2022. ³

According to the state political news site Florida Politics, CCW had links to the Everglades Foundation. From 2016 to 2020, CCW received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Everglades Foundation, ^{4 5 6 7 8} and members of CCW regularly attended Everglades Foundation meetings and events. ⁹

In 2022, a lawsuit was settled between the Everglades Foundation and former employee Thomas van Lent, who was accused of stealing or destroying documents containing trade secrets—including business activities, donor lists, and research—that were allegedly taken from the organization after he quit earlier in the year. Van Lent worked at the Everglades Foundation for almost 18 years, ending as director of science and policy. ¹⁰ He claimed that he left the Everglades Foundation because it had “lost its way” and sworn “fealty” to Governor DeSantis. ¹¹

Disputes with Sugar Producers

The Everglades Foundation has been in a longstanding conflict with Florida sugar producers over access to land and water in southern Florida. The conflict likely originates with the 1996 Save Our Everglades campaign that advocated for implementing a tax of one cent per pound of sugar produced in Florida to contribute to conservation efforts. The campaign was almost entirely financed by Everglades Foundation co-founder Paul Tudor Jones. Sugar-industry representatives claimed Jones had violated campaign-finance laws with his expenditures and was attempting to disrupt the sugar market to profit off trading on commodity price volatility. ¹²

In 2017, a consortium of sugarcane farmers accused the Everglades Foundation of commissioning a report with artificially deflated property values of coastal areas of Fort Myers and Stuart, Florida, to make an alleged connection between agriculture run-off and falling property values. The sugar growers claimed that property values increased substantially despite problems caused by unusually high rainfall. ¹³

Leadership

Paul Tudor Jones

The Everglades Foundation was co-founded by billionaire investor and philanthropist Paul Tudor Jones, who made his fortune with the Tudor Investment Corporation during the 1988 market crash and later the popping of the Japanese stock-market bubble. In 1988, Jones co-founded the Robin Hood Foundation, a charity focused on combatting poverty in New York City. ¹⁴ He also co-founded the Excellence Boys Charter School, the first all-boys charter school in the United States. ¹⁵

Jones has traditionally supported Republican and Democratic candidates. He called President Donald Trump “the greatest salesman in the history of this country,” but also praised Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s (D-South Bend)’s presidential campaign. ^{16 17} He previously financially supported then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), future Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), and former Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R-New York City) in their presidential campaigns. ^{18 19 20}

Jones was a friend of film producer Harvey Weinstein and sat on the board of the Weinstein Company. In 2017, Weinstein was accused by more than 100 women of sexual harassment and assault. In December 2017, it was revealed that Jones had written an email to Weinstein a few months earlier expressing support and the belief that “this will go away sooner than you think and it will be forgotten.” After the revelation, Jones publicly denounced Weinstein. ²¹ In response to the revelation, Women United Now launched a petition demanding that the Everglades Foundation remove him from its board. ²²

Erik Eikenberg

Since 2012, Erik Eikenberg has been the chief executive officer of the Everglades Foundation. Eikenberg was previously chief of staff to then-Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and U.S. Rep. Clay Shaw (R-FL). ²³

Lobbying

According to OpenSecrets, in 2021, the Everglades Foundation spent $120,000 on lobbying. The following year, the organization spent $60,000. ²⁴

1. McCarthy, Jim. “DeSantis Vetoes Controversial Water Supply Bill.” Keys Weekly. June 8, 2022. Accessed October 27, 2022. https://keysweekly.com/42/desantis-vetoes-controversial-lake-o-water-supply-bill/.
2. “Gov. DeSantis vetoes Senate Bill 2508, every voice matters.” Captains for Clean Water. June 10, 2022. Accessed September 27, 2022. https://captainsforcleanwater.org/senate-bill-2508-veto/.
3. “Gov. DeSantis vetoes Senate Bill 2508, every voice matters.” Captains for Clean Water. June 10, 2022. Accessed September 27, 2022. https://captainsforcleanwater.org/senate-bill-2508-veto/.
4. “The Everglades Foundation Inc 990.” ProPublica. Accessed October 27, 2022. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/593228899/201742279349300034/full.
5. “The Everglades Foundation Inc 990.” ProPublica. Accessed October 27, 2022. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/593228899/201842019349300829/full.
6. “The Everglades Foundation Inc 990.” ProPublica. Accessed October 27, 2022. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/593228899/201903059349300415/full.
7. “The Everglades Foundation Inc 990.” ProPublica. Accessed October 27, 2022. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_990/593228899/download990pdf_12_2021_prefixes_59-81%2F593228899_201906_990_2021122819361059.
8. “The Everglades Foundation Inc 990.” ProPublica. Accessed October 27, 2022. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/593228899/202111329349303016/full.
9. Schorsch, Peter. “Questions raised surrounding Captains for Clean Water’s finances, leadership and ties to Everglades lobbying group.” Florida Politics. February 10, 2022. Accessed September 27, 2022. https://floridapolitics.com/archives/495490-questions-raised-surrounding-captains-for-clean-waters-finances-leadership-and-ties-to-everglades-lobby-group/.
10. “Thomas Van Lent.” LinkedIn. Accessed September 27, 2022. https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-van-lent-3ba9b843/.
11. Christensen, Dan. “Everglades Foundation settles suit against scientist who said group has ‘lost its way,’ shown ‘fealty’ to DeSantis, Republicans.” Florida Bulldog. August 5, 2021. Updated September 1, 2021. Accessed September 27, 2022. https://www.floridabulldog.org/2022/09/ex-everglades-foundation-scientist-says-group-lost-way-fealty-desantis-republicans/#:~:text=UPDATE%3A%20Sept%201%20%E2%80%93%20The%20Everglades,to%20court%20documents%20filed%20Thursday
12. “Everglades benefactor defends role.” Tampa Bay Times. September 23, 1996. Updated September 16, 2005. Accessed September 28, 2022. https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1996/09/23/everglades-benefactor-defends-role/.
13. Lucas, John. “Sugarcane Growers Accuse Everglades Foundation of “Cooking the Books”.” The Capitolist. June 1, 2017. Accessed September 27, 2022. https://thecapitolist.com/sugarcane-growers-accuse-everglades-foundation-of-cooking-the-books/.
14. Burke, Monte. “Can Hedge Fund Billionaire Paul Tudor Jones Save America’s Public Education System.” Forbes. November 17, 2013. Accessed September 27, 2022. https://www.forbes.com/sites/monteburke/2013/11/17/can-hedge-fund-billionaire-paul-tudor-jones-save-americas-public-education-system/?sh=2a6fcb9d277a.
15. Wang, Jennifer. “How Hedge Fund Billionaire Paul Tudor Jones Learned To Overcome Failure in 6^th Grade.” Forbes. October 21, 2017. Accessed September 27, 2022. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenniferwang/2017/10/21/how-hedge-fund-billionaire-paul-tudor-jones-learned-to-overcome-failure-in-6th-grade/?sh=7cd017d36b2d.
16. David, Javier E. “Paul Tudor Jones: Trump is ‘the greatest salesman’ the US has ever seen.” Yahoo! November 6, 2019. Accessed October 27, 2022. https://www.yahoo.com/now/paul-tudor-jones-on-donald-trump-163333438.html.
17. Franck, Thomas. “Hedge fund titan Paul Tudor Jones is apparently a fan of presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg.” CNBC. October 24, 2019. Accessed September 27, 2022. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/23/billionaire-paul-tudor-jones-reportedly-likes-democrat-pete-buttigieg.html.
18. Hedge Fund Moguls Back Giuliani’s Presidential Fund.” Deal Book. February 1, 2007. Accessed September 27, 2022. https://archive.nytimes.com/dealbook.nytimes.com/2007/02/01/hedge-fund-moguls-back-giulianis-presidential-fund/.
19. “Individual contributors search: Paul Tudor Jones.” Federal Election Commission. Accessed September 27, 2022. https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/individual-contributions/?contributor_name=Paul+Tudor+Jones.
20. Schneider-Mayerson, Anna. “Big Rudy Guy and Allan Houston to Raise Money for Obama.” Observer. April 23, 2007. Accessed September 27, 2022. https://observer.com/2007/04/big-rudy-guy-and-allan-houston-to-raise-money-for-obama/.
21. Rapier, Graham. “Hedge fund titan Paul Tudor Jones once said the ‘good news’ is that everyone would eventually forget what Harvey Weinstein did.” Insider. December 7, 2017. Accessed September 27, 2022. https://www.businessinsider.com/paul-tudor-jones-says-its-good-news-everyone-will-forget-about-harvey-weinstein-2017-12.
22. “Remove Paul Tudor Jones from Everglades Foundation Board.” Action Network. Accessed September 27, 2022. https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/remove-paul-tudor-jones-from-everglades-foundation-board.
23. “Erik Eikenberg.” The Everglades Foundation. Accessed September 27, 2022. https://www.evergladesfoundation.org/staff/eric-eikenberg.
24. ^[1] “Everglades Foundation.” Open Secrets. Accessed September 27, 2022. https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/everglades-foundation/summary?id=D000061191.