Florida Conservation Voters

In 2015, the organization rebranded itself and became the Florida Conservation Voters. It expanded its agenda to include solar energy initiatives and a statewide fracking ban, and its 501(c)4 tax-exempt designation allowed it to advocate on behalf of candidates for local, state, and federal office.²

As of June 2026, FCV appeared to be shuttering. Attempting to access the website returned an error message; the website appeared to have been disabled in March 2025. The group’s financials on its most recent tax return from 2024, were low, with revenues of $44,119, expenses of $37,034, and net assets of $13,856, compared to its revenue of $559,746 and expenses of $805,910 in 2023. FCV was also not listed on League of Conservation Voters’ webpage of affiliated chapters. ^{3 4 5 6 7}

Background

Florida Conservation Voters was one of 29 state affiliates within the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) national political action network. The LCV almost exclusively supports members of the Democratic Party, spending more than $20 million nationwide in the 2016 election cycle to either support Democrats or attack Republicans, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. ⁸

LCV’s 2016 “Dirty Dozen” list of top candidates to unseat were all Republicans, including President Donald Trump, and its Florida scorecard diverges along party lines.⁹¹⁰ The Florida Conservation Voters claims to be nonpartisan and not interested in turning Florida into a “blue or red state,” but a “green” state.¹¹

Amendment 1

The Florida Water and Land Conservation Initiative, also known as Amendment 1, was a Florida constitutional ballot amendment that was approved by state voters on November 4, 2014. It was sponsored by Florida’s Water and Land Legacy, a political action committee that later became Florida Conservation Voters.¹² The measure enshrined a 33 percent revenue increase from the state’s excise tax on real estate and financial transaction documents to the state’s Land Acquisition Trust Fund. ¹³

The Land Acquisition Trust Fund was created by the Florida Legislature in 1963 to purchase public land for parks and recreational use.¹⁴ Amendment 1 backers raised $6.3 million and successfully expanded LATF funding to an estimated $20 billion over 20 years, while further providing a mandate requiring public management of purchased lands, including wetlands and forests.¹⁵

Then amendment’s appeal hinged significantly on the notion that it was not a tax increase. However, opponents claimed that increasing the Land Acquisition Trust Fund portion of the state’s existing document tax to 33 percent would require new sources of public revenue to pay for other items affected by the redirected funding. Critics also emphasized the amount of land the state already owned. The measure’s opponents included the Florida Chamber of Commerce, the Florida Farm Bureau, and the Coalition for Property Rights.¹⁶

In 2017, the Florida Conservation Voters assisted EarthJustice and the Florida Defenders of the Environment in suing the state government over accusations that the state was improperly spending Amendment 1 proceeds.¹⁷

In June 2018, a judge ruled in favor of the lawsuit that EarthJustice had filed in 2015 on behalf of the Florida Wildlife Federation, the St. Johns Riverkeeper, and the Environmental Confederation of Southwest Florida, arguing that hundreds of millions of state dollars were to be spent on issues related to Amendment 1. ¹⁸

Electoral Activism

After the successful passage of Amendment 1, Florida Conservation Voters kept electoral initiatives and Democratic Party-aligned voter mobilization efforts as a cornerstone of its activity in addition to its environmental work. As a state affiliate of the League of Conservation Voters, FCV sought to elect politicians with environmentalist agendas by pursuing various methods of voter outreach. It also endeavored to keep politicians accountable to their promises regarding the environment and non-traditional energy, as well as to criticize those in opposition to left-of-center positions on these matters. ¹⁹

FCV has claimed that “people of color and low-income communities” were allegedly “subject to increased barriers in the political process.” Additionally, it tied anti-democratic measures and alleged racism to anti-environmentalist policies, writing that “all people do not suffer equally” from environmental degradation and that “Air pollution, flooding, and sea-level rise are just a few of the environmental challenges that have disproportionate consequences for communities of color and low-income communities, which is why racial and economic justice are at the center of our work.” ²⁰

FCV advocated for “direct-democracy”; advocated for the successful Amendment 4 (also known as the Voting Rights Restoration for Felons Initiative) in 2018, which automatically grants former convicts the right to vote; and launched the Vote-By-Mail Florida initiative in the summer of 2020 to ensure that Floridians could vote remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic. ²⁰

FCV operated Democracy For All, a project dedicated to advocating for legislation that would lessen election security and voter integrity measures in the name of anti-racism and anti-ageism, that would implement automatic and same-day voter registration, and that would reduce barriers to early voting. Democracy For All also pursued left-of-center redistricting efforts, as well as voter registration and mobilization drives. These mobilization efforts targeted “historically marginalized communities” and were undertaken in collaboration with the League of Conservation Voters Education Fund (LCVEF). ^{21 22}

In August 2024, FCV shared an endorsement of presidential candidate then-Vice President Kamala Harris from the LCV, which highlighted her climate policy platform. ²³

Activities

The Florida Conservation Voters 2017 state legislative agenda largely focused on solar energy initiatives and a statewide ban on natural gas extraction by hydraulic fracturing. According to its annual Capitol Report, FCV and its allies influenced the passage of SB 90, a bill that implemented a solar energy equipment tax exemption. FCV referred to the legislation as a “significant policy shift.” ²⁴

FCV claims to have rallied thousands of citizens to pressure state lawmakers into co-sponsor a pair of bills that would have permanently abolished certain oil and natural gas extraction techniques throughout the state. Both bills ultimately failed, but FCV asserted it will continue its efforts in 2018, and until a statewide ban passes.²⁵

In May 2022, FCV was one of several organizations that opposed Florida Senate Bill 2508, previously passed by the state legislatures, claiming that the bill would allow “Big Sugar [in] getting the irrigation water it wants to siphon off Lake Okeechobee over the Everglades ecosystems’ health.” Other groups involved in the effort to oppose the bill included Captains for Clean Water, the Everglades Foundation and its leader Paul Tudor Jones, and by extension, Everglades Foundation backers Audubon Society and the Sierra Club. The bill would later be vetoed by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) in June of that year.  ^{26 27 28 29 30}

As of June 2026, FCV appeared to be shuttering. Attempting to access the website returned an error message; the website appeared to have been disabled in March 2025. The group’s financials on its most recent tax return from 2024, were low, with revenues of $44,119, expenses of $37,034, and net assets of $13,856 compared to its revenue of $559,746 and expenses of $805,910 in 2023. FCV was also not listed on League of Conservation Voters’ webpage of affiliated chapters. ^{3 4 5 6 7}

Leadership

From 2015 to 2024, Aliki Moncrief was the executive director of the Florida Conservation Voters. Moncrief is a Harvard Law School-trained environmental activist who says she “truly found” herself when she discovered Harvard’s Public Interest Office. Moncrief previously served as Deputy General Counsel for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s Enforcement Section. ^{31 32}

Moncrief departed her position as the executive director of FCV in January 2024. Beginning that month, she became a legal counsel at the Trust for Public Land. ³¹

Leadership

From 2015 to 2024, Aliki Moncrief was the executive director of the Florida Conservation Voters. Moncrief is a Harvard Law School-trained environmental activist who says she “truly found” herself when she discovered Harvard’s Public Interest Office. Moncrief previously served as Deputy General Counsel for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s Enforcement Section. ^{31 32}

Moncrief departed her position as the executive director of FCV in January 2024. Beginning that month, she became a legal counsel at the Trust for Public Land. ³¹

As of 2022, Lindsay Cross was the water and land policy director for Florida Conservations Voters. ³³ Cross is running for office in the 2022 midterms for the House District 60 seat within the Florida House of Representatives as a Democrat against Republican candidate Audrey Henson. ³⁴

As of 2024, FCV’s board was comprised of chair William W. Abberger, treasurer Pegeen Hanrahan, Rich Templin, Sean Shaw, and Richard Grosso. ³⁵