{"id":327254,"date":"2025-10-23T19:49:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T19:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/327254\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T19:49:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T19:49:09","slug":"jacksonville-nonprofit-ceo-fired-following-public-criticism-of-role-in-private-consulting-company","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/327254\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacksonville nonprofit CEO fired following public criticism of role in private consulting company"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. <\/strong> \u2013 The chief executive officer of a local nonprofit that says it is dedicated to investing millions annually in Duval County\u2019s youth programs and services was fired on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Saralyn Grass, the now-former CEO of Kids Hope Alliance,<\/a> faced public critique for her role in a private consulting company that touted its grant writing services as well as subject matter expertise about education, schools, and child abuse.<\/p>\n

RELATED: <\/b>Well-known local activist reassigned from position at Douglas Anderson following controversial social media posts<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Kids Hope Alliance Chief Administrative Officer Kenneth Darity will lead the organization on an interim basis.<\/p>\n

The Kids Hope Alliance board referred questions about Grass\u2019s employment status to Mayor Donna Deegan\u2019s office. <\/p>\n

A statement from Deegan\u2019s office said the board would work with the city\u2019s Employee Services Department to select a permanent leader for the alliance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m truly grateful for Dr. Grass\u2019s many years of service to Jacksonville and her commitment to children and families. Our administration will continue supporting the city\u2019s vital nonprofit partners and working with the KHA board to ensure Jacksonville remains a community where our young people and families can thrive,\u201d Deegan\u2019s statement read, in part. <\/p>\n

Earlier this fall, an Office of Inspector General\u2019s report also found that Kids Hope Alliance did not press all of the nonprofits it funds for insurance and liability information.<\/p>\n

Additionally, earlier this year, Grass spoke with Jacksonville Today<\/a> about a grant<\/a> that Kids Hope Alliance won from the U.S. Department of the Treasury. <\/p>\n

At that time, Grass praised the public investment in children.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the past five years, we\u2019ve grown more than we ever have, serving more kids than we ever have,\u201d Grass told Jacksonville Today<\/a> in February. \u201cI think it really just shows that Jacksonville, the mayor, City Council, all elected officials truly do prioritize kids and see the importance of it \u2014 and an economic driver as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Less than three months after that conversation, Grass and her husband, Gabe, created Verdant Synergies. According to the Florida Division of Corporations records, Verdant was created on May 3.<\/p>\n

Saralyn Grass is listed as its current president. Gabe Grass is listed as a manager for the company.<\/p>\n

Though Verdant stated on its website that it does not conduct business with organizations that had business with the city of Jacksonville, Gabe Grass\u2019 biography with the Grant Professionals Association listed \u201cK-12 Education\u201d \u201cMunicipal\/Local Grants\u201d \u201cNonprofit Organizations\u201d and \u201cEarly Childhood Education\u201d as directory categories where he specializes.<\/p>\n

The administration of former Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry created the Kids Hope Alliance<\/a> in 2017. It combined the Jacksonville Children\u2019s Commission and the Jacksonville Journey into one child services organization. <\/p>\n

Since the alliance\u2019s creation, Grass was the fourth person to serve as CEO in either a full-time or interim capacity, after Mike Weinstein, Joe Peppers and Donald Horner III.<\/p>\n

Grass was named the Kids Hope Alliance CEO in 2023. She previously served as the organization\u2019s chief programs officer before accepting the top position.<\/p>\n

In the 2025-26 fiscal year, which began Oct. 1, the Jacksonville City Council approved $52.4 million to disburse to child services organizations.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 The chief executive officer of a local nonprofit that says it is dedicated to investing…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":327255,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,8314,3188,723,7310,146972,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-327254","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-duval-county","10":"tag-fl","11":"tag-florida","12":"tag-jacksonville","13":"tag-kids-hope-alliance","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-united-states-of-america","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327254\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}