The Kevin Zeese Emerging Activists Fund is a radical-left micro-grant initiative that provides small annual grants to individual activists and small organizations aligned with radical-left advocacy on war, economic, racial, and environmental issues, as well as election and anti-corporate campaigns. The fund is named for Kevin Zeese, a Washington, D.C.-based radical-left activist most notable for occupying the Venezuelan embassy building in protest of the recognition of opposition figure Juan Guaido, rather than socialist strongman Nicolas Maduro, as the legitimate ruler of the country by the first Trump administration. ¹

The fund is housed within Popular Resistance, a far-left Green Party-connected group founded by Zeese and other activists that organized several Occupy D.C. protests during the 2011 Occupy Wall Street movement. Both Popular Resistance and the Kevin Zeese Emerging Activists Fund are fiscally sponsored by the Alliance for Global Justice, a radical-left nonprofit organization with a history of supporting socialist and Marxist-aligned movements in Latin America and beyond. ^{2 3}

Background and History

The Kevin Zeese Emerging Activists Fund was launched in 2020 after the sudden death of Kevin Zeese, a lawyer and organizer known for work on marijuana legalization, the Occupy DC encampment, opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and high-profile embassy protests. At the time of his death, Zeese was best known for being among dozens of activists who occupied the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington, D.C. in 2019 to protest the “Trump administration’s recognition of opposition leader Juan Guaidó as the interim president of Venezuela, instead of Nicolás Maduro, the left-wing authoritarian head of state whose reelection victory in the 2018 presidential election faced international scrutiny for voting irregularities.” In addition to Popular Resistance and the Alliance for Global Justice, Zeese was affiliated with groups including the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, Common Sense for Drug Policy, the Drug Policy Foundation (now the Drug Policy Alliance), and the Harm Reduction Coalition. He also worked for Ralph Nader’s 2004 presidential campaign and ran for U.S. Senate in Maryland in 2006 as a Green Party candidate. ¹

Popular Resistance, which Zeese directed along with his partner Margaret Flowers, created the Kevin Zeese Emerging Activists Fund to continue Zeese’s work promoting and funding frontline far-left activism, with annual grants beginning in 2021. The fund awards one or more small grants per year to early-career activists or small organizations that work on left-wing economic justice, racial justice, environmental justice, or military-related issues. The 2021 grantees included Ruth Rollins, Trinice McNally, and DonChristian Jones, and the fund has periodically opened applications and publicized calls for submissions. ⁴

Alliance for Global Justice (AfGJ)

The Kevin Zeese Emerging Activists Fund and Popular Resistance operate under the umbrella of the Alliance for Global Justice (AfGJ), a controversial fiscal sponsor that supports numerous radical-left causes and activist groups. AfGJ has sponsored groups with alleged ties to foreign militant organizations and far-left movements across Latin America and the Middle East. In January 2023, the Washington Examiner reported that the Ford Foundation ceased all grantmaking to AfGJ after “years of warnings” about the organization’s ties to a Palestinian group with terrorist designations under U.S. law. ^{2 3}

The Justice for All Coalition is not an independent nonprofit and operates under AfGJ’s legal and tax status, it does not file independent tax returns with the IRS, publish audited financial statements, or disclose its internal governance. The group’s revenue sources, expenditures, and budget scale remain unclear. ^{2 5}

1. Estrada, Louie. “Kevin Zeese, activist for liberal causes and organizer of high-profile protests, dies at 64.” The Washington Post. September 23, 2020. Accessed October 20, 2025. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/kevin-zeese-activist-for-liberal-causes-and-organizer-of-high-profile-protests-dies-at-64/2020/09/23/aca7a2be-fd9c-11ea-b555-4d71a9254f4b_story.html
2. Kaminsky, Gabe. “Liberal Ford Foundation to Stop Funding Palestinian Terror-Tied Group after Years of Warnings.” Washington Examiner. June 18, 2024. Accessed July 5, 2025. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/2579782/liberal-ford-foundation-to-stop-funding-palestinian-terror-tied-group-years-of-warnings/
3. “Fiscally Sponsored Projects.” Alliance for Global Justice. Accessed June 30, 2025. Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20230206002753/https://afgj.org/sponsored-projects/fiscally-sponsored-projects/fiscally-sponsored-projects
4. “Kevin Zeese Emerging Activists Fund.” Popular Resistance. Accessed October 20, 2025. https://popularresistance.org/kevin-zeese/
5. “Make a Donation!” Alliance for Global Justice. Accessed July 5, 2025. https://afgj.salsalabs.org/AdAstra/index.html