The Progress Unity Fund (PUF) is a radical-left fiscal sponsorship organization that supports the ANSWER Coalition, an anti-war and anti-Israel protest organization; Justice First, an advocacy organization with extensive connections to the Party for Socialism and Liberation, a socialist political party in San Francisco, California; and Women Organized to Resist and Defend, a pro-abortion feminist organization. ^{1 2}

PUF has also previously funded the Liberation Alliance for Economic and Social Change and the Liberation Fund LA. ³

Background

Progress Unity Fund is a radical-left fiscal sponsorship organization that was founded in San Francisco, California, in March 2001. PUF provides fiscal sponsorship to left-wing and radical-left anti-war organizations, hosts public educational forums and seminars on global conflicts and alternatives to war, conducts outreach on labor and immigrant issues, and collaborates with left-of-center activist groups. PUF also advocates against what it calls “the prison-industrial complex” and contends that “immigrants in the United States face special forms of oppression.”  ^{4 2 5}

In 2022, PUF participated in the People’s Summit, which it convened in partnership with its fiscally sponsored partner organization the ANSWER Coalition, in order to protest the Biden administration-hosted Summit of the Americas for the Organization of American States. At the People’s Summit, PUF and the ANSWER coalition condemned the Summit of the Americas as a tool of U.S. economic and political imperialism. ^{6 5}

Fiscal Sponsorship

ANSWER Coalition

The Progress Unity Fund (PUF) fiscally sponsors the ANSWER Coalition, or Act Now to Stop War and End Racism, a radical-left, group that opposes American foreign policy and Israel and has been described as “an outgrowth ⁷ and a “front” for the communist Workers World Party. Several of ANSWER’s leaders, including spokesperson Brian Becker, were WWP members. ⁸ ANSWER also has overlapping membership with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, a radical-left socialist political party, including its former presidential candidate Peta Lindsay. ⁹

ANSWER and PUF share a headquarters in San Francisco. ¹⁰

ANSWER has also been fiscally sponsored by the Alliance for Global Justice, an outgrowth of the Nicaragua Network that supported the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua. ^{10 11}

In 2023, PUF spent $232,244 on the “National March on Washington: Free Palestine!,” a march hosted in coordination with the ANSWER Coalition to protest the Israeli war against Hamas in Gaza. ^{12 13}

Women Organized to Resist and Defend (WORD)

The Progress Unity Fund fiscally sponsors Women Organized to Resist and Defend (WORD), a radical feminist group that supports abortion access, welfare for women, and closing the gender pay gap. ^{14 15} PPUF was formed by the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), ¹⁶ and has overlapping members. ¹⁷ Former PSL presidential candidate Peta Lindsay is WORD’s co-founder. ⁹

National Committee to Free the Cuban Five

The Progress Unity Fund fiscally sponsored the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five, a group founded in 2001 to advocate for the release of five Cuban intelligence officers deployed to spy on the Cuban exile population in Miami. The five were arrested in 1998 for espionage and conspiracy to commit murder. ^{18 19}

Rosa Penate, former director of PUF, is a member of the Committee and chaired numerous rallies. ²⁰ The Cuban Five all either completed their sentences or were released as part of the Obama administration’s attempt to normalize relations with the Cuban communist regime. ²¹

Pivot to Peace

The Progress Unity Fund fiscally sponsors Pivot to Peace (PTP), a group which advocates for peaceful relations between the United States and China. According to PTP, the rise of the Chinese economy has caused a “dangerous reorientation” in the Pentagon’s stance toward China, resulting in “a palpable feeling of fear, animosity and even hatred… toward the People’s Republic of China… Chinese people in general, Chinese-American citizens and other Asian peoples in the United States.” ^{22 23}

Signers of PTP’s mission statement include members of the anti-Taiwanese independence Committee to Promote Reunification of China, Chinese for Affirmative Action, Popular Resistance, the ANSWER Coalition, as well as former Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein. ²³

In 2023, one of Pivot to Peace’s members was arrested for acting as an unregistered foreign agent of China. ²⁴

Leadership

According to its 2024 tax filing, Progress Unity Fund was led by Nathalie Hrizi, a librarian in the San Francisco Unified School District who describes herself as a socialist. Hrizi is also a union organizer for the United Educators of San Francisco. On social media, Hrizi regularly reposts messages from the Party for Socialism and Liberation. ^{2 25 26 27}

According to previous tax filings, and a report by the Anti-Defamation League, other leaders of PUF have included Susan Muysenberg, Elizabeth Lowengard, and Claire Cook. Muysenberg has written for the Peace and Freedom Party, a feminist socialist group. ²⁸ and Liberation News. She is also reportedly a founding member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation. Cook was likewise an organizer for the Party for Socialism and Liberation as of 2025. ^{29 12}

PUF was formerly run by co-directors Keith Pavlik, Rosa Penate, and Brenda Sandburg. Pavlik’s house formerly served and possibly as of 2025 continued to serve as the headquarters of PUF. Pavlik has written extensively for socialist publications; in one article, he claimed that humanity used to exist in classless matriarchal societies where all wealth was shared, but as economies developed, the “ruling class” implemented family structures and private property to hoard wealth, leading to global systemic oppression. ³⁰

Funding

According to tax filings, in 2024 Progress Unity Fund reported $650,576 in revenue, $479,063 in expenses, and $2,521,251 in assets. Of its expenses, PUF spent $267,756 to support the ANSWER Coalition and promote anti-war protests in Washington, D.C. and around the United States; $92,008 on educational programs to promote left-of-center social justice and peace movements; and $91,664 on conferences and meetings to promote peace. ²

In 2024, PUF gave a $35,000 grant to Breakthrough Media in New York, a left-of-center advocacy and global aid organization, and a $12,000 grant to Justice First, an advocacy organization with extensive connections to the Party for Socialism and Liberation. ²

PUF has reportedly received funding from the Tides Foundation, a left-of-center grantmaking organization and pass-through funder for other left-of-center non-profits. ³¹

1. Schilke, JoEllen. “WMNF interview with Party for Socialism and Liberation presidential candidate Peta Lindsay.” WMNF. October 26, 2012. Accessed October 19, 2022. https://www.wmnf.org/wmnf-interview-with-party-for-socialism-and-liberation-presidential-candidate-peta-lindsay/.
2. Progress Unity Fund. Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax. Form 990. 2024.
3.  “Humanitarian Organization for Multicultural Experiences Form 990.” ProPublica. Accessed February 23, 2022. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_990/161425108/03_2021_prefixes_11-16%2F161425108_201912_990_2021033117843724.
4. “Progress Unity Fund.” ProPublica. Accessed January 15, 2026. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/943382208.
5. “Our Work.” Progress Unity Fund. Accessed January 15, 2026. https://www.progressunity.org/our_work.
6. “Introducing the first ever People’s Summit for Democracy—this summer in LA!” ANSWER Coalition, May 22, 2022. Accessed January 15, 2026. https://www.answercoalition.org/introducing_the_first_ever_people_s_summit_for_democracy
7. “Yes, There is such a thing as professional left-wing protesters.” Washington Examiner. February 27, 2017. Accessed October 19, 2022. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/red-alert-politics/yes-thing-professional-left-wing-protesters.
8. Corn, David. “Behind the Placards.” LA Weekly. November 7, 2002. Accessed October 19, 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20081103052350/http:/www.laweekly.com/2002-11-07/news/behind-the-placards.
9. Schilke, JoEllen. “WMNF interview with Party for Socialism and Liberation presidential candidate Peta Lindsay.” WMNF. October 26, 2012. Accessed October 19, 2022. https://www.wmnf.org/wmnf-interview-with-party-for-socialism-and-liberation-presidential-candidate-peta-lindsay/.
10. Rhodes, Kathleen. “Legality of Leftist Funding of Anti-War Protests Questioned.” CNS News. July 7, 2008. Accessed October 19, 2022. https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/legality-leftist-funding-anti-war-protests-questioned.
11. Hogberg, David. “Communists Funding the Resistance: The Alliance for Global Justice.” Capital Research Center. August 29, 2017. Accessed October 22, 2022. https://capitalresearch.org/article/communists-funding-the-resistance-the-alliance-for-global-justice/.
12. “The Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL).” ADL. August 7, 2025. Accessed January 15, 2026. https://www.adl.org/resources/backgrounder/party-socialism-and-liberation-psl.
13. “March for Palestine Logistics: Housing, parking, public transit & more.” ANSWER. October 26, 2023. Accessed January 15, 2026. https://www.answercoalition.org/logistics.
14. “About WORD.” WORD. Accessed October 19, 2022. https://www.defendwomensrights.org/about-word.
15. “Donate.” WORD. Accessed October 19, 2022. https://www.defendwomensrights.org/donate.
16. Cornish, Megan. “A political critique of the Party for Socialism and Liberation.” Freedom Socialist Party. February 2013. Accessed October 19, 2022. https://socialism.com/fs-article/a-political-critique-of-the-party-for-socialism-and-liberation/.
17. Flanagan, Sharyn. “Donna Goodman to speak about the need for a new “militant” women’s movement.” Hudson Valley One. September 3, 2018. Accessed October 19, 2022. https://hudsonvalleyone.com/2018/09/03/donna-goodman-to-speak-about-the-need-for-a-new-militant-womens-movement/.
18. “About the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five.” FFF. Accessed October 19, 2022. http://www.freethefive.org/aboutus.htm.
19. “Donations.” FFF. Accessed October 19, 2022. http://www.freethefive.org/donations.htm.
20. “Rose Penate.” Discover the Networks. Accessed October 19, 2022. https://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individuals/rosa-penate.
21. Robles, Frances, and Julie Hirschfeld Davis. “U.S. Frees Last of the ‘Cuban Five,’ Part of a 1990s Spy Ring (Published 2014).” New York Times, December 17, 2014. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/18/world/americas/us-frees-last-of-the-cuban-five-part-of-a-1990s-spy-ring-.html.
22. Support Pivot to Peace.” Pivot to Peace. Accessed October 19, 2022. https://peacepivot.org/campaigns/support-pivot-to-peace/.
23. “Mission.” Pivot to Peace. Accessed October 19, 2022. https://peacepivot.org/mission/.
24. Walter, Scott. “Written Testimony on ‘Desecrating Old Glory.’” Capital Research Center. December 10, 2024. Accessed January 15, 2026. https://capitalresearch.org/article/written-testimony-on-desecrating-old-glory/
25. @lamps_apple. X post on January 3, 2026. Accessed January 15, 2026. https://x.com/lamps_apple/status/2007557613546819892.
26. @nathalie Hrizi. X. Accessed January 15, 2026. https://x.com/NathalieHrizi.
27. “Nathalie Hrizi.” LinkedIn. Accessed January 15, 2026. https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathalie-hrizi-aa1686a0/.
28. “Susan Muysenberg.” Peace and Freedom Party. Accessed October 19, 2022. https://www.peaceandfreedom.us/component/tags/tag/susan-muysenberg.
29. “Susan Muysenberg.” Liberation News. Accessed October 19, 2022. https://www.liberationnews.org/author/susan_muysenber/.
30. “Keith Pavlik.” Discover the Networks. Accessed October 19, 2022. https://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individuals/keith-pavlik.
31. Gonzalez, Mike. “FBI Should Uncover Who Organized, Funded Radical Student Encampments.” The Heritage Foundation. May 6, 2024. Accessed January 15, 2026. https://www.heritage.org/progressivism/commentary/fbi-should-uncover-who-organized-funded-radical-student-encampments.