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The Paid Protester Economy: Who’s Funding The Outrage?

by | Oct 19, 2025 | Podcast

Who is getting paid

You know what? Real grassroots doesn’t need a booking agent. But modern “uprisings” often do. There is a thriving market for politics-as-a-service where organizers, influencers, and yes, literal hired crowds turn rage into a revenue stream. That does not mean every protester is fake. It means there is an industry that can manufacture optics on demand.

Let’s pull the curtain.

What “paid protest” actually looks like

There are three common models.

  1. Staffed activism. Nonprofits employ organizers, canvassers, and comms people. That is normal.
  2. Stipended turnout. Groups offer travel, per diem, or small payments so people can show up midweek. Also common.
  3. Crowd-for-hire. Companies sell the optics of a protest to whomever can pay.

That last one is no conspiracy theory. Crowds on Demand is a Beverly Hills firm that markets “crowds for hire,” including “impactful advocacy campaigns” and “demonstrations.” It has been profiled repeatedly, and the founder, Adam Swart, has gone on TV to explain the business. The Los Angeles Times reported on paid demonstrations and related litigation. The company’s own site boasts nationwide services. Swart has also said requests spike around hot political moments. (Los Angeles Times )

Here is the honest point. If a TV host gets paid, that does not make every word a lie. But paying a crowd blurs the line between genuine community will and stagecraft. It is like a studio hiring a cheering section for a sequel, then calling it a “fan rally.”

The progressive money pipes

A lot of the modern protest world runs on small-dollar funnels. ActBlue is a fundraising platform used by Democratic campaigns and progressive nonprofits. It says so itself. Many activist groups raise through it, including Rise and Resist, which promotes donations via ActBlue and through its fiscal sponsor. That is the structure. A platform that moves money, plus nonprofits that spend it. None of that, by itself, proves anyone is paying headcount in the street. It shows how the cash flows. (ActBlue)

Still, the platform is big enough to attract scrutiny. Congressional Republicans and some state actors have pressed fraud and compliance claims against ActBlue; ActBlue responds that it is a secure conduit used by millions of donors. The facts are still being contested, and different outlets frame it differently. The bottom line remains that ActBlue moves serious money for the political left. (House Judiciary Committee Republicans)

When foreign-aligned networks meet U.S. protests

Another layer is the philanthropic and ideological network around Neville Roy Singham, a U.S. tech mogul living in Shanghai. A 2023 New York Times investigation reported that he funds a web of groups echoing Beijing’s talking points. Reuters summarized those findings, and House committees have since demanded records, saying Singham-linked money flows into U.S. activist spaces like The People’s Forum and entities aligned with the Party for Socialism and Liberation. Those are allegations and ongoing inquiries, but they matter because they point to a coordinated infrastructure, not just spontaneous marches. (House Oversight Committee)

Congressional press releases and oversight letters now explicitly connect Singham’s network to campus and anti-ICE protests. Whether prosecutors can prove illegal coordination is an open question; the pattern is not. You can build a protest machine with nonprofit legitimacy, donor-advised funds, and a media arm that promotes the line. That is the claim under investigation. (House Oversight Committee)

“Refuse Fascism,” fiscal sponsors, and denials

Another case study is Refuse Fascism. InfluenceWatch and congressional letters point to fiscal sponsorships through Alliance for Global Justice and related controversies. Refuse Fascism rejects the idea that it pays demonstrators. Again, this shows a common pattern: 501(c) fiscal sponsors, pooled fundraising, and rapid deployment. Sometimes opaque, sometimes loud, always legalistic. (influencewatch.org)

The cannabis fight that previewed all this

If you want a clean example of big donors reshaping a “grassroots” issue, look at Washington State’s cannabis war a decade ago. Two paths competed.

  • Sensible Washington pushed I-1068 and I-1149, a simple repeal approach with minimal new structure. They never got enough signatures.
  • New Approach Washington’s I-502 was the corporate-style model, written and led by Alison Holcomb, an ACLU of Washington attorney. It won in 2012 with big outside money, including Peter Lewis and Soros-linked funding via Drug Policy Alliance. The Stranger reported those two covered over 60 percent of the campaign. (The Stranger)

I-502 came with a per se THC DUI limit, a retail license cap, advertising rules, 1,000-foot buffers, and no homegrow. Personal cultivation stayed a class C felony. The state used a lottery for scarce licenses, which obviously favors players with capital to survive red tape and compliance. This is how you channel a cottage market into a regulated cart. The mom-and-pop medical scene lost ground to whoever could clear the licensing hurdles. That was not an accident. That was design.

What about penalties for under-21 possession? Under I-502’s framework, adult possession was legalized within limits, while minors still faced penalties. Historically, small-amount possession under 40 grams for minors was a misdemeanor under RCW 69.50.4014, not a felony. The felony piece hit cultivation and larger-scale offenses, and the DUI rules for minors were strict. Details matter, because words like felony carry weight.

Paid protest is not “just a left thing,” but the left industrialized it

Corporations have faked support too. Entergy famously hired actors to speak at a New Orleans council meeting. But it is fair to say the contemporary left built an efficient fundraising and staffing stack for rapid protests, from ActBlue pages to fiscal sponsors to media partners. If you can build a campaign in 48 hours, you can also buy optics in 48 hours. That is power. And power attracts money and mischief. (Wikipedia)

The campus gender trend twist

One more uncomfortable signal. Some analysts now claim a sharp recent decline in students identifying as transgender or nonbinary. Eric Kaufmann’s new report, using FIRE survey data and campus polls, argues the share effectively halved since 2023. Other analysts call his methods flawed, and say weighting reverses that story. I am raising it for one reason. When institutional funding, messaging, and administrative attention recede, the “movement” often recedes with them. If the money dries up, so does the march. That is the pattern we keep finding. (Fox News)

Why this matters

A protest is supposed to be the public’s veto pen. It is the town square telling the palace to pump the brakes. When protests become a professional service, the signal gets noisy. Politicians and police cannot tell who is a neighbor and who is on payroll. Media cannot tell what is organic and what is orchestrated. Voters tune out.

Paying taxes is like handing the town drunk your wallet and hoping he buys groceries instead of whiskey. Paying for politics is similar. You think you are buying democracy. You might be renting a flash mob.

What to demand next time you see a megaphone

  • Disclosure at the point of protest. If an event uses paid turnout or a crowd vendor, put that on the permit and on the flyers. Same for sponsored travel and stipends above a minimal threshold.
  • No foreign-influence laundering. If Congress proves a pass-through network routing overseas interests into U.S. agitation, close it hard. Enforce FARA. Make donor-advised funds name the true source when dollars touch political activity. (House Oversight Committee)
  • Separate speech from stagecraft. Staff and security are fine. Secretly renting “supporters” is not. If a campaign, company, or city council hearing uses paid testimony or staged crowds, it should be treated like an in-kind ad with clear labeling.

And yes, apply this to the right as well. Hypocrisy kills credibility. The truth does not need a costume.

The takeaway

America has always had protests. What changed is the supply chain. Platforms move money fast. Fiscal sponsors incubate pop-up groups. Donor-advised funds keep the checks quiet. Crowd firms fill the gaps when a headline is needed by Tuesday. The folks on the ground may still be sincere. But sincerity is not the same thing as spontaneous.

Next time you see a perfect stack of matching signs and a bullhorn with a fresh sticker, ask two questions. Who wrote the script, and who paid for the stage?

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