Reports show that activist organisations such as Global Exchange and the Ruckus Society, which campaign to close the World Bank and World Trade Organisation, are among those that have received funds from Unilever.
The company has made $5m (£3.4m) available to various groups through the Ben & Jerry's Foundation, which describes its strategy as 'caring capitalism'. Unilever gave the money to the foundation when it bought the company last year.
Global Exchange received $1m (£691,000) over three years from the $5m fund. The Rukus Society, which helped organise the shutdown of the Seattle WTO meeting in 1999, was given a $100,000 (£69,000) donation.
During negotiations with Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield about the sale of their company last year, Unilever had to agree to donate $5m to the foundation and $5m to Cohen's ethical group Hot Fudge. Unilever has also to donate at least $1.1m (£760,000) a year in grants for social change groups.
Cohen and Greenfield said that Unilever was well aware of where the funds would go.
It has also emerged that several other unlikely organisations have funded anti-capitalist groups, such as the EU through grant-making bodies at the European Commission and the UK National Lottery.