A broad social vision is an important part of both Resist’s beliefs and a basic criteria for receiving funding. In order to evaluate proposals, Resist seeks an understanding of how each grant applicant approaches a range of issues, including their positions on race, class, gender, reproductive and abortion rights, gay and lesbian liberation, age and disability.  

 Looking back over the last 30 years, there have been several significant trends that have developed in Resist’s funding patterns.  In 1967, Resist grants went to groups engaged in the anti-war, draft resistance and student organizing movements.   Within two years of formation, Resist’s funding broadened to match the political recognition that the war in Vietnam did not exist in a vacuum, separate and apart from other governmental policies. As a result, Resist began providing money for prison support work, community organizing, black power, and a range of projects in high schools.  

 By 1971, women in Resist began to challenge the sexism inherent in the left’s political organizing and its concomitant presence in Resist’s funding decisions. As a result of these important struggles over the organization’s vision and goals, Resist pledged to increase its support for a much broader range of groups struggling against a redefined “illegitimate authority.”  

 During that decade, groups focusing on women’s rights, reproductive rights, and the labor movement joined the ranks of Resist’s funding priorities. Resist funded such diverse groups as: Reproductive Rights National Network (Chicago, IL), Miners Support Committee (Beckly, WV), City Workers Committee for Pension Fund Divestment from South Africa (Detroit, MI), Wounded Knee Defense Fund (Rapid City, SD), Military and Draft Law Resource Center (Cambridge, MA), and National Anti-Draft Teach-In Project Washington, DC).

 By the mid-1980s, Resist was deeply involved in two new major areas of conflict. Resist has been and continues to be an ardent supporter of the struggles for peace and social justice in Central America, Latin America and the Caribbean. In addition, Resist was an early funder of the movement for gay and lesbian liberation.

 During these years, Resist began to fund groups like: the Central American Resource Center (Austin, TX), the Center for Third World Organizing (Oakland, CA), Honduras Information Center (Somerville, MA) and chapters of Pledge of Resistance; as well as Gay Community News (Boston, MA), and the National Coalition of Black Lesbians and Gays (Washington, DC).  

 By the 1990s, Resist found itself looking more closely at economic justice and environmental issues as they became major struggles nationwide. As the government viciously cuts back its support for many vulnerable members of society through welfare "reform" and attacks on social security, Resist has seen a significant increase in proposals from groups working toward economic justice, groups like: Kensington Welfare Rights Union (Philadelphia, PA), Tri-County Advocacy Coalition (Havre, MT), Welfare Education and Training Access Coalition (Medford, MA), and the Welfare  Rights Union of Washtenau County (Ann Arbor, MI).  Resist has also supported environmental organizing from groups like: Citizens for Alternatives to Radioactive Dumping (Albuquerque, NM), Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger (Merrimac, WI), Political Ecology Group (San Francisco, CA), and Women’s Voices for the Earth (Missoula, MT).

For detailed information on past grantees, the Call to Resist Illegitimate Authority, or grant guidelines, please visit our website at www.resistinc.org.