RESIST began in 1967 with a "Call to Resist Illegitimate Authority," issued to support draft resistance and in opposition to the war in Vietnam. Signed by over 20,000 people, the Call mobilized activists and academics across the country and became a central document (titled "Overt Act #1") in the 1968 conspiracy trial of the "Boston Five" (Rev. William Sloan Coffin, Dr. Benjamin Spock, Michael Ferber, Marcus Raskin, and Mitchell Goodman).

During the course of the Vietnam War, RESIST evolved into a national funder. Over time, RESIST provided support to hundreds of social change projects each year, starting with anti-war activism and quickly expanding to the civil rights movement, and beyond. By the 1970s, RESIST had broadened its scope dramatically by insisting on a close tie between the unequal distribution of power and money at home with a system of US domination abroad. Today, RESIST remains committed to social change, and the activist groups that are funded reflect RESIST's goal of a much more equitable distribution of wealth and power both within and between nations. As such, RESIST funds small-budget groups in the US who struggle towards a broad vision of social justice, while continuing to oppose political and institutional oppression.

RESIST has provided the initial sustaining funding for many groups that have gone on to play important roles in movements for social justice.

• Lois Gibbs received an early grant from RESIST as she struggled to organize her community to confront the environmental disaster at Love Canal. Now her organization—Center for Health, Environment and Justice—plays a leading role in grassroots struggles for justice.
• RESIST was also one of the first funders of groups like 9to5: National Association of Working Women in its struggle to support low-wage women workers; Farm Labor Organizing Committee mobilizing migrant workers; Infact and its Academy Award-winning production of Deadly Deception; economic justice groups Share the Wealth (now United for a Fair Economy) and Center for Popular Economics.
• Other groups which received RESIST funding in their early years and have now moved on to larger funders include: Grassroots International, the Center for Constitutional Rights, the Child Care Employee Project, United Farmworkers, Center for Third World Organizing, Rethinking Schools, Snake River Alliance, Global Exchange, Montana Human Rights Network and The Women's Project.

For the past 40 years, RESIST has relied upon individual donors with a broad vision of funding a movement for social change. RESIST's initial contributors each paid a modest amount to sign the "Call to Resist." The idea was not to ask relatively wealthy people for funds, but rather to ask a lot of people to give as much as they could as often as they could. These small but consistent contributions became the primary source of the funds RESIST distributes. Today, as RESIST diversifies and expands its income, pledges still account for a significant portion of RESIST's funding base—and donors continue to hold RESIST accountable to the movements it funds.