Resist is a left-of-center grantmaking organization that supports community groups formed to overcome the claimed issues of white supremacy, patriarchy, heteronormativity, capitalism, and Christian hegemony. The organization was founded by anti-Vietnam War protest leaders and has evolved to making grants to activist organizations that seek change to the distribution of power and wealth and United States domination of the world, connecting them to each other, and changing philanthropy to gain more financial support for them. ^{1 2 3}

History

Resist was founded following the 1968 conspiracy trial of the “Boston Five,” who had supported of Vietnam War draft resistance. The five, William Sloan Coffin, Benjamin Spock, Michael Ferber, Marcus Raskin, and Mitchell Goodman, were joined as founding members by Grace Paley, Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, and poets Robert Lowell, Barbara Guest, and Allen Ginsberg. Resist provides start-up funding for activist organizations that tie unequal distribution of power and money with the supposed United States domination of the world and make grants to organizations supporting indigenous Americans, children, women and girls, migrants, and those incarcerated. ^{4 2}

Operating Theory

Resist operates on theory developed by the Anti-Oppression Resource and Training Alliance (AORTA), a worker-owned consultancy that envisions equal outcomes. Resist claims the problems it addresses are caused by white supremacy, patriarchy, heteronormativity, capitalism, and Christian hegemony, and that the means of correction lies within communities. The group funds organizations that are community-based, connects them to existing groups, and advocates that philanthropy fund similar organizations. ^{1 5}

Grantmaking

AF3IRM, an organization that uses militant movement building that engages in transnational feminist, and anti-imperialist activism was a 2016, 2017, and 2018 grantee of Resist. After the 2024 second election of President Donald Trump, the group released a statement claiming that the United States had “once again elected a fascist into power” by “mobilizing agents of patriarchy.” ^{6 7}

Resist Inc. made grants in 2022 of $16,048,629 to 67 organizations including: Mother’s Choice USA, Inc., an organization that raises funds for global projects aiding young girls facing unwanted pregnancy; Greenroots Inc, a group that advocates for equal environmental outcomes; Jamaa Birth Village, a group establishing a Black-led midwife clinic in Ferguson, Missouri; the defunct Movement Ground Farm; Native Green, a woman-owned business; Trans Asylum Seekers Support Network, a group that assists transgender people in relocating to western Massachusetts; Youth Justice and Power Union, an organization that promotes Black and brown youth-led community organizations; and Black Power Maine, formerly known as Black Lives Matter, Maine. ^{8 9 10 11 12 13 14}

Projects

Resist projects include Boston Space Council, that purchased a retreat center in Massachusetts; Community Movement Commons, a group that includes radical-left Center for Economic Democracy, City Life Vida Urbana, and Neighborhood Birth Center Project which is buying physical space in Boston for its supporters; Movement Sustainability Commons that offers groups working for equal outcomes in justice and the economy; and #JusticeIsEssential Series, that sponsored a three-part conversation on Robin D.G. Kelly’s book that expresses the hope of Communism, Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination. ^{15 16}

People

Allen Kwabena Frimpong is board chair and co-founder and managing partner of AdAstra Management collective. Nicki Kattoura is board clerk, a Palestinian organizer and editor of Common Notions that publishes books against claimed white supremacy. ¹⁷

Resist staff include co-directors avry jxn, Nicki Kattoura, Jasmine Gomez, and Kathy Lebron. Gomez has extensive experience in left-of-center advocacy for queer and trans liberation, decolonization of Puerto Rico, and racial and political equality. She has been a democracy honors fellow at left-of-center Free Speech for People and worked for Access Strategies Fund. ¹⁸

1. ^[1] “Theory of Change.” RESIST, November 14, 2020. Accessed January 27, 2025. https://resist.org/theory-of-change/.
2. “Resist.” Resist – GuideStar Profile. Accessed January 27, 2025. https://www.guidestar.org/profile/04-2433182.
3. “Theory of Change.” RESIST, November 14, 2020. Accessed January 27, 2025. https://resist.org/theory-of-change/.
4. “About.” RESIST, November 14, 2020. Accessed January 27, 2025. https://resist.org/about/#history.
5. “Theory of Change.” A O R T A. Accessed January 27, 2025. https://aorta.coop/theory-of-change.
6. “AF3IRM NYC.” RESIST. Accessed January 27, 2025. https://staging2.resist.org/grantees/af3irm-nyc.
7. “Statement on 2024 election” AF3IRM. Accessed January 27, 2025. https://af3irm.org/af3irm/2024/11/until-patriarchy-falls-our-statement-on-the-2024-u-s-elections/
8. “Resist Inc” Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax. Form (990) 2022. Schedule I, Part II.
9. “Mother’s Choice USA.” Mother’s Choice USA. Accessed January 27, 2025. https://motherschoiceusa.org/.
10. “GreenRoots Engages and Empowers Residents in the Frontline Communities of Chelsea and East Boston in Campaigns and Projects to Achieve Environmental Justice, Improved Public Health, and Quality of Life.” GreenRoots. Accessed January 27, 2025. https://greenrootsej.org/.
11. “Grassroots Fund.” Trans Asylum Seeker Support Network | New England Grassroots Environment Fund, January 1, 1970. Accessed January 27, 2025. https://grassrootsfund.org/groups/trans-asylum-seeker-support-network
12. Youth Justice & Power Union. Accessed January 27, 2025. https://www.yjpu.org/.
13. “Black Lives Matter Portland Changes Name to Black Power.” WMTW, September 30, 2020. https://www.wmtw.com/article/black-lives-matter-portland-changes-name-to-black-power/34211684.
14. “Grantees Archive.” RESIST. Accessed January 27, 2025. https://resist.org/grantees/
15. “Current Projects.” RESIST, March 15, 2023. https://resist.org/current-projects/.
16. Freedom dreams: The black radical imagination: Kelley, Robin D.G.: 9780807009772: Amazon.com: Books. Accessed January 27, 2025. https://www.amazon.com/Freedom-Dreams-Black-Radical-Imagination/dp/0807009776.
17. “Board.” RESIST, April 28, 2023. Accessed January 27, 2025. https://resist.org/board/.
18. “Staff.” RESIST, February 7, 2024. Accessed January 27, 2025. https://resist.org/staff/.