It was launched in August 2005 to encourage Internet activism in Australia, though it has increasingly engaged in offline community organising.

It advocates for progressive public policy change in Australia in the areas of the environment, economy, human rights, and democracy.

[6] Early members of GetUp's board were drawn from across the political spectrum, and included Cate Faehrmann, Bill Shorten (then National Secretary of the Australian Workers' Union), former leader of the Liberal Party, John Hewson, and entrepreneur Evan Thornley.

[12] GetUp is a non-profit organisation,[13] registered as GetUp Ltd.[14] Founding members include David Madden and Jeremy Heimans, co-founders of international activist groups Avaaz, Purpose, and Win Back Respect; and Amanda Tattersall, co-founder of Labor for Refugees[15] and the Sydney Alliance, and is an associate professor at Sydney University.

Other members of the board were Daniel Stone, director of digital campaign firm Principle Co; Min Guo, a barrister specialising in class actions, human rights and immigration; Stephen Monk, an IT entrepreneur, consultant and software developer; Karen Iles, a human rights lawyer; Sara Saleh, a racial justice and Palestine campaigner; Alex Rafalowicz, a communications manager at 350.org; and Lyn Goldsworthy, executive officer at the Frank Fenner Foundation and environmental activist.

She had also worked internationally, is an expert on the gas industry in Australia, and co-founded Seed Mob, the first Indigenous youth climate network.

[18] Getup's initial funding of $50,000 was donated by the Labor Council of New South Wales at the suggestion of Amanda Tattersall.

The second major donation was the Australian Workers' Union with $100,000, after which the AWU national secretary Bill Shorten served as a GetUp board member until 2006.

[19] GetUp's largest donation in its early years was $1.1 million from the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union in 2012.

[24] GetUp is funded predominantly by thousands of small donations from Australian individuals, in the vein of similar counterparts in other countries, such as MoveOn.org.

[28] Under Australia's taxation regime, donations to GetUp are not considered tax-deductible as the organisation advocates for changes to government policy.

[29][30][22] GetUp campaigns for progressive public-policy change in Australia in the areas of the environment, economy, human rights and democracy.

campaigned to create a permanent Climate Natural Disaster Fund funded by reduction of fossil fuel subsidies[37] and released a video supporting same-sex marriage in Australia, starring Julian Shaw entitled It's Time that was described by The Advocate as "possibly the most beautiful ad for marriage equality we've seen".

[43] In response to Catholic bishops in Victoria asking their parishioners to campaign against same sex marriages, Simon Sheikh of GetUp!

[46] In August 2015, emergency services were called to the office of Craig Laundy MP, a federal Liberal party member who blocked a free vote on same-sex marriage.

[55][56] During the 2019 Australian federal election, GetUp campaigned against a number of "hard-right" MPs, including Tony Abbott and Peter Dutton.

GetUp was reported to have spent up to $4 million on election advertising (mostly focused on specific seats) and distributed 800,000 how-to-vote cards in support of key independents, Labor, and the Greens.

[59][60][61] GetUp uses "membership surveys, voter polls [and] phone and online consultations" to help determine campaign priorities.

[63] In 2019, 92% of respondents to GetUp's annual survey wanted the organisation to "target hard-right MPs who block progress.

"[64] Almost 30,000 people responded to a subsequent online poll organised by GetUp to identify which "hard-right" MPs they wanted to target at the 2019 federal election.

Liberal Party MP Ben Morton has claimed that raw data from the organisation's 2016 election survey, disclosed to the Australian Parliament's Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters, showed that respondents had nominated different priorities to those that the organisation eventually campaigned on.

The group listed "stopping the government handling over billions of dollars every year to big polluters" in its top three issues, yet the survey results did not reflect this.

It has sometimes rated candidates based on their position on issues, and then provided voters with how-to-vote cards, often recommending votes for more than one option.

Liberal Party of Australia politicians Eric Abetz, Ben Morton, and Peter Dutton have regularly attacked GetUp's independence since the organisation's effective 2016 election campaign, at various times claiming that the organisation is a "front for the Labor Party",[73] "run by the Greens movement in inner-city Melbourne and Sydney",[74] and funded by billionaire George Soros.