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Where can I access Turning Point USA or affiliate Form 990 filings for 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023?
Executive Summary
Turning Point USA’s Form 990 filings for 2015–2023 are publicly available, and the most practical immediate access points are ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer, GuideStar (Candid), and the IRS’ online archives or bulk data services. ProPublica provides searchable summaries and PDF/XML copies covering multiple years while GuideStar/Candid shows recent filings behind a registered account; the IRS hosts raw filings and bulk archives for definitive copies [1] [2] [3]. These three pathways each have strengths — ProPublica for easy search and full PDFs, GuideStar for profile context, and the IRS for official images or raw XML — so a combination yields the complete set for 2015–2023 [3] [4] [5].
1. Where the documents actually live — the easiest path to the filings
The clearest, most user-friendly repository for Turning Point USA’s Form 990s is ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer, which provides both summary financials and full Form 990 PDFs or machine-readable files across the requested time window; users can search by name or EIN and retrieve filings spanning 2011–2023 according to the dataset descriptions [1] [6]. ProPublica also links to the IRS raw data and offers an API for programmatic retrieval, making it the fastest way to pull a full set of returns for 2015–2023 in either page-image PDFs or structured XML where available [3] [6]. For many researchers, ProPublica balances accessibility and completeness because it aggregates IRS releases and makes them searchable with organization-level summaries [4].
2. GuideStar/Candid and account limits — what you’ll hit and how to work around it
GuideStar (now Candid) maintains nonprofit profiles and attaches Form 990 PDFs, but access to older filings can be limited without an account and some profiles show only the most recent documents to non-registered users; reports indicate that recent filings [7] [8] [9] are visible with registration while earlier years may require direct IRS retrieval or contacting the organization [2]. GuideStar’s strength is contextual materials — organizational descriptions, filings consolidated in one profile — but the platform occasionally restricts historic PDFs behind different account tiers. If GuideStar doesn’t surface a specific year’s 990, switching to ProPublica or the IRS bulk archives is the recommended workaround [2] [5].
3. The IRS as the authoritative source — page images and raw XML
For definitive originals, the IRS is the canonical source: the agency publishes exempt organization filings both as page-image PDFs and as raw XML data in bulk archives and through AWS mirrors, which is useful for verification, audit, or structured analysis [3] [6]. When accuracy or chain-of-custody matters, pulling the page-image from the IRS ensures the filing you cite is the actual submission rather than a third‑party copy; the IRS dataset also powers ProPublica’s and other aggregators’ records, so discrepancies are resolved by returning to the IRS master files [3]. Researchers should note that the IRS release cadence and indexing may vary, so search by EIN (Turning Point USA’s EIN used by ProPublica) to ensure you capture every fiscal year 2015–2023 [1].
4. Conflicting messaging and nonessential sources — what to ignore
Some results returned in the analyses point to unrelated affiliate or marketing pages and do not help locate Form 990s — for example, affiliate program pages and SEO articles are noise when seeking tax filings [10] [11]. The most useful, consistent sources across the analyses are ProPublica, GuideStar/Candid, and the IRS — items that replicate IRS filings or provide structured access to them [3] [4]. When an intermediate site references filings but lacks the PDFs or links to IRS copies, prefer the aggregator that explicitly hosts IRS PDFs (ProPublica) or the IRS itself, because third‑party marketing pages often confuse search results and introduce stale or irrelevant links [12].
5. Practical next steps and cross-checking for completeness
Start at ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer to download the 2015–2023 Form 990 PDFs and check the organization’s EIN-based page for completeness; cross‑verify any missing years by querying the IRS bulk PDF/XML archive or AWS mirror to obtain page-image originals [1] [3]. If you prefer a profile view with narrative context, log into GuideStar/Candid to pull available documents and note which years are gated behind account tiers — if necessary, request copies directly from Turning Point USA under public disclosure rules. For rigorous verification, compare downloaded PDFs from ProPublica to the IRS master copies; the combination of these three channels will yield a complete, cross‑checked set of Form 990s for 2015–2023 [2] [6].