What expenses did Turning Point USA report on its latest Form 990?
Executive summary
Turning Point USA’s most recent publicly available Form 990 (filed for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2023, and published on the group’s site) breaks out detailed categories on its Statement of Functional Expenses — including travel, office expenses, conventions/events, grants to related organizations, and a catch‑all “other expenses” line that maps to Part IX lines 11a–11d, 11f–24e (the filing shows total expenses of roughly $91 million in related reporting) [1] [2]. Public data aggregators that index that same filing list revenue near $85 million and expenses near $81 million for the year reported on the Form 990 processed by the IRS [3].
1. What the Form 990 file lists: line items and where to look
Turning Point posted a PDF of its 2023 Form 990 that contains the Statement of Functional Expenses (Part IX) and labels common nonprofit expense categories such as travel, office expenses, conventions/events (which show large line items), grants (including sums to affiliated entities), and an “other expenses” range that corresponds to specific Part IX lines (11a–11d, 11f–24e) for granular subcategories [1]. The organization’s public filing is the primary source for the line‑item breakdown; the PDF hosted by Turning Point is explicit about where those amounts sit on the form [1].
2. Big-ticket categories reported in media and summaries
Independent summaries and reporting have emphasized travel, conventions/events, and organizational expenses as prominent spending areas. A nonprofit tracker and analysis site cited that the Form 990 shows substantial travel and event costs and flagged a roughly $91 million expense figure for the period covered by some write‑ups — a number some commentators contrast with roughly $5 million in grants to an affiliated group (America’s Turning Point) noted in media summaries [2] [3]. The Form 990 itself lists travel and event‑related expenses on Part IX, which is where such items are recorded [1] [3].
3. What outside databases say about totals and nuance
ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer extracted IRS data for the filing processed May 15, 2025, showing revenue of about $84,988,862 and expenses of $80,995,175 for the filing in question, with a net increase in assets and a note that the organization reported first‑class or charter travel and conflict‑of‑interest transactions [3]. Charity Navigator and other profiles also rely on these Form 990 figures to compute program expense ratios and other metrics, but their pages summarize rather than republish the line‑item schedule [4].
4. Areas where reporting and the Form 990 diverge in emphasis
Commentary outlets and nonprofit critics highlight different emphases: one analysis translates the Form 990 into a “per‑$100” donor breakdown and focuses on conventions and travel as the dominant uses, while other sources stress that some reported expenses represent grants to affiliated organizations and shared services that can make headline totals appear larger in certain categories [2]. The Form 990’s Part IX and its “other expenses” lines are legally the place those allocations appear, but interpretation of what constitutes a program expense versus a transfer or grant can vary between reporters and watchdogs [1] [2].
5. What is clear in the filings — and what the sources don’t say
The filed Form 990 PDF on Turning Point’s site documents the Part IX lines and shows where travel, office, event, grant, and “other” expenses are entered [1]. ProPublica’s dataset provides the headline revenue and expense totals and flags certain disclosures such as first‑class travel [3]. Available sources do not mention a full, annotated walk‑through in which every single subline from 11a–24e is explained by the organization beyond the raw Form 990; they also do not include, in these search results, the organization’s internal accounting memos or vendor invoices that would further explain large line items [1] [3].
6. How to verify and next reporting steps
For a reader seeking verification, download and read the 2023 Form 990 PDF Turning Point posted; Part IX is where travel, event, office, grants, and other expenses are listed and mapped to lines 11a–11d and 11f–24e [1]. Cross‑check those numbers against IRS‑processed data in ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer and charity watchdog summaries for context on totals and trends [3] [4]. If you need transaction‑level detail (vendor names, invoices, or the program code for each expense), available sources do not mention that level of disclosure in the public filing [1] [3].
Limitations and competing perspectives are explicit in the sources: Turning Point’s posted Form 990 gives the formal expense categories [1]; nonprofit analysts and critics interpret the meaning and prominence of travel, events, and grants differently [2] [3]. Follow the Form 990 itself for line‑by‑line facts and rely on independent databases for processed totals and flagged disclosures [1] [3].