Turning Point USA: Patient Giving Powers a Conservative Juggernaut
Sept. 11, 2025: This piece was written before Charlie Kirk was assassinated on Sept. 10, 2025.
Today Turning Point USA (TPUSA) is a hub for youth organizing around President Trump’s right-wing authoritarian movement. But this comes after several reinventions, benefiting from a Leo Model-type approach from its funders.
In 2012 Breitbart News published a piece by TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk, complaining of liberal bias in his high school textbooks. This lead to a segment on Fox Business Network featuring Kirk, and an invitation to the Republican National Convention. There he met Foster Friess, a conservative donor, who welcomed him into the right-wing philanthropic ecosystem. Soon the newly incorporated TPUSA received general operating grants from the Marcus Foundation (tied to the founder of The Home Depot) and the Richard and Helen DeVos Foundations (tied to the founder of Amway).
TPUSA engaged college students through a campus-based network. It funneled money into student-government campaigns. It created a “Professor Watchlist” to target allegedly left-wing faculty, which eventually expanded to include school board members. To the extent it had its own political agenda, it was focused on economic issues.
TPUSA’s turn toward broader cultural impact did not begin until 2019, with the launch of Kirk’s podcast and increasing focus on the “culture war” issues of the day.
The organization’s revenue surged during the pandemic, as it took a leading role in fighting stay-at-home orders, promoting the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19, and questioning the efficacy of vaccines.
TPUSA's current events and activities are a masterclass in melding cultural and political messages. A 501(c)(3), TPUSA pushes the limits of the law. It organizes huge events, such as AmericaFest, and produces online shows where political, wellness, and pop-culture content exists side-by-side. At its convenings, conservative activists and social-media influencers mingle, and political content is presented alongside mainstream musicians - normalizing a blending of pop culture and conservative politics. TPUSA’s online store sells hundreds of pieces of meme-based merchandise.
TPUSA also operates a 501(c)(4), Turning Point Action, which trains grassroots organizers and endorses candidates, as well as an initiative focused on church-based organizing.
Over 13 years of existence, with growing revenue from foundations, high-net worth individuals, small-dollar donors, and earned revenue, TPUSA has freely pivoted - not always successfully - among campus-based free-market advocacy, media and cultural production and criticism, faith-based organizing, and other strategies. It has pushed the legal boundaries of 501(c)(3) activities, while working closely with an allied 501(c)(4).