TPUSA's Alleged Fundraising Letters Spark Outrage With 'Desperate' Claims of 'Freeing Children From the Far Left'

Turning Point USA is facing a fresh wave of public scrutiny after alleged fundraising letters, signed by the organisation's COO and conservative activist Riley Gaines, began circulating online this week.

Researcher and podcaster @leahfiles posted photographs of the letters on X, alleging they were received in the current week, and questioned why an organisation that allegedly brings in over £67m ($85m) annually was soliciting small-dollar donations from college students. The letters invoke the September 2025 assassination of TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk and use language one social media user characterised as 'desperate,' including the claim that a student chapter will 'free your children and grandchildren from the Left.'

IBTimes UK cannot independently verify the authenticity or completeness of the fundraising letters shared on social media. This article reports on a public controversy arising from those posts. Readers should treat all unverified claims in this article with appropriate caution.

The Alleged Letters: Kirk's Assassination Invoked Repeatedly as a Fundraising Device

The first alleged letter, purportedly signed by Justin Streiff, who is confirmed by TPUSA's own website as the organisation's Chief Operating Officer, asks recipients to complete an 'Emergency Reply Form' and donate between £28 ($35) and £398 ($500) to help open a new conservative student chapter.

The letter states that since Kirk's 'murder,' TPUSA has allegedly received 'more than 160,000 requests from patriots to start or join chapters.' IBTimes UK cannot verify that specific figure; after Kirk's assassination, TPUSA publicly claimed it had received approximately 120,000 campus chapter enquiries, according to Britannica's documented record of the organisation.

The letter's language is striking. It describes Turning Point USA as engaged in tearing 'young people out of the clutches of the Left,' warns that 'radical students and professors are still desperate to keep Turning Point USA OFF their campuses,' and closes with the assertion that donating is the best way to honour Kirk's legacy. The postscript again refers to 'Charlie's murder,' a factually accurate description. Kirk was shot and killed on 10 September 2025 at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, by Tyler James Robinson, who has since been charged with aggravated murder.

A second alleged letter, shared in reply to the original X thread by @AndreaGettman, is purportedly signed by Riley Gaines, the former collegiate swimmer turned conservative commentator who became a prominent figure in debates over transgender athletes in women's sport.

That letter, also invoking Kirk's death, solicits donations for what it describes as the 'This is the Turning Point Tour,' calling Kirk's death an 'assassination.' Gaines writes that she 'cannot support' TPUSA as it stands post-Kirk, yet the letter is explicitly a fundraising appeal on TPUSA's behalf. @AndreaGettman stated she had previously supported TPUSA but no longer does following what she described as a 'massive 180' in direction since Kirk's death.

What TPUSA's IRS Filings Show About Grant Spending

@leahfiles alleged that TPUSA gives only 1.4% of its revenue to 'actual grants.' TPUSA's publicly available IRS Form 990 for the fiscal year ending June 2024 records total revenue of £67.6m ($84.9m). Of the £10.3m ($13m) reported as grants, £7.9m ($10m) went to two affiliated organisations sharing the same office address: America's Turning Point and Turning Point Endowment. That leaves approximately £2.4m ($3m) in grants to external parties, equivalent to roughly 3.5% of total revenue.

A detailed analysis by Paddock Post of the same Form 990 found that the organisation's largest expenditure categories were travel, conventions, and materials£16.7m ($21m), and employee compensation, also £16.7m ($21m).

The organisation employs 454 staff and paid for first-class or charter travel for its CEO, COO, and other employees. @leahfiles' figure of 1.4% is lower than the 3.5% this publication calculates from available filings; neither IBTimes UK nor @leahfiles has had access to TPUSA's internal accounts beyond what is publicly reported.

TPUSA's overall financial position does not suggest distress. The organisation ended FY2024 with net assets of £14.2m ($17.9m), up from £11.1m ($14m) at the start of that year. Under Charlie Kirk's leadership, Forbes reported TPUSA raised approximately £309m ($389m) in total over the life of the organisation. A December 2025 fundraising gala at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort was described by a TPUSA representative as 'maxed out' on both nights.

A Pattern of Financial Questions and No Response to the Current Controversy

This is not the first time TPUSA's fundraising practices have drawn scrutiny. In December 2025, social media allegations of financial impropriety and missed federal filings spread rapidly, prompting Kirk's widow and CEO Erika Kirk to request a formal clarification from the US Treasury Department. A letter disclosed to CBS News confirmed that none of TPUSA's four tax-exempt entities were under IRS examination and that all had submitted 2024 Form 990 filings on time.

An independent audit of a related entity for the fiscal year ending September 2024, published via ProPublica, noted a failure to follow certain legal or regulatory requirements and identified a deficiency in internal financial controls. TPUSA disputed those characterisations. Separately, the Federal Election Commission fined Turning Point Action, TPUSA's affiliated political arm, £14,300 ($18,000) in 2024 for failing to disclose certain donor information.

@leahfiles' ongoing 'internal audit' of TPUSA, as she describes it, is published in parts on her Substack and available across podcast platforms. She has stated she is not encouraging donations to the organisation. IBTimes UK approached TPUSA for comment on the letters and the financial claims and had received no response at the time of publication.

The letters remain unverified, the finances remain contested, and the organisation Kirk built has eight months of post-assassination scrutiny still to account for.