Advisers to the group include Senior Advisor and former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove and former Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour.

American Crossroads was founded in 2010 by former Republican National Committee chair Ed Gillespie and former White House strategist Karl Rove.

As a 501(c)(4) nonprofit, Crossroads GPS's primary purpose is the advancement of social welfare including public policy advocacy, although it is permitted to engage in political spending as well.

[26] In October 2010, Democratic Senator Richard Durbin wrote the IRS asking for it to investigate whether Crossroads GPS had violated its tax status.

[27] Republican senators had previously written to the IRS stating that an investigation into the political activities of tax-exempt groups would amount to a politically motivated tactic that would “chill the legitimate exercise of First Amendment rights.”[28] In September 2012, the Sunlight Foundation said that donor anonymity was critical to the fund-raising strategy of Crossroads GPS.

[29] Some critics accused non-disclosing political groups like Crossroads GPS of filing for nonprofit status solely to invoke the right to hide their donors.

[31][32] The non-profit watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed an ethics complaint with the Federal Election Commission and a corresponding letter with the FBI, alleging that Crossroads GPS failed to disclose the identities of contributors who donated $6 million specifically earmarked to fund independent expenditures for Josh Mandel's 2012 Ohio Senate race.

Dubke and Carney also founded Americans for Job Security, which shares office space with Crossroads Media and at least three other political consulting firms, including the Black Rock Group.

[37] In 2013, Crossroads announced that it was financing a new effort, the Conservative Victory Project, to intervene in the next year's Republican primaries.