E. L. Craig Foundation

The E.L. Craig Foundation is one of two private grantmaking foundations created from the fortune of TAMKO Building Products founder and manufacturing entrepreneur E.L. Craig. It is headed by E.L. Craig’s daughter, Ethelmae C. Humphreys, and supports right-leaning public policy organizations.

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At-A-Glance

Type: Non-profit, 501(c)(3), Private Foundation
Formation:

1961

President:

Ethelmae C. Humphreys

Location: Joplin, MO View on map
Tax ID: 44-6015127
Most Recent Filing: 2024
Budget (2024): Assets: $7,643,119 Revenue: $3,453,577 Expenses: $3,121,743

Contents

    Background

    E.L. Craig created the company now known as TAMKO Building Products in 1944. The E.L. Craig Foundation is headed by his daughter, Ethelmae C. Humphreys, and run by a board headed by Humphreys and including her children and grandchildren. 1

    Leadership

    Ethelmae C. Humphreys has served on the boards of the libertarian think tank Cato Institute and the Show-Me Institute, a right-leaning public policy group in Missouri. Both Ethelmae Humphreys and her children, David Humphreys and Sarah Atkins, have been active in conservative and Republican politics. In 2009, Ethelmae Humphreys was the largest contributor to a successful drive instituted by the American Legislative Exchange Council to alter the Missouri state constitution to prohibit the state from imposing a requirement to purchase health insurance if the national mandate requiring such purchases was declared unconstitutional. 2

    Opposition to Organized Labor

    In 2011, David Humphreys and Sarah Atkins donated $500,000 to the successful effort to prevent then-Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) from being recalled over his restrictions on government worker unions. 3

    In 2013, the Teamsters Union denounced Ethelmae Humphreys and her children as “the family of greedy billionaires behind today’s attacks on workers in Missouri” because of their contributions to Republican candidates in Missouri and to the Mackinac Center, a right-leaning public policy organization in Michigan. 4

    In 2018, David Humphreys donated $850,000 to Club for Growth Action Missouri to support the U.S. Senate campaign of then-Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley (R). 5

    Grantmaking

    Except for a grant to the American Red Cross and a grant to the Joplin Regional Medical School Alliance, all E.L. Craig Foundation grantmaking in 2018 went to center-right public policy organizations. The largest grants the foundation made in 2018 were $400,000 to the Institute for Humane Studies and three $250,000 grants to the Acton Institute, Cato Institute, and Federalist Society. 6

    Financial Statistics

    Total Assets

    Total Revenue

    Total Expenses

    YearTotal AssetsTotal RevenueTotal ExpensesFiling
    2024 $7,643,119 $3,453,577 $3,121,743 View
    2023 $7,843,879 $77,885 $566,200 View
    2022 $7,269,793 $-154,121 $2,216,649 View
    2021 $10,976,017 $10,116,716 $2,571,767 View
    2020 $2,794,715 $993,983 $1,663,235 View

    Prior year filings: 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011

    Expenses Detail

    Grant Activity

    All-time grants given statistics from Candid dataset:

    • Total Grant Value: $32,866,532
    • Number of Grants: 161
    • Number of Recipients: 38

    Selection of highest value grants given from the last seven years:

    AmountYearFunderSubject
    $1,500,0002024 Cato InstituteHOST COMMITTEE-CO-CHAIR
    $1,000,0002021 Donors Trust IncWorker Freedom Fund
    $500,0002024 Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and LibertyGENERAL ADMINISTRATION
    $500,0002024 Donors Trust IncWorker Freedom Fund
    $500,0002022 Donors Trust IncWorker Freedom Fund
    $500,0002021 INSTITUTE FOR HUMANE STUDIESGeneral Administration
    $410,0322022 Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and LibertyLord Acton Circle Sponsorship
    $400,0002022 Cato InstituteGeneral Administration
    $400,0002022 INSTITUTE FOR HUMANE STUDIESGeneral Administration
    $400,0002020 INSTITUTE FOR HUMANE STUDIESGENERAL FUND
    $300,0002020 Cato InstituteGENERAL FUND
    $250,0002024 INDEPENDENT INSTITUTEDavid J Theroux Chair
    $250,0002024 Institute for JusticeGeneral Administration
    $250,0002023 INDEPENDENT INSTITUTEDavid J Theroux Chair
    $250,0002023 Institute for JusticeGeneral Administration
    $250,0002022 Institute for JusticeGeneral Administration
    $250,0002021 Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and LibertyLord Acton Circle Sponsorship
    $250,0002021 Cato InstituteGeneral Administration
    $250,0002021 The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy StudiesGeneral Administration
    $250,0002020 Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and LibertyGENERAL FUND
    $250,0002020 Federalist SocietyGENERAL FUND
    $150,0002021 Institute for JusticeGeneral Administration
    $150,0002020 Institute for JusticeGENERAL FUND
    $100,0002024 REASON FOUNDATIONGeneral Administration
    $100,0002022 Becket FundGeneral Administration

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    Financials, employee compensation, and grant information provided by Candid.

    Mentioned in this Article

    References

    1. For a profile of Ethelmae Humphreys, see Melissa Dunston, “Born Into Business:  Ethelmae Humphreys Is 70-Year ‘Matriarch’ of Roofing Industry, Joplin Globe, April 29, 2018, https://www.joplinglobe.com/news/lifestyles/born-into-business-ethelmae-humphreys-is-70-year-matriarch-of-roofing-industry/article_616c55bf-e558-50c0-baa6-593d1b06cff3.html (accessed November 3, 2020)
    2. Nicholas Kusnetz, “The Assault on Healthcare Reform,” The Nation, October 25, 2010.
    3. Ruth Conniff and Matthew Rothschild, “What’s At Stake in Wisconsin,” The Progressive, June 2012.
    4. “Meet Missouri’s Greedy Billionaires Trying To Wipe Out The Middle Class,” Teamsters Nation Blog, February 27, 2013, http://teamsternation.blogspot.com/2013/02/meet-missouris-greedy-billionaires.html (accessed November 4, 2020).
    5. Bill Allison and John McCormick, “Musk Among the Millionaires and Billionaires Funding Midterms,” Bloomberg, July 16, 2018.
    6. E.L. Craig Foundation, Return of a Private Foundation (Form 990-PF), 2018, Attachment 9  https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_990/446015127/06_2019_prefixes_39-45%2F446015127_201812_990PF_2019061816422025