The J.P. Humphreys Foundation is one of two private grantmaking foundations created from the fortune of TAMKO Building Products founder and manufacturing entrepreneur E.L. Craig. It provides disaster relief and other charitable aid in areas where TAMKO operates and support to national right-leaning public policy groups.

Background

E.L. Craig founded the company now known as TAMKO Building Products in 1944. His fortune has led to the creation of two foundations: the E.L. Craig Foundation, and the J.P. Humphreys Foundation, named for Craig’s son-in-law. ¹ The Humphreys Foundation is headed by J.P. Humphreys’s widow, Ethelmae C. Humphreys, and has a board that includes Humphreys’s children and grandchildren. ²

Leadership

David Humphreys

J.P. Humphreys’s son, David Humphreys, is secretary/treasurer of the J.P. Humphreys Foundation. ³ He has long been active in conservative and Republican politics. In 2016, Humphreys donated $1 million to the Conservative Solutions PAC, which backed the presidential bid of U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL).  Humphreys told the Springfield News Leader he made the donations to Rubio because his donations were meant “to support individual liberty and personal responsibility, lower taxes, and less restrictive government regulation of people and commerce.” ⁴

In 2017.the Springfield News Leader reported that Humphreys had given $17 million to Republicans in the 2016 election cycle as well as donations in support of an ultimately unsuccessful effort to make Missouri a right-to-work state by prohibiting mandatory labor union fees in 2017. Humphreys has said that he considers himself a libertarian “with no allegiance to a particular party” and that his political views “were influenced greatly by my parents’ evolution from Eisenhower Republicans to committed libertarians.” He added that his inspiration for giving was his grandfather, E.L. Craig, “who often gave money and food to people in need, particularly during the Great Depression.” ⁵

In 2020 Humphreys amounted he would not give to politicians because of the coronavirus pandemic and because he considered politics too divisive. ⁶ As of December 2020, Humphreys sat on the board of the libertarian think tank Cato Institute. ⁷

Sarah Humphreys Atkins

Humphreys’s sister, Sarah Atkins, is vice president of the J.P. Humphreys Foundation. She sits on the board of the libertarian organizations Foundation for Economic Education and Free to Choose Network. ⁸

Grantmaking

Although most of the J.P. Humphreys Foundation’s giving is to center-right public policy organizations, in 2011, after a tornado destroyed large parts of Joplin, Missouri, the Humphreys Foundation gave substantial efforts for relief, in addition to $1 million donated by TAMKO Building Products to a local chapter of the American Red Cross and $1 million donated by David Humphreys and his wife Debra to the Salvation Army and a local fund rebuilding the city’s schools. ⁹

In 2018 the J.P. Humphreys Foundation’s largest donation was $2 million to Donors Trust, followed by $201,000 to the Foundation for Economic Education.  The Joplin Regional Medical School Alliance received $125,000, and two other center-right organizations, the Atlas Society and Atlas Economic Research Foundation, received $100,000 grants. ¹⁰

1. TAMKO Building Products. “TAMKO Charitable Giving.” Accessed November 9, 2020. https://www.tamko.com/about/giving.
2. J.P. Humphreys Foundation, Return of a Private Foundation (Form 990-PF), 2018, Attachment 8 https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_990/431244445/06_2019_prefixes_39-45%2F431244445_201812_990PF_2019061816422026
3. J.P. Humphreys Foundation, Return of a Private Foundation (Form 990-PF), 2018, Attachment 8 https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_990/431244445/06_2019_prefixes_39-45%2F431244445_201812_990PF_2019061816422026
4. Jon Swedien, “Donor Gives $1 Million To Marco Rubio’s Campaign;” Springfield News Leader, February 4, 2016.
5. Deirdre Shesgreen, “Joplin Man A Rising Mega-Donor,” Springfield News  Leader, October 8, 2017.
6. Kurt Erickson, “One of Missouri’s Megadonors Cuts Off Big Money Donations Heading Into The Election,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 28, 2020.
7. Cato Institute. “Board of Directors,” May 22, 2020. https://www.cato.org/board-of-directors.
8. “Sarah Atkins,” Foundation For Economic Education website, https://fee.org/people/sarah-atkins/ (accessed November 5, 2020).
9. Sarah Okeson, “Hearts, Wallets Open For Victims,” Springfield News Leader, June 12, 2011.
10. J.P. Humphreys Foundation, Return of a Private Foundation (Form 990-PF), 2018, Part XV Line 3 https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_990/431244445/06_2019_prefixes_39-45%2F431244445_201812_990PF_2019061816422026