The Leitalift Foundation and The Women’s College at Brenau University have much in common. Each has a history stretching back more than 140 years. Both entities exist to provide women a foundation for success in both their personal and professional lives.
The Leitalift Foundation, a nonprofit organization based in metro Atlanta, was established in 1956 by Leita Thompson. Because of her struggles as a single working woman, Thompson created the foundation to help other working women “lead a fuller life.” She remained its president until her death in 1978 at age 84.
Since then, the foundation has sought to continue Thompson’s dream by offering financial assistance to women who are striving to achieve professional goals and contribute to their communities, including scholarships, grants and endowments to a number of colleges and universities.
“The Leitalift Foundation is pleased to support deserving Brenau students,” Foundation President Kimberly Gauger says. “It is an honor to continue the mission of Leita Thompson in a meaningful way by helping women reach their fullest potential.”
Leita Thompson was born in 1894, only a year after Dr. Haywood Jefferson “H.J.” Pearce Sr., one of Brenau’s most influential presidents, began his 50-year tenure leading the school that had been established in Gainesville, Georgia, in 1878.
As a college student, Thompson joined the women’s suffrage movement and finally got the right to vote at age 26; she remained dedicated to equal rights for women her entire life. She taught for a couple of years after earning her degree, but she spent 40 years in banking and became one of the first women in an executive banking position.
In 1946, Thompson purchased more than 100 acres of land on Woodstock Road in Roswell, Georgia, where she built a home and lived until her death. Thompson had promised the land to the city of Roswell to be used for recreational space upon her death, and the foundation deeded her 107-acre estate, a gift worth $20 million, to the city of Roswell to establish the Leita Thompson Memorial Park.
In 2001, the foundation shifted its focus to providing scholarships and grants to deserving young women via a number of programs and institutions, Gauger says.
“We have also provided grants to Every Women Works, a local charity that assists women coming out of the prison system to restore and rehabilitate their lives,” she says. “In summary, we have provided scholarships and grants to 415 students and interns since 2001. We are proud of that record and like to call Leitalift the ‘small Foundation with a big heart.’”
In 2024, the foundation established an endowed scholarship at Brenau for undergraduate students in The Women’s College and has provided scholarships and other support over time.
“On behalf of the university, I appreciate this extraordinary gift from the Leitalift Foundation to create a scholarship that will provide ongoing financial assistance for undergraduate women at Brenau,” Brenau President David L. Barnett, Ph.D., says. “The foundation’s mission to support women striving to achieve professional goals and contribute to their communities aligns well with our university mission to challenge students to lead extraordinary lives of professional and personal fulfillment.”
The initial gift will be invested, and once the fund is fully endowed, scholarships will be awarded to qualified students who demonstrate financial need, are in good academic standing, and are from Georgia.
