# Vasser Woolley Foundation

Vasser Woolley Foundation is an Endowment / Foundation based in Atlanta, United States.

## Overview

- **Organization type:** Endowment / Foundation
- **Headquarters:** Atlanta, United States
- **Region:** North America
- **Address:** Atlanta, GA, United States
- **Founded:** 1961
- **Assets under management:** $15M–$20M (Altss estimate)

## Regulatory record

- **Reports private funds:** No

## About

The Vasser Woolley Foundation Inc. was incorporated in Georgia in 1961 by Vasser Woolley, an Atlanta attorney and businessman who directed his estate toward local charitable causes. The foundation operates as an independent 501(c)(3) private grantmaking entity, governed by a board of trustees drawn from Atlanta's legal and civic leadership. The foundation restricts its grantmaking to organizations serving the metropolitan Atlanta area, with a programmatic focus on general welfare, education, the arts, and youth development. Grant recipients are typically small to mid-sized local nonprofits. The foundation does not maintain a public-facing website, issue RFPs, or employ professional program staff — trustees evaluate and approve grants directly. There is no evidence of program-related investments, mission-related investing, or any allocation to private equity, venture capital, or hedge funds. The foundation is deeply intertwined with Atlanta's legal establishment. Secretary/Treasurer Margaret W. Scott is a partner at Alston & Bird, where she leads the firm's Wealth Planning and Tax-Exempt Organizations Teams. The late Neil Williams, a former chair of the foundation, was managing partner of Alston & Bird and chaired The Duke Endowment until his death in 2012. Current trustees include Bernard Taylor Sr., a JAMS mediator and former chair of the World Affairs Council Atlanta, and Cyril Turner, former president of the Delta Nature Center. The foundation has also funded several endowed academic chairs in chemistry at a Georgia university, an unusually specific philanthropic signature for a general-welfare funder. What distinguishes the Vasser Woolley Foundation structurally is its deliberate low profile. It operates without a website, without professional staff, and without any discernible interest in the programmatic or impact-investing practices that dominate contemporary foundation discourse. Its model — a small, trustee-run, place-based grantmaker with deep ties to a single professional community — reflects an older philanthropic architecture. That architecture, while unremarkable in dollar terms, represents a persistent form of institutional wealth deployment that large-scale data collection systematically overlooks.

## Sectors

- Education
- Arts & Culture
- Youth Development

## People

- Margaret W. Scott — Secretary/Treasurer
- Bernard Taylor Sr. — Trustee
- Cyril Turner — Trustee

## Questions

### What types of organizations does the Vasser Woolley Foundation fund?

The foundation supports charitable organizations in the metropolitan Atlanta area, with a stated focus on general welfare, education, the arts, and youth development. It has also funded multiple endowed academic chairs in chemistry at a Georgia university. The foundation does not maintain a website or publish grant guidelines, so the full scope of its grantmaking is not publicly available.

### Who serves on the board of the Vasser Woolley Foundation?

Public records identify three current trustees: Margaret W. Scott, a partner at Alston & Bird leading the firm's Wealth Planning and Tax-Exempt Organizations practice, serving as Secretary/Treasurer; Bernard Taylor Sr., a JAMS mediator and arbitrator who formerly chaired the World Affairs Council Atlanta; and Cyril Turner, former president of the Delta Nature Center. The late Neil Williams, former managing partner of Alston & Bird and chair of The Duke Endowment, served as chair until his death in 2012.

### Where does the Vasser Woolley Foundation's wealth come from?

The foundation's endowment was established from the estate of Vasser Woolley, an Atlanta-based attorney and businessman who incorporated the foundation in 1961. The specific source of his wealth beyond his law practice and business activities has not been publicly detailed.

## Related profiles

- [Tennessee Performing Arts Foundation](https://altss.com/profile/tennessee-performing-arts-foundation)
- [Fort Lewis College Foundation](https://altss.com/profile/fort-lewis-college-foundation)

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Last updated: 2026-08-11T02:43:31.692Z

Canonical page: https://altss.com/profile/vasser-woolley-foundation

Maintained by Altss — https://altss.com — methodology: https://altss.com/methodology