URI Foundation increases fundraising goal to $300 million by 2024
The University’s “Big Ideas. Bold Plans.” campaign launched in 2020 has increased its fundraising goal to achieve $300 million by June 30, 2024. PHOTO CREDIT: Melissa Marchese
Increasing the University of Rhode Island’s campaign goal from $250 million to $300 million was not only a decision that required much conversation and forecasting but also “a leap of faith.”
URI announced its “Big Ideas. Bold Plans.” campaign in 2020, setting a goal for URI to raise $250 million by June 30, 2024. This was the largest fundraising campaign by the University to date at the time of its announcement, only superseded by its new fundraising goal of $300 million.
When the campaign went public in September 2020, the campaign had already raised $175 million in leadership stage donations. Currently, the campaign has raised $218 million, bringing the Foundation approximately 87 percent of the way to its initial goal. This, in combination with other major factors, was a sign to the Foundation that they needed to consider increasing their goal.
“We’re raising about $30 million a year, so we were going to go past the $250 [million], just sort of with our bread and butter,” President of the URI Foundation Lil Breul O’Rourke said. “We thought, this is a great moment of pride for the University and an inflection point to say, ‘we’re surprising ourselves— look what we think we can do.’”
While the Foundation completed tests and forecasting to estimate their new goal amount, they also decided to take “a bit of a leap of faith,” according to O’Rourke, which is common practice for many foundations.
The campaign is oriented through five main pillars, according to her: student access, the URI learning experience, transformative faculty leadership, innovative and distinctive programs and strategic opportunities.
O’Rourke attributed part of the success of the campaign to three transformative gifts given by three donors which totaled $56 million. However, the Foundation’s Vice President for Development Jeffrey Cabral, also emphasized the importance and impact each gift can make, regardless of the amount.
“A transformative gift could actually be at any level,” Cabral said. “It just allows you to kind of turn the page and move you into the next chapter. I would say that collectively, everyone who gives to RhodyNow, which is critically important for immediate use for our students and faculty, is a transformative gift.”
RhodyNow is a fund that allows immediate support for students and faculty throughout the University. The “Big Ideas. Bold Plans.” campaign has engaged all of the smaller colleges within the URI network, each supporting its own priorities. The campaign has also extended throughout the athletic programs as well, according to O’Rourke.
The Foundation hosted its annual Day of Giving on Oct. 7 and raised over $1.4 million for various programs and departments throughout campus including the Harrington School for Communication and Media, the Women’s Basketball team and Greek Life.
According to Cabral, while the total monetary donations they received on the Day were “amazing,” he was also impressed by the number of donors themselves.
“The big thing is 1,000 new donors [gave on the Day of Giving],” Cabral said. “When we talk about campaign momentum, that’s really what we look for. How many new donors are we attracting? And, obviously, that’s a great number of any institution.”
O’Rourke and Cabral agreed that the welcoming of new URI President Marc Parlange has helped the campaign’s momentum and efforts as well.
The Foundation’s continued efforts towards the development of their campaign have made the increased goal more feasible for the University, according to O’Rourke.
“I think [the campaign] is a point of pride and a vote of confidence,” she said. “URI is a great place, and it deserves to ask for support and prove that we can steward those funds responsibly and make sure that they impact our students and faculty.”