Millions in Intentional Major Gifts Reshaping Opportunity at Rhode Island Colleges

Big Money, Big Impact: A Surge in Major Gifts Is Reshaping Colleges Across Rhode Island

In an era when higher education is facing enrollment pressures, rising costs, and growing skepticism about value, something else is happening quietly—but powerfully—behind the scenes: the money is flowing – in some cases as never before. Not in small annual donations or incremental fundraising campaigns, but in major, often historic gifts—millions, tens of millions, and even hundreds of millions of dollars at a time—reshaping what colleges can offer, who they can attract, and how they position themselves for the future.

Here in Rhode Island, that trend is not just visible, it is accelerating in ways that are changing the trajectory of local institutions. We look at some recent gifts:

URI Board of Trustees chair, spouse gift $2.145 million for new endowed scholars program

Gift from Margo Cook ’86 and Renee Cohen will provide full four-year scholarships to help students succeed in any field

University of Rhode Island Board of Trustees Chair Margo Cook ’86 and her spouse, Renee Cohen, have gifted the state’s land- and sea-grant institution $2.145 million to create a new endowed scholars program and support other various academic and athletic programs at URI.

The majority of the gift—$1.82 million—will help launch the Cook-Cohen Scholars Program to attract the most highly sought-after students from around the United States and the world. The program will establish in the fall of 2026 its inaugural cohort of scholars possessing exceptional academic achievement, intellectual curiosity, and demonstrated leadership potential and performance.

Cook-Cohen scholars will receive full, four-year scholarships that cover tuition and fees, housing and dining, and a global travel experience during URI’s Winter J Term. The scholarships will apply to any field of study at URI.

“This extraordinary gift reflects both a deep belief in the transformative power of education and a lifelong commitment to the URI community,” URI President Marc Parlange said.

More than a financial scholarship, the cohort model also offers access to the University’s Honors Program and Colloquium, URI’s Leadership Institute, special advising, priority course registration, donor mentoring, and access to special University events.

Cook-Cohen scholarship nominations will be based on a holistic review of prospective student scholars by a URI admission team and review committee, including reviewing the strength of the students’ high school coursework, and academic and extracurricular interests; leadership service; and unique talents and impact on their community. After applying to the University, Cook-Cohen finalists will be invited to campus to interview with a selection committee and take part in several scholar activities.

The remaining $325,000 of the gift will be split among four established University programs and initiatives—the URI Women’s Basketball Cook and Cohen Wellness Program, URI College of Business, URI President’s 21^st Century Fund for Excellence, and the Margo Cook Internship/Study Abroad Scholarship.

Dean Libutti, URI’s associate vice president for enrollment management and student success, says Cook and Cohen’s gift also comes as the University is experiencing tremendous momentum amidst national challenges surrounding student recruitment. URI saw a record 29,000 applications from prospective students, supported by the University’s various scholarship programs.

“Having premier scholarships at a time when enrollment in higher education is challenging is a beacon for URI to maintain our momentum, and making education affordable is paramount to who we are as an institution,” Libutti said. “Margo and Renee’s gift is about more than just providing students financial support, it is also about bringing a cohort together to do great things at the University and be part of our amazing programs. We are grateful to both Margo and Renee for their generous support.”

Relieving financial burdens

Cook saw early on how transformational donations to URI can impact a student’s future. She had attended dinners commemorating substantial monetary gifts from former CVS chair, CEO and president Thomas M. Ryan ’75 Hon. ’99, and his wife, Cathy Ryan; and former Hasbro CEO Alfred J. Verrecchia ’67, M.B.A. ’72, Hon. ’04, and his wife, Geraldine Verrecchia. Those gifts helped launch scholars programs ensuring students receive an education at URI.

In meeting parents at those dinners, Cook not only was excited to see students eager to collaborate in cohorts and build bonds with one another, but also felt grateful to see the families’ appreciation for scholarship aid. Both Cook and Cohen were subsequently driven to further that mission in their own way through this new scholars program.

“Our motivation is to help remove that financial anxiety for students and their parents so that we can unlock students to be the best they can be,” said Cook, who graduated from URI with a degree in finance and worked close to four decades within the asset management industry, including as an executive leader.

Cook also loves when students from other educational backgrounds create a melting pot to better understand both each other and what the URI community is all about—further enriching their overall University experience. She also said ensuring public flagship universities such as URI can thrive through gift-giving is critical to society.

Cohen also said URI elevated its academics to where it once again was ranked the No. 1 public university in New England by The Wall Street Journal and has maintained its R1 designation as a top research institution in the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. The new Cook-Cohen Scholars program will be a win-win for the University, she says, where the scholarships will bring in exceptional students to pursue strong academic offerings, and in turn further build on URI’s global educational reputation.

Continued alumni support at URI

Over the last seven years, URI has received approximately $120 million in major gifts from alumni to help students succeed at the University and beyond. Most notably, URI in 2024 received a landmark $65 million gift—the largest in URI’s history—from the estate of the late alumna Helen Izzi Schilling to create an endowment to award scholarships to high-achieving students majoring in science, technology, engineering, or math.

This academic year, Mark S. Cruise ’81, ’84, a URI football stand-out, and his wife, Sue Cruise ’84, gifted their alma mater $2 million to establish an endowment fund to support URI’s student-athletes. Also, Joseph F. Matthews ’80, chair of Westerly-based Maxson Automatic Machinery Co. and a URI trustee, recently awarded the University $1.6 million to financially support engineering students transferring to URI from the Community College of Rhode Island.

Also, Cook’s and Cohen’s latest financial gift follows a $1.05 million donation they gave URI in 2019 to establish the Margo L. Cook Executive-in-Residence Fund to address the gender gap in the finance industry.

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RISD receives historic $20 million gift for full tuition scholarships, faculty positions

Historic gift will support the establishment of the Maxwell Scholarship Fund and the Maxwell Global Perspectives Faculty Fund

The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) is pleased to announce a gift of $20 million — the largest outright gift in RISD’s history — from the Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation to establish the Maxwell Scholarship Fund and the Maxwell Global Perspectives Faculty Fund.

The Maxwell Scholarship Fund will add eight new, fully funded tuition scholarships for undergraduate students, and the Maxwell Global Perspectives Faculty Fund will endow two new faculty positions and one rotating visiting residency for scholars, artists, designers, and architects representing global art-making traditions. These funds will shape how art and design are taught and understood for generations — educating artists and designers who are not only skilled, but genuinely equipped to engage the complexity of the world they are making.

RISD President Crystal Williams said, “Art and design impact every facet of society. Because of this, artists and designers can drive consequential change. This gift advances these change-making opportunities, the power of communities that reflect a broad diversity of global perspectives, and RISD’s vision to remain among the best, most dynamic art and design schools in the world. It will help us ensure that the educational path is open and accessible to the next generation of creatives and that once here, they are able to learn the broadest array of traditions and expertise possible.”

Delle Maxwell ’74 TX and her husband Pat Hanrahan cofounded the Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation to support individual scientists, teachers, conservationists, and creators whose diverse perspectives enable us to discover new things about ourselves and our world. “My husband Pat and I recognize that investments in talented, innovative people can transform not only their individual explorations, one field, or one institution, but the ways we connect people, places, and ideas,” Maxwell said. “As I look back, I realize how much RISD influenced my worldview. My experience made it possible for me to meet creative people from different backgrounds and encouraged us to learn from each other. I’ve carried these varied perspectives, as well as design principles, with me throughout my career.”

The Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation has supported RISD’s Loop Lab, where a pilot initiative of the Edna W. Lawrence Nature Lab is exploring new possibilities for material circularity on campus to turn RISD’s own waste streams into raw materials for creative practice. The Foundation also supports the Movement Lab, a cross-disciplinary center for the creative study of movement.

About Rhode Island School of Design
RISD is a creative community founded in 1877 in Providence, Rhode Island. Today, we enroll 2,577 students hailing from 60 countries. Led by a committed faculty, students are engaged in more than 40 full-time bachelor’s and master’s degree programs and supported by a worldwide network of over 33,000 alumni who demonstrate the vital role artists and designers play in today’s society.

About Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation
The Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation seeks ways to support individuals who explore and ask through fieldwork in natural sciences, create and captivate as they promote mastery in craft, teach and try as they support students in public education, and conserve and connect as they encourage care for our food systems and natural world. Learn more about the Foundation’s partners and work at www.Maxwell-Hanrahan.org.

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Roger Williams University School of Law Receives Historic $4 Million Gift from Mark Mandell to Establish Premier Trial Advocacy Center

A historic gift to the law school is slated to launch a permanent program to train the next generation of elite trial advocates.

Roger Williams University School of Law (RWU Law) is proud to announce the creation of the Mandell Trial Advocacy Center. The Center will be a permanent and sustained educational pathway whose purpose will be to train trial advocates.

The Center will integrate coursework, controlled simulations, selective competition participation, and practitioner engagement. The Center will train law school students and also practicing attorneys who seek to hone and refine their trial advocacy skills on behalf of their clients.

The Center is being endowed through a transformational $4 million gift from renowned trial attorney and longtime law school supporter, Mark Mandell.

“The Mandell Trial Advocacy Center positions RWU Law at the forefront of legal education by offering a methodology-driven, values-centered program that is unique in the United States. Mark’s renowned ‘Case Framing’ model will serve as the basis for the Center’s programming and ensure that our graduates possess the strategic clarity and ethical judgment required to excel as changemakers in a rapidly evolving legal landscape,” said Gregory Bowman, Dean, RWU Law. 

The investment for this Center is fitting for Mandell, given his years of service to RWU Law. He has served as a member and chair of the law school’s Board of Directors; a member of Roger Williams University’s Board of Trustees; an adjunct faculty member; a donor; a founder, leader, and participant in social justice and pro bono programming at the law school; and as an advisor to many RWU Law deans and faculty, robustly demonstrating the impact he has had in shaping the Law School.

Together with his wife, Yvette Boisclair, and son Zack Mandell—both of whom are his law partners at Mandell, Boisclair, and Mandell, Ltd.—Mark will serve as a founding advisor of the Center. He will also chair an Oversight Board composed of respected members of the bench and bar selected by existing members of the Oversight Board and the Dean of RWU Law. This board will advise and guide on quality, professional relevance, and strategic direction for the Center, ensuring both continuity of vision and adaptability as the profession evolves.

“RWU Law has been an important part of my professional life for years. I have seen firsthand the incredible potential of its students. This gift is meant to be an investment in them. Through the Mandell Trial Advocacy Center, we are hopefully creating a permanent platform of excellence that will strengthen the civil justice system in Rhode Island and beyond for generations to come,” said Mark Mandell.

To establish and launch the Center, RWU Law will appoint a new Director of Trial Advocacy Programs, establish essential administrative and program infrastructure, build a curriculum and instructional materials, support trial advocacy teams and competitions, support visiting practitioners and national programming engagement, and provide scholarships and other funding to reduce financial barriers and increase student access. Beyond law students, the Center will also offer education for active practitioners and CLE programming aligned with the Mandell Case Framing methodology.

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Generous gift to fund two professorships, catalyze new economics and policy research at Brown University

A $12 million gift from the Bravo Family Foundation founded and led by accomplished business leader and Brown University alumnus Orlando Bravo will fund the establishment of two endowed professorships and support research focused on pivotal economics and policy issues.

The creation of the Orlando Bravo University Professor in Economics and Policy faculty positions — jointly appointed within Brown’s Department of Economics and recently launched Thomas J. Watson Jr. School of International and Public Affairs — will strengthen the University’s ability to recruit and retain outstanding scholars and advance research and teaching in economics and policy. The gift is among the largest ever to support economic policy research at Brown.

Brown University President Christina H. Paxson said the gift from the Bravo Family Foundation will benefit current and future Brown students, who will have the opportunity to learn from and conduct research alongside the leading scholars the University will be able to appoint.

“These two endowed professorships position Brown to grow our leading-edge economics department for years to come, while also creating momentum for collaborative scholarship at the Watson School, where we are educating the next generation of policy leaders,” said Paxson, a professor of economics and international and public affairs. “The generosity of Orlando Bravo and his family will advance Brown’s impact as a leading research university by broadening economics and public policy scholarship at a time of momentous challenge.”

Along with offering a prestigious honor for the appointed faculty members, named professorships provide an ongoing source of financial support for research and teaching in the designated fields of study. Most, including the two new Bravo professorships, are endowed in perpetuity, enabling support for generations of faculty and, in turn, the students they teach.

The Bravo Family Foundation and Bravo’s gift builds on a legacy of support, which includes a transformative $25 million gift to Brown in 2019, part of which funded the launch of the Orlando Bravo Center for Economic Research. To date, Bravo and his foundation have donated more than $45 million to the University. A Brown Class of 1992 graduate, Bravo earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and political science and went on to co-found Thoma Bravo, the world’s largest software-focused investment firm, with more than $183 billion in assets under management, where he is a managing partner.

“My family and the Bravo Family Foundation hope this gift will enable Brown University to continue to recruit the absolute best faculty to support both the Department of Economics and the Watson School,” Bravo said. “We specifically chose to allocate funding for the professorships to enable professors to explore research in exciting new and expanded ways. We’re glad to be able to support my alma mater in a significant way that will stand to impact future generations to come.”

Expanding economics and policy scholarship

John N. Friedman, inaugural dean of the Watson School, said the latest Bravo gift is a critical catalyst to support the strategic growth of research and teaching at the school, which launched in July 2025 and is built on the foundation of the well-established Watson Institute.

A search is underway for the first of the two positions, and the scholar hired could begin as soon as the 2026-27 academic year, said Friedman, a professor of economics and international and public affairs. He expects that Brown will appoint an international economist to teach and conduct research on topics such as global trade and tariffs, supply chains, international currency markets and investments.

Kareen Rozen, chair of Brown’s Department of Economics, said the professorships will help to expand the breadth of top-notch faculty at what is already a world-class department.

“Policy-oriented research is an essential part of what top economics departments do,” Rozen said. “This collaboration with the Watson School offers an exciting opportunity for growth.”

Rozen said the Bravo Center for Economic Research has been an essential catalyst for high-impact economics research since it launched in 2019. Bravo’s gift has enabled the department to expand funding for faculty and students through new research grants and assistantships, as well as additional support to attend conferences, host lectures, create new “mini courses” and fund visiting scholars at Brown.

“Through the continued work and development of the Bravo Center, and now these endowed professorships, I see a great investment in our faculty and students, and an opportunity to push the department to the next level,” said Professor of Economics Geoffroy de Clippel, director of the center.

Giving back to expand opportunities

Bravo and his wife, Katy, founded the nonprofit Bravo Family Foundation in 2017 after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico and they were contacted by communities asking for help. The foundation focuses on funding initiatives that benefit community development, education and young entrepreneurs.

For Bravo, who has also served as a trustee on the Corporation of Brown University, it has been especially meaningful to give back to his alma mater and the scholars who advance Brown’s teaching and research, he said. In addition to support for economics, the Bravo Family Foundation previously made a $1 million gift to Brown’s Faculty Development Fund, which supports research and travel for faculty at Brown, and created a scholarship fund to support students.

Additional Major Gift of note to Brown University was given in December of 2025 by Lizzie and Jonathan Tisch, for $20 Million. 

In Rhode Island, the stakes are high

For Rhode Island, where higher education plays an outsized role in the state’s economy and identity, the stakes are especially high. These major gifts are doing more than benefiting individual campuses—they are expanding access for students, strengthening institutions, and reinforcing the region’s place in an increasingly competitive academic landscape that shows no signs of slowing down.