2023 Corporate and Foundations Relations Annual Report

Corporate and Foundation Relations

FISCAL YEAR 2023 ANNUAL REPORT

From Our Executive Director

The University of Rhode Island (URI) Foundation & Alumni Engagement Office of Corporate and Foundation Relations finished off another productive year. Our team raised over $8 million this year from corporate and foundation donors. In addition, 100 proposals were submitted through our office for a variety of projects, programs, and initiatives across the University.

Support for URI from private and family foundations came from both Rhode Island-based organizations such as the Rhode Island Foundation (including significant gifts made from donor-advised funds), the van Beuren Charitable Foundation (see pg. 3), and The Champlin Foundation (see pg. 4), as well as regional and national organizations such as Democracy Fund and the Teagle Foundation

Corporate giving continues to have a significant impact on the University. The Corporate and Foundation Relations team works closely with long-term supporters and partners such as HarborOne, Centreville Charitable Foundation, and IGT (see pg. 5) to further develop these highly valued relationships.

We are confident, given the level of proposal activity and collaboration across the University, that fiscal year 2024 will be a great year for corporate and foundation gifts to URI. The work we do, promoting corporate and foundation funding opportunities to members of the University community and partnering with them to access and win grant funding, is an increasingly vital component in elevating the reputation of URI. On a broader level, philanthropic support from corporations and foundations plays a significant role in supporting faculty and students across URI and enhancing the overall academic experience at the University

In the year ahead, the Office of Corporate and Foundation Relations will continue to focus on establishing new foundation relationships and new corporate partnerships with the goal of securing future support for the University. We look forward to continuing to meet with administrators, faculty, staff, and students so that we can work together to provide important opportunities for all of URI. We are also pleased to partner on any federal proposals that may require corporate partners or corporate match. Please reach out to any member of the Corporate and Foundation Relations team if you have questions or would like to know more about what we do and the impact we have on URI.

On behalf of the entire Corporate and Foundation Relations team, we look forward to working with you again this fiscal year!

Sincerely,

Katharine Hazard Flynn Executive Director Corporate and Foundation Relations

URI photo by NORA LEWIS

The van Beuren Charitable Foundation Awards $3 Million to URI

The van Beuren Charitable Foundation has generously awarded the University of Rhode Island a $3 million grant to support the development of a new facility for Ocean Engineering on the URI Narragansett Bay Campus (NBC) that will propel the development of the region’s blue economy.

The funding complements the 2022 state bond that approved $100 million to dramatically transform the NBC and modernize its facilities.

“We deeply appreciate the support of the van Beuren Charitable Foundation,” said Anthony Marchese, dean of the URI College of Engineering. “We are honored they recognize our global reputation for ocean engineering research, education, and workforce development and understand how our interdisciplinary partnerships with URI’s Graduate School of Oceanography, as well as our partnerships with industry, can be leveraged to develop technologies and programs that service the blue economy. Better facilities will accelerate these efforts.”

The University has developed a campus master plan for building upgrades and new construction. The Ocean Engineering facility figures prominently in the master plan and will replace two structures that are outmoded and generally substandard. The complex includes an ocean engineering education and research center with offices, laboratories, and classrooms, and the wave and acoustics laboratory with a large wave and tow tank, an acoustics tank, and state-of-the-art equipment.

Our world-class faculty and students have been driving blue economy innovation for decades with sub-par facilities,” said Marc Parlange, president of URI. “The expanded opportunities for knowledge creation and workforce development in these new facilities will undoubtedly yield a major return on the investments by the van Beuren Charitable Foundation and the Rhode Island taxpayers.”

The blue economy spans several sub-industries, including ports and shipping, defense, marine trades, ocean-based renewables, aquaculture and fisheries, and tourism and recreation. URI is a leader in the sector and serves a key role in workforce development, research, community outreach, and stakeholder engagement.

Article taken from original release by University of Rhode Island on March 13, 2023

TThe Champlin Foundation has awarded the University of Rhode Island $498,965 to support four projects to advance technology and learning for students and faculty across various disciplines. Chosen from among a competitive set of applications, the URI projects include new methods of drug testing, an atomic thermometer, equipment to create wearable textile technology, and advanced archaeological tools. Each project represents cross-disciplinary collaboration among faculty representing a variety of URI’s academic colleges. The Champlin Foundation, one of the oldest philanthropic organizations in Rhode Island, has a 30-year legacy funding projects at URI that total more than $19 million.

The Champlin Foundation has a long history in giving equipment that better prepares URI students to successfully enter their professions and grow within their fields,” said Laura Beauvais, interim provost and vice president for academic affairs. “Our faculty are in tune with the needs of students and the cutting-edge technology that would improve their educational experience. We are incredibly excited that The Champlin Foundation continues to provide resources to help students throughout their educational journey.”

The projects include:

Advanced Drug Release Testing Technologies for Hands-On Training: $95,000 to purchase cutting-edge equipment for hands-on training for students to support excellence in the area of in vitro drug release testing (outside the living body in an artificial environment) used to predict drug efficacy and safety in animals and humans.

Atomic Thermometer: $197,360 will purchase the SSTR-F thermal conductivity measurement system from Laser Thermal, Inc. for students in chemistry, chemical engineering, and mechanical engineering. This tool can provide non-contact measurements to understand the thermal conductivity of materials.

KNIT and WEAR technology with computer-aided textile designing and manufacturing: $125,605 will be used to purchase a knitting machine that will give students hands-on experience in production techniques by designing their own textiles, simulating their appearance and features, and manufacturing them using the most contemporary software and technology.

Student Tools for Building an Archaeological, Historical and Cultural Understanding of the URI Campus: $81,000 will purchase archaeological geophysical survey equipment that can detect underground cultural features and artifacts and provide insights about buried archaeological resources.

URI receives $498,965 in grants from The Champlin Foundation

Photo courtesy of URI LIBRARIES

IGT, URI launch computer science scholarships for women

Through the generous support of IGT, the University of Rhode Island’s Department of Computer Science and Statistics is launching a four-year scholarship program aimed at increasing the number of women who major in computer science.

The IGT Scholarships for Women in Computer Science program – a $200,000 investment by IGT over the next four years – will open with a cohort of 10 women who are currently first-year students at URI. The scholarships provide a total of about $20,000 per student over their four years, and are open to any first-year student who identifies as a woman.

“IGT has partnered with URI for decades to provide top-quality internships, and we are excited to expand our support for URI students in this new capacity as we aim to increase the number of women graduating with computer science degrees,” said Rachel Barber, IGT senior vice president and chief technology officer of Global Gaming. “As a URI alum, I hope that this IGT Scholars Program inspires more women to take an interest in computer science-focused careers and empower them to confidently enter a career in technology.”

“We’re deeply appreciative that IGT has stepped up to make this investment in our students,” said Jen Riley, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, home to the computer science department. “In doing so, they’re helping to assure that they and other companies have a diverse pipeline of talent headed to the workforce, which benefits everyone. At the same time, they’re strengthening our computer science program by helping us recruit and retain excellent students.”

Nationally, women have earned about 57 percent of all bachelor’s degrees and about half of all science and engineering degrees since the late 1990s, but they only make up about 18 percent of those who graduate with a bachelor’s degree in computer science, according to the National Girls Collaborative Project.

Professor Lisa DiPippo, chair of computer science at URI, sees the same disparity at URI, where the number of women undergraduates in computer science is less than 20 percent. Over the last decade, the number of women graduating from the program has been between 11% and 17 percent. Looking to find answers, the department researched programs at other universities and its own, she said.

“One of the things our research found was that the women who left computer science weren’t doing any worse than the men who stayed in computer science,” DiPippo said. “The women weren’t leaving because of their grades. They were leaving because they felt they didn’t belong. They felt they wanted to find a major where there were more people like them.”

Funding a cohort of 10 women – who will take classes and work together – can reinforce their feeling of belonging, she said. That peer network nurtured by the scholarships can extend that feeling of community to other women in the program. But also, DiPippo said, computer science faculty and staff will host regular meetings and workshops with the scholarship recipients on multiple topics – including academics, professional coaching and job search skills.

“This scholarship program could be game-changing,” she said. “IGT has very generously provided money for this cohort of students over the next four years. They have set the tone. It’s now our hope that we can find more companies that decide they want to do this. But it’s also game-changing for the women who are part of this cohort, giving them a sense of belonging that the group will provide and the confidence to succeed.”

The IGT Scholars Program will provide recipients a $2,500 tuition scholarship in their second semester of their first year, and $5,000 awards in their three subsequent years. Also, in their sophomore year, scholarship recipients will be able to attend the Grace Hopper Celebration, the world’s largest gathering of women in technology.

But a large part of the scholarship program, said DiPippo, will be the recipients’ and the University’s connection to IGT. Recipients will be able to meet with industry mentors from the company, and the program further opens opportunities for internships and a senior capstone project where students can work on industry problems with an IGT engineer.

“IGT is an international company,” she said. “It’s a great introduction to all kinds of different avenues where students could go with their computer science degree.”

The scholarship program is open to any first-year URI student who identifies as a woman and who is a computer science major or intends to major in the program. IGT Scholars are expected to maintain a grade-point average of 3.0 or higher.

URI photo by NORA LEWIS

About Us

Philanthropic support from corporations and foundations takes many forms, including gifts for facility construction, scholarships, fellowships, and faculty, as well as research, public outreach, internships, sponsorships, technology transfer, diversity programming, and access to education for underserved audiences.

As a major office within the URI Foundation & Alumni Engagement, the Corporate and Foundation Relations staff offer expertise and guidance to members of the University community in funding strategies, proposal writing and editing, and building relationships with corporations and foundations. We promote the development of interdisciplinary partnerships and help coordinate an effective, University-wide approach to corporate and foundation donors.

Visit us at alumni.uri.edu for more information.

URI photo by NORA LEWIS

Cover photo courtesy of STEER MEDIA