The University of Rhode Island is more than halfway to its $100-million goal in its capital campaign started in 2004.

The university will launch the public phase of its fundraising drive Saturday evening with an invitation-only black-tie event in downtown Providence, where it will celebrate some of its biggest donors and announce the exact amount raised in the initial phase of the campaign.

But URI officials say the success of the campaign, which wraps up in 2010, now rests with alumni and supporters of the state university who may not have $1 million each to spare.

“We’ve received many six- and seven-figure gifts during the leadership gift phase, but we’ve also had a lot of important gifts that are less than $100,000 that are very important to us,” said Robert M. Beagle, vice president for university advancement. “A lot of people read $100 million and think they can’t help us. But the point is, they can help if they give at the level they are capable of, because everything adds up.”

URI’s “Making A Difference” campaign is the most ambitious fundraising drive in the university’s history. The campaign will finance $25 million in endowed student scholarships, $20 million to endow faculty chairs and professorships, and $15 million for the library’s endowment. Money will also go to major building projects under way on the Kingston campus.

Capital campaigns are critical in financing public research institutions throughout the country, particularly as state support for public higher education dwindles. In Rhode Island, state support has shrunk to 14 percent of URI’s operating budget, compared with 24 percent a decade ago.

“Today, all major universities require resources from both public and private sources,” said URI President Robert L. Carothers. “This is especially so at the University of Rhode Island, where serving our students well means we must generate more and more of our own funding.”

FUNDRAISING AT THE country’s top universities is fiercely competitive. Twenty-six institutions are conducting campaigns of $1 billion or more. Stanford University is in the middle of a $4.3-billion drive — the highest goal in the country — and Harvard is expected to announce a $5-billion campaign. Brown University is the only Rhode Island school in that league, with a $1.4-billion capital campaign. Brown, which launched its public phase in 2005, passed the $1-billion mark in May.

Top universities use huge endowments to offer generous financial aid to students, provide high-tech research facilities for professors and keep pace in the increasingly expensive and competitive higher-education market.

In the past two decades, public universities have also joined in the race to raise dollars. However, some schools have been slower to build up a dynamic alumni base and tap into wealthy donors.

URI’s endowment of about $85 million trails those of other public universities in New England. In 2005-2006, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported that the endowment for the University of Maine’s Foundation was $124 million; the University of Massachusetts’ $206 million; the University of New Hampshire’s $235 million; the University of Vermont’s $283 million and the University of Connecticut’s $295 million.

There are several reasons for URI’s lagging endowment, Beagle said, including a late start in the race.

“URI’s endowment was only at $12 million when we launched our first capital campaign in 1992, so you can see we really started behind the eight-ball,” Beagle said. “And some of the other New England universities have professional schools attached to them, like UVM’s medical school and UCONN’s law school; that can bring in a lot of money. URI doesn’t have that.”

Rhode Island also has a smaller corporate base to tap than Massachusetts or Connecticut, Beagle said.

Nevertheless, URI’s fundraising operation has become more sophisticated in the past 15 years, and has raised tens of millions of dollars for key capital projects, such as the $54-million Ryan Center sports arena; the $10.9-million renovation of Ballentine Hall, home to URI’s College of Business; and $6.25 million to restore Green Hall, where Carothers’ office is situated. URI’s $50-million capital campaign in the 1990s surpassed expectations, raising $68 million.

In January, URI’s fundraising operations will shift to the recently expanded URI Foundation, and Beagle’s office will focus on public and alumni relations and the athletic association. URI officials say the shift will enable the independent foundation to hire experienced fundraisers at more competitive salaries.

SOME OF THE LARGEST donations so far have come from successful alumni, such as Tom Ryan, president and chief executive officer of CVS Caremark and chairman of the capital campaign. Ryan, who graduated from URI’s College of Pharmacy, and his wife, Cathy, established a $500,000 matching grant for an endowed pharmacy scholarship fund, part of a $2.5-million gift to the capital campaign.

A former student of retired electrical engineering Prof. Robert S. Hass gave a $1-million matching grant to create an endowed professorship in Hass’ name. The former student preferred to remain anonymous.

And Richard Beaupre, an entrepreneur who founded ChemArt, a Lincoln-based company with 100 employees that makes custom-made ornaments, donated $1 million to his alma mater, earmarked to help liberal-arts students attend conferences.

“I’ve had a lot of successes, and I never could have done it without the doors the education from URI opened for me,” Beaupre said in 2004, when his donation kicked off URI’s campaign. “I hope this [endowment] will go a long way.”

URI officials say they hope other grateful alumni will feel the same way, no matter what the amount they are able to donate.

To find out more about URI’s capital campaign, visit: www.advance.uri.edu/giving/campaign/overview/default.htm

jjordan@projo.com