SOUTH KINGSTOWN — The University of Rhode Island has announced that its capital campaign, Making a Difference, has reached its $100-million goal 15 months ahead of schedule. The campaign is scheduled to close Dec. 31, 2010.

“Reaching the $100-million mark is remarkable progress,” said URI President David M. Dooley, “and the willingness of so many of our alumni and friends to support the university is inspiring … Together we can make amazing things happen.”

Thomas Ryan, campaign chair, 1975 alumnus and the chief executive officer of CVS Caremark, called reaching the goal “a true testament to the outstanding level of engagement across URI’s alumni, fundraising committee and foundation staff.” Given these difficult economic times, Ryan thanked everyone who participated in the campaign.

So far, nearly 34,000 alumni and friends have made donations to URI during the campaign, which represents about one-third of its alumni base.

“What is particularly gratifying is the number of first-time donors,” said Glen R. Kerkian, president of the URI Foundation, which runs all fundraising for the university. “More than 31 percent of our gifts are from new donors.” According to Kerkian, giving to URI was up 11 percent during the past academic year while giving to education declined by 5.5 percent nationally.

The campaign was launched in July 2004 with the goal of increasing URI’s competitiveness, including enhancing the university’s ability to recruit and retain outstanding faculty, increase the level of undergraduate scholarships and graduate fellowships and finance new research initiatives.

Since the campaign began, almost $26 million in gifts and pledges have been allocated to endowments. Almost one-quarter of the university’s nearly 1,000 individual endowment funds were established during this campaign.

Nearly 9 percent of the campaign dollars raised have been set aside for athletics while another 7 percent has been earmarked for the annual fund. Approximately $8.5 million has been donated to help support new construction, which is financed primarily through taxpayer-approved bonds. These private monies have been used to support two buildings, the Graduate School of Oceanography’s Undersea Space and Exploration Center and the Center for Biotechnology and Life Sciences. Money has also been earmarked for the new College of Pharmacy building.

Several gift commitments helped put the campaign over the top, including a $500,000 gift from David Lea of Barrington; $100,000 from Dr. Mostafa M. Omar of Franklin Lakes, N.J.; and a $125,000 corporate gift from National Grid.

lborg@projo.com