SOUTH KINGSTOWN – The University of Rhode Island's board of trustees chair and her spouse have given the university $2.1 million to create a new endowed scholarship program that will provide full four-year awards to top students from across the country and around the world.
Margo Cook, a 1986 URI graduate and founding chair of the URI board of trustees, and her spouse, Renee Cohen, announced the gift Tuesday. The bulk of the donation – $1.8 million – will fund the Cook-Cohen Scholars Program, which will enroll its first cohort of students in the fall of 2026.
Cook-Cohen scholars will receive scholarships covering tuition, fees, housing, dining and a global travel experience during URI's Winter J Term. The awards will apply to any field of study at the university.
“I saw the success of other scholarship donations – met those students and their parents. It's been life-changing for them to go to URI without that financial anxiety,” said Cook, who spent nearly four decades in the asset management industry, including in executive leadership roles. “Getting amazing students to come to URI without that burden unlocks their true potential and that is what makes us so passionate.”
Beyond financial support, the program will connect scholars to URI's Honors Program and Colloquium, the university's Leadership Institute, priority course registration, special advising, donor mentoring and access to select university events.
URI President Marc B. Parlange called the gift a reflection of both Cook's and Cohen's belief in education and their long commitment to the university community.
"Their generous investment will open doors for future scholars of exceptional promise – students whose academic achievement, intellectual curiosity, and demonstrated leadership will position them to make meaningful contributions to society," Parlange said in a statement.
The remaining $325,000 of the gift will be divided among four existing URI programs: the URI Women's Basketball Cook and Cohen Wellness Program, the URI College of Business, the URI President's 21st Century Fund for Excellence, and the Margo Cook Internship/Study Abroad Scholarship.
The gift is also a message on Cook’s part.
“I’m signaling, as chair of the board, that we see what's happening at the university and that this is a really good investment,” she said. “I would not be investing in something that I did not think would have a good outcome.”
The Cook-Cohen gift is the latest in a series of major donations to URI and part of a growing trend of transformative philanthropic donations. In 2024, the university received a landmark $65 million gift – the largest in its history – from the estate of alumna Helen Izzi Schilling to support scholarships in science, technology, engineering and math. Cook and Cohen previously gave URI $1.05 million in 2019 to establish a fund addressing the gender gap in the finance industry.
The rise in donations has been attributed to Parlange’s leadership and the university’s growing prominence on the national stage. URI received Carnegie R1 status in February 2025, ranking among the top 5% of the nation’s research institutions, as well as being ranked by the Wall Street Journal as the top public university in New England two years in a row.
These accolades in turn place the university in a stronger position to solicit bigger donations.
“We feel that we can be in those conversations where transformational asks can be made today,” Cook said. “It would have been harder five years ago – now we have the credibility to be in the room and make those asks.”
Mark Antonucci, CEO and vice president of advancement at URI Foundation and Alumni Engagement, is also a key factor, Cook said.
“What he's brought is a really good understanding of how to build corporate partnerships, how to go to philanthropies and endowments and tell them what we're doing at URI,” she said.
Since coming on board in March 2025, Antonucci has led a shift in strategy in courting donors to gain more transformative donations, what he refers to as causal-based giving.
“It’s starting with the why versus the what,” he said, linking a donor’s gift to a passion for a particular cause they may have. “Traditionally, you would say, ‘Give to the College of Engineering and Education and here's why’; instead we’re saying, ‘We're driving real difference to society and what you can support to help that.’ ”
The strategic shift is seeing dividends, with Antonucci saying the university has 1,300 more donors currently than this time last year. This is also in part due to changes at the federal level, he said.
“Higher education is under attack right now. It's a national asset and can transform someone's life. In this moment right now, with everything going on at the national and international landscape, supporting local institutions who make the next generation of workers is important,” Antonucci said. “We don't have the endowment of other institutions and need to work with what we have – my call to action is, ‘If there's ever been a time to step up, now is the time.’ "
Antonucci said he has a philosophy that "everyone is a fundraiser if you work in a university."
“Even when you're in the line at Dave's Market, if someone sees the brand, you need to have that pitch of what the university is doing and why people should start paying attention," he said. "And people are paying attention.”
Veer Mudambi is the special projects editor at the Providence Business News. He can be reached at Mudambi@PBN.com.
