When the information technology managers of the State of Montana Data Center in Helena needed money to pay for installation of seismic stabilizers to protect computer equipment in the event of an earthquake, Brett E. Dahl, director of the Risk Management and Tort Defense Division for the state of Montana, responded with “tell me how much you need and you've got it.”

The $60,000 request demonstrated that word had gotten out about the kind of resources available from his department, he said.

“It made me feel good that the IT people knew enough to come to us,” he said. “To me, that's a good investment if you can mitigate electronic data processing exposures.”

Mr. Dahl's division established a grant program five years ago to help Montana state agencies and university systems pay for “projects, equipment or training” to mitigate auto, aviation, general liability and property losses. Altogether, it has doled out more than $1.5 million in loss mitigation grants since the program's inception.

Grant funding is derived from the premiums Mr. Dahl's division collects from 57 state agencies, 10 Montana university system campuses, 5,000 state properties, and hundreds of boards, councils and commissions. The division acts as a quasi-insurer and treats all of the state agencies and universities as policyholders. Each of these state agencies and universities pay a “premium” to the division to cover the cost of insurance attributable to their individual exposures.

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The grant application is posted online each March, and the division begins awarding funding in April. Each year's grants are usually distributed by July 1, but “if something comes up with something worth funding in the middle of the year, I'm a pushover,” Mr. Dahl said.

For example, during a recent winter cold snap when the University of Montana requested funds to pay for personnel to perform pipe inspections to identify those that could potentially freeze and burst, Mr. Dahl made sure the money was available. And the mitigation was successful, he said.

Those “cold-weather patrols,” Mr. Dahl said, “found a lot of problems, so we were able to circumvent floods and other problems because of the grant money.”

Other grants have paid for such things as security cameras to protect the state's $300 million collection of Western fine art treasures at the Montana Historical Society, security lighting at high-risk facilities to prevent vandalism, cyber security software to detect and prevent hackers from obtaining sensitive and private information, sidewalk repairs, snow removal equipment, ventilated hoods for a laboratory at a state university, and additional security staff and vehicles to protect the state Capitol building.