She noted that in 2008 the foundation will award about $300,000, covering 40 scholarships. Since its inception, Spencer has given out 403 scholarships to students.

Steve Zenofsky, assistant vice president and manager of public relations with FM Global, said the company's reasoning for the contribution is that “we're seeing the world's risk becoming increasingly complex–in many of today's multinational organizations, especially. High-quality risk management is playing an increasingly important role in those organizations, and we felt there was an opportunity to help better prepare tomorrow's risk managers.”

He explained that because of its focus on property loss prevention and education–an important aspect of risk management–FM Global “truly understands the significance of education–especially because education is key to reducing property loss.”

Mr. Zenofsky explained that about half of FM Global's contribution will go to assisting universities with developing loss prevention-related courses. The grant will also go to unrestricted scholarships to students pursuing risk management and insurance degrees.

FM Global, he said, is working with Spencer to identify those schools in North America and Europe with leading risk management programs. “We're going to likely be bringing together some of the leaders of those programs to a summit, to work with them to figure out how to make the program happen,” he said.

He also noted that FM Global–which, he said, houses “the world's largest center for the study of ways to better protect business property”–will provide expense-paid trips to their research campus to scholarship recipients.

Mr. Zenofsky said the carrier's goal with its contribution is to help the next generation of risk managers understand the increasing value of loss prevention, as well as the role engineering can play in their organization's risk management efforts.

“The emphasis on engineering comes back to FM Global's focus–that we believe it's better to prevent a loss than to recover from one,” he said. “We also believe that the majority of all property damage is preventable, not inevitable.”

Ms. Galer said that while scholarships are “core and central to our mission,” other initiatives, such as the Risk Manager in Residence program, also are being emphasized. “A risk manager going on campus can talk to the entire undergrad business school,” she said. “We may contact 400 students at one of these visits.”

There will also be a number of Spencer fundraisers on Sunday, April 27, at the Risk and Insurance Management Society conference in San Diego, including tennis, golf and hockey tournaments.