For the fifth year in a row, UPS and its employees have topped the list of donors to the United Way of America, setting a National Corporate Leadership (NCL) program record in the process by contributing more than $57.3 million.

The company's charitable support for United Way in 2004 surpassed its own previous NCL record, set in 2003, of $54.2 million. Nearly 232,000 UPS employees in the United States participated in the campaign, contributing a total of $47.7 million. In addition, more than 3,500 international employees in thirty-five countries donated more than 13,000 volunteer hours as part of UPS's Global Volunteer Week in the fall.

"UPS has once again raised the bar for companies nationwide, overwhelmingly demonstrating its commitment to changing lives and making a difference in every community that it serves," said United Way president and CEO Brian Gallagher. "On behalf of the entire United Way system, I sincerely thank our gracious partner for its continuous support."

The goal of the NCL program is to deliver services in communities through charitable relationships with national and global corporations. Participating corporations make annual corporate and employee contributions of at least $1 million and generally have more than 10,000 employees with operations in at least twenty-five U.S. locations. Rounding out the program's top five donors in 2004 were IBM, Microsoft, Bank of America, and GE.