With the 104^th anniversary of UPS just around the corner (Aug. 28), I’ve been thinking about our founder, Jim Casey.  Jim taught us a lot.  His speeches and writings in the 1930s, 40s and 50s would make a best-selling business book if repackaged today.  Thomas Friedman…  Jim Collins…  Gary Hammel… all the other business gurus of today – Jim had them all beat more than half-a-century ago.

But Jim taught us more than just good business.  He taught us about philanthropy, and about giving back to the community. 

Jim always wanted to be involved in the community, not just a passive funder.  The Annie E. Casey Foundation is a great example.  Founded by Jim and financed entirely by Jim’s personal fortune, it’s a hands-on, community-based organization that reaches out, gets involved and changes the lives of thousands of at-risk kids every year.  That’s how Jim wanted it.

And when he formed The UPS Foundation 60 years ago, I believe Jim knew that the company had a unique view of the communities we serve and that we could make a difference by being involved. UPS isn’t a company with products sitting on shelves, or stores or manufacturing plants in selected cities. We’re a company of people, serving other people, face-to-face in every community in the country, every day. If there is a stop light in America, the chances are that a UPS driver will pass under it today, and that same ubiquity is quietly spreading around the world.

And we do get involved. Last year, our employees and their families globally logged nearly 1.3 million hours of volunteer time in our volunteer management system. It’s a remarkable achievement that few companies come close to.

The trend in corporate volunteerism is to increase the impact and quality of the hours that are donated.  Applying the unique skills of an organization to community challenges can have a much greater impact than just painting benches or raking leaves (although physical labor is still critical to volunteerism).  For UPS, this has meant dedicating our logistics and transportation skills to compelling issue like disaster relief.

In Haiti, Japan, the Horn of Africa and elsewhere, combining our logistics expertise, our transportation assets and our philanthropic dollars has helped make relief agencies more effective and ultimately save more lives.

Our founder Jim Casey may not have imagined the breadth of capabilities and scope of operations of today’s UPS… but he certainly would have expected that UPS people would be dedicating their time and talents to help build stronger communities wherever UPS operates.  He’d be proud of the legacy he helped to inspire.

This month, UPS celebrates 104 years of business. Our founder, Jim Casey, instilled in UPSers a spirit of service to our customers and our community. While Jim may not have regarded himself as a “hero,” his commitment to community service has delivered a lasting impact. Jim and his siblings founded the Annie E. Casey Foundation (AECF) in 1948 to honor their mother, who struggled to raise the family as a young widow. The AECF serves as an advocate to help vulnerable children and families succeed.

And this spirit of serving extends to our customers … many of whom regard UPSers as heroes for their business.

Today, UPSers contribute their time and talents in a variety of ways:

• Providing logistics expertise to relief efforts in the aftermath of the Haiti and Japan earthquakes
• Coordinating the shipment of machinery to aid the Chilean miners rescue
• Serving in the Community Internship Program to assist neighborhoods that need help with poverty, drug dependency, homelessness and illiteracy
• Cooking meals for families staying at The Ronald McDonald House while their children undergo medical treatmen

Over the next few weeks, we’ll share stories of UPSers whose acts of heroism have made an impact on the lives of others. Like the story of UPS driver Ethan Callif who rescued a women trapped in her car that was sinking in a pond. And the story of UPS pilot Ray Robinson, who helps lead a summer aviation program for youth in Louisville, Ky.

Our series starts tomorrow with the entertaining story of Murray Wihlidal, a UPS supervisor in Canada, who delivered an urgent shipment of merchandise to John Mellencamp’s concert in Saskatchewan.

In 1907, Jim Casey and Claude Ryan started American Messenger Company in a Seattle, Wash., basement office space. The two young entrepreneurs and their employees delivered messages to people throughout the day and night.  Early on, the company strived to distinguish itself through customer service and team work.

That company eventually became UPS. On August 28, UPSers around the world celebrate Founders’ Day to remember what we have accomplished and what we have still to achieve. UPS has survived 21 recessions, a great depression, world wars and natural disasters. Our goal has never been to simply endure these challenging times, but to learn from the lessons of adversity and to thrive. For all that we have accomplished, we owe our success to the trust of our customers and the dedication of our employees.

The following quote from Jim Casey reflects this belief:

 ”You cannot be successful entirely through your own efforts. All of us, if we are to accomplish anything worthwhile, will do it largely through the help and cooperation of the people who work with us. We must help others to help us.“

Despite the economic hardships UPS has encountered during its history, we’ve continued to invest in our business to fulfill the promises we make.  Promises to serve our customers’ business needs and help fuel their growth — whether that promise is to deliver a package across town, help a customer connect to new markets through exporting and importing or provide a range of logistics support that results in cost-savings and faster transit times to their customers.

As a company committed to serving its customers, UPS cannot fulfill its promises without the partnership of its employees. The passion, curiosity, ingenuity and constructive dissatisfaction that our founders’ instilled in all UPSers fuels our collective efforts to deliver the best.

Our success is not measured by industry accolades or milestones … it’s measured by the achievements of our customers and the accomplishments of our employees. It’s their success that we celebrate during Founders’ Day.

UPS’s services have expanded greatly since those two young entrepreneurs founded the company in 1907. Yet despite these changes, it’s a company our founders would immediately recognize … a company focused on fulfilling its promises to customers and its 408,000 employees.