Gift overview in 2006

Beneficiaries: American Humane Association; Direct Relief International; Disabled American Veterans Charitable Service Trust; Greenpeace International Inc.; Salvation Army; Santa Barbara Hospice Foundation; Visiting Nurse & Hospice Care of Santa Barbara; and World Wildlife Fund
Donors' background: Mr. Di Stefano was a pilot in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II, and retired from the Federal Aviation Administration. He also owned a jewelry store in California. Mrs. Di Stefano inherited stock in the UPS company.

Donations in 2006

Mr. Di Stefano, who died last year at age 90, and his wife, Doris, who died in 2005, also at age 90, left their entire estate, worth approximately $264-million, to be divided among eight charities. The couple said the charities could use the money any way they wished.

The estate gift is being challenged by one of the beneficiaries, the Salvation Army, because it says that Greenpeace International Inc. is defunct and therefore not entitled to its share. The Greenpeace Fund, which was set up to take over the activities of Greenpeace International, says that it is entitled to the money.

Both groups stand to receive approximately $33-million apiece, pending a resolution of the court dispute.

American Humane Association, Direct Relief International, the Disabled American Veterans Charitable Service Trust, the Santa Barbara Hospice Foundation, the Visiting Nurse & Hospice Care of Santa Barbara (formerly Santa Barbara Visiting Nurse Association), and the World Wildlife Fund have already received about $33-million each, and would get more if the Salvation Army wins its battle.

Most of the money in the estate comes from Mrs. Di Stefano's, inheritance of stock from her father, who received shares in UPS when he was a top executive of the company in its earliest days.

Mr. Di Stefano flew B-24 Liberator planes out of North Africa during World War II, said Alan Miller, his accountant since 1990. He gave away very little money during his lifetime, and the couple's approach to spending was conservative, Mr. Miller said. They lived in a three-bedroom house in a middle-class neighborhood in Santa Ynez, Calif.

In the mid-1990s, shortly after the couple completed their estate plans, Mrs. Di Stefano told Mr. Miller that they didn't want their bequests to be made public until their deaths.

"Doris told me that if their neighbors ever knew how much money they had, she'd just die," Mr. Miller said.

She made one other choice clear to her accountant: Her father told her never to sell the UPS stock, and she never did.

"He just felt it was going to be a good asset to hold," Mr. Miller said. "He was right."