The Leavitt family charitable foundation,
the Dixie and Anne Leavitt Foundation, which the Leavitt family
established in 2000 and to which it has donated nearly $9 million of
assets. It has provided them with tax write-offs for the donated
assets. About a third of the foundation's assets have been loaned back
to family businesses, such as a $332,000 loan to Leavitt Land and
Investment Inc., in which Mike Leavitt has a substantial interest.
(Future affiliate transactions are prohibited because of a law passed
by Congress in August 2006.)
In July 2006, National Public Radio reported that nearly $500,000 in charitable contributions from the foundation went to the Southern Utah Foundation, which then gave the money to the Southern Utah University
as housing scholarships. About 50 students were placed, rent-free, in
apartments owned by the Cedar Development Co., which is owned by the
Leavitt family, and the university then paid the donated money to the
company as rent. The students filled vacant apartments which the company had not been able to rent out.
Total charitable grants from the foundation during its first six
years were $1,468,055. The foundation's principal beneficiaries have
been Southern Utah University and the LDS Church. Other beneficiaries have included arts, educational and humanitarian organizations,
including the Leavitt family genealogical society. (Leavitt is a
descendant of an old Massachusetts Puritan family, and a direct
descendant of Dudley Leavitt, a Mormon pioneer who was named for his
ancestor Thomas Dudley, the second colonial governor of Massachusetts.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Leavitt#Leavitt_Foundation_controversies