Billionaire Ray Dalio, the founder of $138 billion Bridgewater Associates —the world’s largest hedge fund— is encouraging people to rethink their material gift-giving habits and consider charitable giving instead.
Last week, the hedge fund manager took to social media with his #RedefineGifting campaign and offered 10,000 TisBest charity gift cards worth $100 a pop to donate to the charity of choice with “no strings attached.” The gift cards were gone in under two hours.
“I was shocked,” Dalio said of the response to the initiative, adding that he received over 2,000 communications from those who participated.
For the last decade, the 71-year-old investor has written checks for his friends and colleagues to fill in the “pay to” field with their favorite charities instead of the traditional holiday gifts.
“It was a fabulous experience because I felt it wasn’t wasteful giving. It was very much in keeping with the whole spirit. Then, I also discovered that it was fabulous for our relationships because people would tell me the things they were donating to, and when I would hear them, they were music to my ears. I thought, ‘Wow, if this idea could catch fire, it could be huge in producing a much better outcome,’” Dalio told Yahoo Finance.
I’m thrilled that in just 2 hours, 10,000 charitable people took me up on my offer to donate $100 to the charities of their choice. At the same time I felt terrible that others were closed out. Then my friends @kevin and @ariannahuff stepped up to donate... (1/3)
— Ray Dalio (@RayDalio) December 4, 2020
On Friday, with the help of Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom, Arianna Huffington, Bridgewater’s CEO David McCormick, Goldman Sachs executive Dina Powell, Dr. Mehmet Oz, author and podcaster Jay Shetty, Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis, Dalio will donate another million dollars worth of charity gift cards for the second round of #RedefineGifting. The next batch of gift cards will be worth $50, so 20,000 people can pass along the charitable gifts.
While it’s been a long tradition for Dalio to give and receive gifts this way, he’s hopeful that it “catches fire” and creates an ecology of charitable gift-giving that “almost becomes second nature as an alternative form of gifting.”
“And when you run down your list, you think, ‘Who would like one of those?’ and ‘Oh, it’s just so easy that I’ll give it.’ That’s all. No obligations, OK. I’m not trying to make people feel guilty. I’m not making people feel they should give in a certain way,” Dalio added.
Dalio is of the view that society is “too material-oriented,” especially during the holidays. The investor pointed out that the amount of money that goes toward “wasteful stuff in the holidays that people struggle to get is so enormous relative to the amount of money that goes toward philanthropy.” Dalio specifically noted that the total spent on candy during the holiday season is greater than the annual budgets of The American Heart Association, The American Cancer Society, and Habitat for Humanity combined.
“So, if you just move the needle slightly, think about how massive that is for those charities,” Dalio added.
What’s more, Dalio has repeatedly spoken about the risk of the growing political and wealth gaps in the U.S. and the importance of “coming together.” Dalio sees this movement as contributing both financially and spiritually to that cause.
“The marginal utility of it is so much better than another junky sweater, but beyond that, it’s good for the community. It’s better. I found my holidays much more joyous in that the people I give or receive it from, we all really love it better. So, that’s why I want people to experience it. Try it out. Pick one or two or whatever number and give it to them and see how they like it and how you feel.”
Julia La Roche is a correspondent for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter.