Ray Dalio wants to change the way people think about gift-giving

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.

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.

LISBON, PORTUGAL - NOVEMBER 07: Ray Dalio, Bridgewater Associates on Centre Stage during day two of Web Summit 2018 at the Altice Arena on November 7, 2018 in Lisbon, Portugal. In 2018, more than 70,000 attendees from over 170 countries will fly to Lisbon for Web Summit, including over 1,500 startups, 1,200 speakers and 2,600 international journalists. (Photo by Eoin Noonan /Web Summit via Getty Images)
LISBON, PORTUGAL - NOVEMBER 07: Ray Dalio, Bridgewater Associates on Centre Stage during day two of Web Summit 2018 at the Altice Arena on November 7, 2018 in Lisbon, Portugal. In 2018, more than 70,000 attendees from over 170 countries will fly to Lisbon for Web Summit, including over 1,500 startups, 1,200 speakers and 2,600 international journalists. (Photo by Eoin Noonan /Web Summit via Getty Images)

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.