A Connecticut hedge fund executive is launching a public campaign to urge Americans to give to charity instead of feeding into the traditional Christmas shopping frenzy.
Ray Dalio of Greenwich, whose net worth is listed at $4 billion by Forbes, is spending $2 million to run full-page advertisements in six major newspapers nationwide suggesting that shopping would be easier and more meaningful if people made charitable contributions. He said Americans, who are expected to spend $33 billion this holiday season, can honor family and friends by giving to their favorite charities instead of shopping for the hottest gifts.
“We have a long-term view on this,” said Matt Dalio, Ray Dalio’s son and spokesman for the family’s ad campaign, told The Hartford Courant. “Every time someone chooses to give this as their gift, someone else will do it the next year. It will have a multiplier effect.”
The ads question the “monthlong compulsion to buy something.”
“We’re pressed, we’re stressed, and our money is wasted,” the ad reads. “Let’s redefine Christmas. By putting more Thanksgiving in it.”
Sarah Meyers of justgive.org, a Web site that partners with Dalio and provides users a way to exchange donations as gifts, said the effort reflects a growing trend. Sales of charity gift certificates on the site rose two years in a row, up to $300,000 in 2006 from $100,000 in 2004.
Dalio, 58, is founder and chairman of Westport-based Bridgewater Associates, which manages $150 billion in global investments. He ranked 82nd in the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans in 2007, and is fourth wealthiest in Connecticut.
He donates about 10 percent of his income, reported last year at $350 million, to charity, his son said.
“For my dad, I know it was a reaction to the fact that you get lost in thinking about all these gifts for all these people,” Matt Dalio said. “With all of the chaos it’s easy to lose sight of what the holidays are about.”
Reaction to the ads have been mixed. Chicago Tribune readers took issue with the original wording of the ads, which called the holiday shopping season “loathsome.”
In response, the Dalios quickly changed the word “loathsome” to “chaotic.” The original phrasing was “a very bad choice of words,” Matt Dalio told the Chicago Tribune.
