By Anne W. Semmes
Philanthropist Ray Dalio has brought lasting gifts to his hometown, perhaps most visibly with the Greenwich Town Party. But now in this season of gift giving he is urging a new take on meaningful Christmas presents – that they be charity driven. And that effort is called TisBest – a non-profit that he now partners with. Co-founded by Seattle-based Erik Marks and Simeon Cathey, TisBest creates charity gift cards that allow recipients to choose which charities to support. And since its 2007 founding TisBest now lists more than 1.8 million U.S.-registered charities to choose from.
Dalio’s embrace of this modus operandi of gift giving he now reportedly shares with his grandchildren able to choose their charity to gift. To learn more of how Dalio was drawn to the TisBest mission of “Redefining Gifting” the Sentinel asked Dalio a few questions.
Q: When and why did you connect and then partner with TisBest? What inspired you?
A: About 25 years ago, I got sick of wasteful holiday giving and knew that my charitable friends loved their charitable giving and that many others wanted to help others, so it occurred to me to give them donations to their favorite charities.
At that time, I sent them a signed check with the dollar amount filled in and asked them to write in the charity of their choice. People loved it and I loved it because the money went to great causes rather than to junk people didn’t need, it was in keeping with the Christmas/holiday spirit, and it was easy to do. If we knew what charity they wanted—like teachers who wanted items for students that they specified on Donorschoose.org—we would give them those.
About 20 years ago, I started to publicize this approach to giving gifts, hoping others would catch onto the idea which they did. I later found TisBest, which made this kind of giving easier and more efficient than the checks because they offered gift cards that could be directed to all charities. They work just like any gift card in that you can go online, select any registered charity in the U.S., and click through to donate the value of the card to any one or to multiple charities.
Starting five years ago, Arianna Huffington, Jay Shetty, Paul Tudor Jones, and a bunch of other great friends joined me to give away 20,000 $50 gift cards each year to anyone who wants them, if they are lucky enough to get them while they last. Now I see many people and many companies do this sort of giving.
Q: In what ways do you see it opening the doors to people in need?
A: This sort of giving is redirecting a lot of money from wasteful gifts toward people in need. Imagine the potential. I understand that more money is spent on just candy at the holiday season than the annual budgets of the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society, and Habitat for Humanity combined. I should also make clear that I do still give normal holiday gifts when I think they’re most appropriate.
Q: Has it opened doors for you of unknown but worthy charities?
A: Yes. One of the best things about this gift is hearing about the causes others care about and why. It’s much better than me picking a charity for them or encouraging them to support what I support.
Q: What are a couple of examples of family and friend responses over the years?
A: For me the best family and friends’ development has been seeing how this has gone viral—so now friends who have companies are doing it for their employees—and many of my friends have joined me on the bandwagon of spreading the word. For example, Arianna Huffington has been doing this with her company and has chipped in with me over the years to make free cards available to the general public, with no strings attached. Together with other friends over the years—Paul Tudor Jones, Mehmet Oz, Kevin Systrom, Jewel, Ashton Kutcher, Reed Hastings, Gayle King, and others—we have given away over $6 million in charity gift cards. It was a great shared friendship experience.
Q: Do you encourage certain charities with them?
A: No. The whole point is to let people pick what they care about, even if it might not be something I myself would choose to support. I always learn a lot about new causes in this way.
Q: How do you see this concept speak to this particular time?
A: I think we are in a time of great differences in wealth and living conditions and of everyone fighting for what they want that is inconsistent with the spirit of what the holidays are supposed to be celebrating.
I also believe that the way people typically quickly and carelessly buy merchandise has made the holiday season more commercial than spiritual. Where is the goodwill toward others, especially toward those who are in need? I think this type of giving is obviously great, especially when it’s to charitable people. Having said that, I just want to make people aware of it – I don’t want to push this on anyone.
I certainly want to operate that way with those who are in my community – it’s why I do the Greenwich Town Party with friends and other community members to make it happen. That experience is like this experience. I’d love those in our community to think about whether this type of giving is most suitable for some of the people they’re giving gifts to.
In closing, I want to emphasize that if you are giving to people who have enough stuff in their lives, this type of gift will be unique, spiritual, will bring you closer together, will make holiday shopping easier, and will make you all feel better.
To learn more about TisBest visit www.tisbest.org
