• Billionaire investor Ray Dalio wants people to give charity gift cards instead of material gifts.
• Recipients can decide which charity they want the money to go to.
• An expert in billionaire philanthropy said it could be good for wealthy people who donate to charity anyway.

Wall Street billionaire Ray Dalio is asking you to consider ditching buying gifts and instead give charity cards.

His "#RedefineGifting" campaign encourages his followers to give charity gift cards to their loved ones and request them in return.

Since 2020, Dalio, who founded Bridgewater Associates, has partnered with the nonprofit TisBest to give away 90,000 charity gift cards worth $5 million. The purchaser decides the amount, and the recipient chooses one of the 1.8 million US-registered charities on Tisbest's platform to donate the money.

"The shopping season has begun — a month-long compulsion to buy something, for everyone. We're pressed. We're stressed. And we waste time and money on gifts that might have little meaning," Dalio posted on X.

"Consider giving people donations to their favorite charities. And request that they give a donation to your favorite charity," he added.

A November Gallup poll found that US shoppers plan to spend an average of more than $1,000 on gifts this year for Christmas and other holidays.

Dalio has said in previous posts that he's given charity gift cards to his friends and colleagues for more than 10 years and has enjoyed learning about their favorite charities.

Dalio has pitched the "infectiously joyous and healthy" cards as simpler, easier, and different from material gifts that might be unwanted.

But charity cards may not go down well with those who — struggling financially amid historic inflation and heightened interest rates — would prefer a material gift.

Hans Peter Schmitz, a North Carolina State University professor researching billionaire philanthropy, told Business Insider that gift cards seemed a particularly good idea for wealthy people who might donate to charities anyway.

He advised ensuring everyone was on the same page and giving a more conventional gift alongside a card to avoid disappointing the recipient.

"It may be best to first ask and agree with family and friends that this is what everyone wants," Schmitz said. "It may also be worthwhile adding such a charitable gift along with something more personal."

"Any gift should still signify a personal connection and express more than just an expected transaction," he added.

• Ray Dalio said Trump's approach to governance was tried by hard-right states in the 1930s.
• The billionaire said he isn't labeling Trump or his government as fascist.
• But he said a "government renovation" and an "America First" policy were similar to the operational styles of those regimes.

Billionaire investor Ray Dalio said studying hard-right countries from the 1930s can shed light on how President-Elect Donald Trump would reshape the US government under the banner of efficiency.

Dalio, who often publishes personal remarks on the global economy, wrote a LinkedIn commentary on Wednesday with his predictions for a second Trump administration.

"It is now clear that Donald Trump and those he is choosing will reform government and the country like a corporate raider engaging in a hostile takeover of an inefficient company," wrote Dalio, who founded the world's largest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates.

The billionaire said Trump's push for a remade government includes "huge reforms" that would replace key staff, slash costs, and introduce new technologies.

Among those recent efforts, Trump has announced Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy as the heads of a new Department of Government Efficiency. They've so far signaled plans to reduce head count and eliminate certain federal agencies.

"Think of Gordon Gekko and the perspective he conveyed in his 'greed is good' speech," Dalio wrote of Trump's approach, referring to Michael Douglas' character from "Wall Street," the 1987 film. "While recognizing that this is coming from the president of the United States, who is going to take that approach to the central government and the entire country."

"As mentioned, the most recent analogous historical cases were the hard-rightist states in the 1930s," Dalio added.

Dalio wrote that he isn't saying Trump's administration would be fascist or that Trump would behave like fascist leaders. But he said a "government renovation" with an "America First" foreign policy were approaches tried before by those governments.

"What I am saying is that, in order to understand those who are now taking control with nationalistic, protectionist, top-down, government-led economic and social policies, and who have little tolerance for internal opposition and are embroiled in international great powers conflicts, it is worth understanding how those states with analogous policies in the 1930s behaved," Dalio wrote.

Dalio: Trump fielding 'win-at-all-cost loyalists'

The billionaire described Trump as surrounding himself with "win-at-all-cost loyalists," including Musk, Ramaswamy, Secretary of State nominee Marco Rubio, and potential advisors such as Tucker Carlson and Steve Bannon.

Their mission, Dalio wrote, is to "create maximum economic strength and fight foreign enemies."

"Once these people are in place, the same appointment approach will likely be used to purge the government of those accused of being part of the 'deep state,' who are not aligned with and loyal to the mission," Dalio wrote.

Dalio has long been vocal about his philosophy that the world cycles through multigenerational periods where one power dictates the tenor of global society, economy, and politics.

The billionaire has often said that a post-World War II order led by Washington is ebbing.

He wrote on Wednesday that Trump's "America First" foreign policy pushes the world toward a situation where nations are split between the US and China in a "law-of-the-jungle" style.

"In other words, we are now coming to the end of an era led by the United States, in which countries tried to work out together how to be with each other through multinational organizations with guiding principles and rules," Dalio wrote.

Dalio has regularly warned that he believes internal strife within the US could escalate into a civil war, estimating in May that the risk of such a conflict was as high as 40%.

As for Trump, the president-elect has already announced the majority of his Cabinet and staff nominations, including Fox News host Pete Hegseth for Defense Secretary and New York Rep. Elise Stefanik for the US representative to the United Nations.

The US Senate, which now has a Republican majority, still has to confirm the Cabinet picks.

A Trump spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider outside regular business hours.