Ray and Barbara Dalio

SOURCE OF WEALTH: Bridgewater Associates 

FUNDING AREAS:  Education, Health, Community Development, Environment

OVERVIEW: A signatory to the Giving Pledge, Dalio donates to hundreds of nonprofits every year through the Dalio Foundation. According to available tax filings, the foundation awarded over $109 million in grants in 2017. That same year, the foundation also approved $41.6 million for future grant payments. The Dalios been ramping up his giving significantly in recent years. Interests include the environment, global development and disaster relief, and the New York and Connecticut communities. One of the largest priorities of his philanthropy has been transcendental meditation, mind/body wellness, and education. Dalio has claimed that he doesn’t give to people he doesn’t know, which explains why many of the grants given by the Dalio Foundation go to Connecticut-based charities. Many of the organizations to which he has given also seem to take creative or unorthodox approaches to healthcare, environmental progress, or financial stability, and rely on educational or training that aims to promote agency for their recipients.

BACKGROUND: Dalio was born in Queens, New York, and attended Long Island University and Harvard Business School before going to work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange trading commodities futures. In 1975, he started Bridgewater Associates, which became the largest hedge fund in the world in 2012, with some $160 billion in assets under management as of 2014. His personal wealth has also shot up in recent years, particularly after successfully predicting the housing market crash in 2007.

Along with his wealth, Dalio's philanthropy has also increased by leaps and bounds since he founded his family foundation in 2003. Tax filings indicate that in 2005, he was awarding $3.8 million in grants and by 2008, it increased to nearly $13 million, and a whopping $41.5 million in 2011.

ISSUES:

EDUCATION: Education is one of Dalio's main philanthropic passions, and where much of his money goes. In Connecticut especially, one would be hard-pressed to find a private or charter school that has not received money from his foundation. In 2019. the Dalios donated $100 million to Connecticut public schools. St. Luke's School, The Brunswick School and Greenwich Country Day have received millions in support from the foundation. Achievement First, a charter school system, has also received millions in funding and numerous others that have gotten more token donations, usually in the $5,000-$10,000 range, though they are often recurring.

When it comes to higher education, the big winners are Harvard (at least $38.1M), NYU's Tisch School (at least $4.5M), Johns Hopkins (at least $11M), Duke (at least $2M), Marymount California University ($1M in 2013), Tsinghua University (at least $10M), and the Maharishi University of Management in Iowa, though some of this money, like the donations to Johns Hopkins, is more appropriately placed under health giving. He has also made smaller donations to Yale, Rutgers, Stanford, American University, and the University of Pennsylvania. 

The Dalio Foundation also offers support for educational foundations and programs at a local level, mostly in Connecticut and New York, though some outstanding institutions in Boston, San Jose, and Washington State have also received funding. On a national level, the Dalios are major supporters of Teach for America, having given the organization somewhere in the range of $5 million.

HEALTH: The Dalios' giving in the health arena is considerably different than most major philanthropists. While they have made a dozens of donations to cancer fighting organizations, children's and other specialty hospitals, but these are generally token gifts that rarely exceed $25,000, and all told, amount to no more than a few hundred thousand dollars.

Health Corps, an organization that focuses on nutrition, particularly for youth, has received sums over the years, but the Dalios' real focus is on the mental aspect, and mind/body wellness, which makes sense, considering that in his book, Principles, Dalio credits meditation with piloting him toward astonishing wealth and success. The major recipient here is the David Lynch Foundation in Fairfield, Iowa, which has received at least $13 million, promotes the benefits of transcendental meditation in reducing stress and improving cognitive development, creating a tie-in between health and education. Another major recipient on this front is the World Community for Christian Meditation. The London-based organization has received around $1 million.

Aligning with Dalio's passion for transcendental meditation, the Dalios are strong supporters of research and treatment for mental illness, particularly bipolar disorder. The Foundation for Education and Research on Mental Illness has received more than $1.7 million, the Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Foundation has received at least $400,000 for a bipolar research initiative, and the Center for Environmental Therapeutics has received $250,000, also for a bipolar initiative. Smaller grants have gone mostly to Connecticut area hospitals and foundations for mental health treatment, and those major donations to Johns Hopkins were directed toward their Mood Disorders Center.  Also in the mental health arena is the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation.

Recently, Dalio has moved into other more conventional health outfits, and gave $30 million to support projects and research across the New York-Presbyterian Healthcare System. They also gave $50 million to NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital to establish the Dalio Center for Health Justice.

ENVIRONMENT: Dalio has served on the board of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), where he has donated at least $8 million. In the past, a lot of Dalio's work in this area has been local to Connecticut and New York, where outfits such as Campfire Conservation Fund, the Greenwich Land Trust, and Central Park Conservancy have received sums. Larger sums have gone to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, a nonprofit research and higher education organization in Mississippi that studies marine science and engineering. More recently, Dalio has set up the Dalio Explore Fund to bankroll a number of different environmental and scientific research projects, many of which are focused on marine and ocean conservation. $10 million went to the National Geographic Society towards a Dalio Explore Fund at that outfit, and $7.5 million went to John's Hopkins towards the fund there. In 2015, Dalio joined the Breakthrough Energy Coalition, a group of investors organized by Bill Gates. 

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT: Community enrichment programs, often with an educational focus, including The Boy Scouts of America, the Carver Foundation of Norwalk, and the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation are among the Dalio Foundation's grantees. On a larger scale, the Robin Hood Foundation has received some $20 million, and Grameen America, which helps economically disadvantaged people pursue financial stability, has received large sums. It has also made numerous donations to libraries in New York and Connecticut, though the gift amounts are usually $10,000 or $15,000 annually. Barbara Dalio used to be on the board of the Bruce Museum in Connecticut, which has received funding from the foundation. Less frequently, the Whitney, the Guggenheim, MOMA, the Met, and others have received donations.

GLOBAL: The Dalios' son Matt founded the China Care Foundation when he was just 16. The organization, which provides assistance to Chinese orphans, has received somewhere in the range of $5 million from the Dalio Foundation, though China Care lists its total support at $13 million according to its latest financials, most of which we assume came from the Dalio family. 

OTHER ISSUES: Dalio is the founder of JustGive, a foundation that puts potential donors in contact with almost 2 million charities. Dalio also gave $10 million to Volcker Alliance in 2013, whose mission is to "rekindle intellectual, practical, and academic interest in the implementation of policy and serve as a catalyst for sustained government improvement." Volcker Alliance was launched in 2013 by former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Paul A. Volcker, who has given Dalio and Bridgewater high praise.

LOOKING FORWARD:  As a hedge fund guy, Dalio knows how to diversify. Even as a philanthropist, he has spun off funds to other decision makers, such as the National Philanthropic Trust, to which he gave $2 million in 2010 and in 2015 gave $25 million. And as a serious meditation advocate, he has given to different stripes of the practice. So it is unlikely that Dalio will leave everything, or even almost everything, to one cause or institution. This is good news for prospective donees. It would not be surprising if Matt started to oversee larger parts of the Dalios' philanthropy, or expanded his China Care model to other regions or countries, or if the Dalios began taking a greater interest in U.S. education reform, or global education. Whatever he does, however, we expect Ray Dalio to continue unloading even more significant chunks of his fortune in the coming years.

CONTACT:

Dalio Family Foundation

1 Glendinning Place

Westport, CT 06880

(203) 291-5000

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