Why I Won't Participate in the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

I won't be giving money to ALS or participate in the Ice Bucket Challenge. Not because I think that the ALS society is not a worthwhile charity. It is just that there are many other charities for which I have a greater affinity.

I have been watching the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge with interest. Everyone from former Presidents to your next door neighbour are tossing a bucket of iced water over their head and then challenging someone else to do the same. It is one of the most successful campaigns for a charity ever, and the ALS Society is getting money faster than they can handle. As people take the challenge and give money to this organization (and possibly don't give to another disease group) are they doing so because they understand the statistics around the disease, the association and its administrative & fundraising expense to program expense ratio? Or are they just donating because they've been challenged and, well, this is a fun thing?

Generally people give to specific charities for a few reasons.

    They have been touched by a disease personally;
    They are supporting someone else who they know who is raising funds -- someone who is involved in an event or perhaps someone's spouse or parent died and it is a "in lieu of flowers donation;
    They wish to support the marginalized or poor, either in this country or another;
    They believe an association does "good works" -- a hospital, a children's organization, etc.

True philanthropy is not getting on a band wagon, through peer pressure or "ha-ha" this is fun, who cares what it is raising funds for.

Now don't get me wrong, as I do believe you can have a fun event and raise money at the same time. But for me, I believe a lot has been lost in translation with the Ice Bucket Challenge.

Whenever you give money to a cause, you should always ask the question "Why?" And it shouldn't be because everyone else is doing it. The "why" usually consists of some of the points noted above.

All other charities are now looking at what they can do to make things go viral and raise the type of money that the ALS society is. So I'm sure we will see other similar fundraising activities in the future. It is somewhat like when one hospital started a lottery. Now we have more charitable lotteries than you can count on your appendages.

I am not dissing the ALS Society. Good for them for raising the amount of money that they are, and hopefully many will benefit.

But the bandwagon effect is not sustainable, and I believe that most people have not even considered how many people are affected by this disease vs. others (in the US is about 30K people are living with ALS according to recent statistics by the CDC) or what the admin/fundraising expense to program expense ratio is for ALS (it is good but a little higher than most associations with only 72% of what is raised going to research and other programs).

There are approximately 300K sufferers of MS in the US; 800K suffer strokes; 1 million suffer from Parkinson's; 5 million have Alzheimer's; and so on. The number for ALS is relatively small in comparison, which I know means nothing if you or a relative/friend are afflicted with the disease.

When giving to charity, for a disease group or to some other charity, ensure that it is meaningful to you. Don't just do it because everyone else is. And make sure that you give the same or greater amount every year.

I doubt very much that after this blip in the ALS fundraising that they will experience the same generosity in the future. Because most of the people who have done the Ice Bucket Challenge probably know relatively little about the disease and only did it because of peer pressure.

This is gamesmanship not philanthropy and it is not something I would participate in, or I think is meaningful in the long run.