The ALS Phenomenon; The Ice Bucket Challenge went viral on social media during July–August 2014.

The Ice Bucket Challenge, sometimes called the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, was an activity involving the dumping of a bucket of ice and water over a person’s head, either by another person or self-administered, to promote awareness of the disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, also known as motor neurone disease and in the US as Lou Gehrig’s disease) and encourage donations to research.

Within 24 hours of being challenged, participants had to record a video of themselves in continuous footage. First, they were to announce their acceptance of the challenge, followed by pouring ice into a bucket of water. Then, the bucket was to be lifted and poured over the participant’s head. Then the participant could nominate a minimum of three other people to participate in the challenge.

Within weeks of the challenge going viral, The New York Times reported that the ALS Association had received $41.8 million in donations from more than 739,000 new donors from July 29 until August 21, more than double the $19.4 million the association received during the year that ended January 31, 2013.

On August 29, the ALS Association announced that their total donations since July 29 had exceeded $100 million.The ALS Association is just one of several ALS-related charities that have benefited from the challenge. However, it was reported that the 2015 challenge had raised $500,000 as compared with the $115 million raised by the 2014 challenge. The final figure was reported by the ALS Association in mid-October as being $1,000,000, with a survey by health analysts Treato showing that only 14% of donors from 2014 donated again in 2015

In July 2015, it was reported on the ALS Association’s summary of how the funds raised through the Ice Bucket Challenge were distributed. By percentage, 67% of all funds (about $77 million) went to research, 20% to patient and community services, 9% to public and professional.

MB