To be clear, the ALS Association did a pretty good job at putting the money to use. Local chapters, she writes, were able to purchase equipment for ALS patients, like “power wheelchairs, walkers, and shower benches. ... The waitlist that had existed throughout the loan program’s 20-year history has evaporated since the Ice Bucket Challenge.”
While local chapters got a significant share of the money, and spent it largely on support for the patients they serve, most of the money — $80 million — went to research. (It should be noted that in drug development, even $80 million is a drop in the bucket — taking a drug from the idea stage to approval in FDA clinical trials can easily cost $2 billion). [...]
The Red Cross raised $500 million for Haiti in 2010 and accomplished very little, and it remains nearly impossible to tell where the money went or what happened. In 2012, the group Invisible Children made an incredibly successful viral video about central African warlord Joseph Kony, raised more than $30 million, and immediately ran into a host of problems: Ugandans protested the video, critics called it racist and imperialist, the producer had a breakdown, the charity nearly went bankrupt, and Kony was never found.[...]
Most existing programs can’t absorb that much money, so there’s pressure to launch new programs. But trying to launch new programs just because you can afford them isn’t necessarily the best reason for starting them. Even if a charity’s existing work is highly effective, if new donations will be shuffled off to new, less promising projects, then the effect of the additional donations is likely to be small.
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