The future of the ice bucket

You can’t turn on your TV or computer lately without seeing someone doing an ALS ice bucket challenge. The grassroots campaign has raised tens of millions of dollars and awareness for a disease, not many people knew about. But where does the movement go from here?

If for some reason you’ve had it with the ALS ice bucket challenge, be forewarned that you’re going to get a large dose of it right now.

Who hasn’t done the ALS ice bucket challenge yet?

Everyone from entertainers, former presidents, superman and even muppets are getting drenched for a good cause.

And their cool contributions have piled up. Since July 29th, ALS Canada said it’ll reach ten million dollars in donations by the end of this week. And despite some people’s beliefs that it reached its peak after NHL player Paul Bissonnette’s take on the craze (he had a bucket of ice water dumped on himself from a hovering helicopter on a mountain top in California and put the video on YouTube), the ice bucket challenge isn’t going anywhere.

Tammy Moore is the Interim CEO of ALS Canada: “We’ve had some people who are well on their way to organizing the world’s largest ice bucket challenge to happen mid-September.”

Mirza Baig is a digital & social media strategist: “There’s a built-in ‘pay it forward’ component that other challenges up to now that anything social media activated up to now hasn’t had.”

The challenge has given ALS Canada something it hasn’t had — hundreds of thousands of new donors in a span of a month. So how will the organization continue this momentum?

Tammy Moore: “Looking at different strategies that we can use around our online environment to continue to engage people.”

Or maybe the answer is right in front of them.

Ginza: “Having a spokesperson step up, much in the same way Michael J. Fox became the spokesperson for the Parkinson’s Disease movement.”

The ice bucket challenge has done two things: One, raise awareness and a lot of money for this debilitating disease. Two, it has people flexing their charitable muscle and are now giving back to other people with different needs.

Atilla Biro: “Instead of pouring water on myself, why don’t I actually do something for the community. That water, that would have been going on myself, could go to people in need.”

That’s the beauty of this campaign is that it isn’t that prescriptive — it’s how people choose to participate.