{"id":7081,"date":"2014-08-29T15:59:34","date_gmt":"2014-08-29T15:59:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=7081"},"modified":"2014-08-29T15:59:56","modified_gmt":"2014-08-29T15:59:56","slug":"ice-bucket-challenge-als-foundation-admits-less-than-27-of-donations-fund-research-cures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=7081","title":{"rendered":"Ice Bucket Challenge: ALS Foundation Admits Less Than 27% Of Donations Fund Research & Cures"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ice Bucket Challenge: ALS Foundation Admits Less Than 27% Of Donations Fund Research & Cures<\/strong><\/h2>\n

by Anthony Gucciardi
\nNatural Society<\/p>\n

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\"alsAs a huge proponent of serious charitable organizations, it always is disturbing to see trends such as Kony 2012 and various Susan G. Komen for the Cure\u00a0initiatives take the social media atmosphere by storm. From the ultimate backlash against the celebrity-driven Kony fraud to the embarrassment of the KFC \u2018Buckets for the Cure\u2019 campaign backed by Susan G. Komen, I was immediately hoping that the infamous new \u2018ice bucket challenge\u2019 would in fact be an exception to the series of misled social media fundraising campaigns.<\/p>\n

As soon as the ALS Association published its official numbers and my contacts within the investigative community confirmed the worst, however, it was apparent that once again we have been shoveling (or dumping in this case by the bucket-load) our hard earned funds into an organization that only uses about 27% of its financing to actually fuel research \u2018for the cure\u2019 \u2014 which just so happens to be based on pumping up the bloated pharmaceutical industry.<\/p>\n

But don\u2019t just take my word for it.<\/p>\n

$95 Million Later: Only 27% Of Donations Actually Help \u2018Research The Cure\u2019\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Reaching\u00a0over 94 million<\/a>\u00a0in donations at the time of writing this article, thanks primarily due to the viral ice bucket challenge marketing campaign, you may be surprised to see the admitted breakdown of the company\u2019s donated resources. You may be even more surprised to see the income breakdown within this non-profit that prides itself in helping \u2018find the cure\u2019 for ALS \u2014 now the most common among the five motor neuron diseases. From the company\u2019s own records, we\u00a0find the following cost breakdown<\/a>\u00a0for the year ending in January of 2014:<\/p>\n

\"als<\/p>\n

Research, as you can clearly see, sits at only 27% of the organization\u2019s overall expenditures. Fundraising (marketing), stands at around half at 14%, and\u00a01.9 million in administration<\/strong>\u00a0(7%) was spent on their roster of highly paid non-profit executives. In fact, we even have the salary figures\u00a0for\u00a0each executive, including the ALS Association CEO\u2019s six figure total:<\/p>\n