Last week our family of 4 was individually nominated to participate in the ALS ice bucket challenge. We knew our time was coming, as we started to see the wave of ice bucket dumpers through our facebook and instagram feeds, making it a matter of time before we were nominated. At first I thought, "Why would I dump instead of donate?" It seemed pointless and perhaps even a rediculous way to save a few $ while looking like a drowned rat in front of a few hundred friends. Then I did my research. I went to the alsa.org website and learned about ALS and the ice bucket challenge itself, and I completely understood why I or anyone would dump instead of donate, or both! You see, even the non-donating dumpers are helping spread the word and if donating was mandatory, it wouldn't have had the same results. You do the math. A bunch of people dump those initial buckets of ice water on their head and post it on their social media outlets. Let's say 100 people do this and each person nominates 3 people. From a social / psychological point of view, they look like they don't care about charity to all their peers and / or look like they can't take a dare if they don't do it, so 300 more people do the dump. Those 300 nominate 3 or so people each, and BOOM 900 people dump and share, then 2700, then 8100, then 24,300. You get the idea - before you know it millions of people are dumping buckets of ice water and a percentage of those dumpers and non dumpers are donating! It's SMART! The virality of it all WORKS! According to the ALS website, as of Tuesday, August 26, The ALS Association has received $88.5 million in donations compared to $2.6 million during the same time period last year (July 29 to August 26). These donations have come from existing donors and 1.9 million new donors to The Association, which is incredibly grateful for this tremendous outpouring of support. Your best friends, favourite celebrities and your next door neighbour have probably dumped or are going to dump and / or donate! It's brilliant and I of course, am a huge fan of smart ideas and marketing!

The thing is, we all have budgets to work with and not everyone can afford to donate every time there is an opportunity to do so. My hope is that people budget their charitable donations responsibly, much like they should their spending $, grocery $, vacation $, etc. I'm not saying don't donate to ALS, as I do believe that it a wonderful cause, but I am saying that everyone who can afford to should donate wisely and to charities that are meaningful to them. In other words, if you have room in your budget for donating to ALS and you care about it, do it! If not, why not help spread the word and have a little ice bucket dumping fun anyhow? Just make sure you follow the rules and explain what it's all about. Any charity could have had the idea to run a smart social challenge that involves exponential nominees and social media shares, and I can guarantee you there will be more to follow.

Just for a laugh, here's a 15 second video featuring our family of 4 getting ALS ice water bucket challenge dumped. Yes, it was fun!