ALS Ice Bucket Challenge Fraud: How one set of numbers can be made to support opposing sides
Headline – ICE BUCKET FRAUD: ALS FOUNDATION ADMITS THAT 73% OF DONATIONS ARE NOT USED FOR ALS RESEARCH (I provide a link only for those who do not believe me. Please do not click unless you are willig to support this website and its inexcusable lack of integrity.)
As the headline shouts at from the warm glow of your electronic devise, it is clear that the ALS is perpetrating some kind of fraud on the American and world public with its ice challenge. Only 27 percent of the funds raised are going to research. Where is all the rest of the almost $100 million dollars going?
Let’s go to snopes.com to find out. According to Snopes and the ALS website, only 28 percent of funds are going to research. That number agrees with the fraud number. FRAUD! FRAUD! FRAUD! Pitchforks and torches. KILL THE BEAST!
79% of money raised goes to research and services
ALS is also using 19 percent of the funds for patient and community services and an additional 32 percent for public and professional education. That means that 79 percent of money raised is going to research and services that ALS provides to people.
Both sides are right up to this point as long as you do not want to quibble over one percent. The ICE BUCKET FRAUD story even uses the same graph. The person who wrote the story just ignored every other facet of the graph and decided midway down that education and patient and community services could be easily lumped into “fundraising, overhead, executive salaries, and external donations.” At least, this website gives you the correct information even if the writer has blatantly misinterpreted it.
The ice bucket challenge was started by a professional baseball player with ALS. It grew from there. It has no real ties to the ALSA. The organization never made any promises about giving all of the money to research. The organization did not start the campaign, but it has reaped the rewards. Over 3 million donors and over $100 million raised for an organization that raised about $3 million in the same time period last year.
There is only one reasonable objection to this effort for ALS. In any given year, there are only 30,000 people in America affected by the disease. That is a small number when compared to heart disease, cancer, diabetes or any other number of diseases that kill people every year. However, if you are the one being affected or you have a family member who is affected, ALS is a very real issue.
Every other objection smacks of jealousy, bitterness and the just plain inhumanity that man can justify using against his fellow man. There is no reason to dislike this effort up to this point. Yes, some are wasting water. Some are not donating. That is going to happen in every case.
Campaigns like this will continue to happen for as long as people need a reason to donate. People no longer give to a charity just because they believe in doing good. They give because their hearts or minds have been touched by some incident. If the inciting incident also happens to be fun, then so much the better.
Mark Twain was quoting Benjamin Disraeli when he said there are three kinds of lies in the world: lies, damn lies and statistics. If someone is using statistics to support his or her claim, it is important to know what those stats are actually measuring. Yes, ALS will only put 28 percent of that $100 million to research, but that is about $27.5 million more than they had last year at this same time. Other programs that ALs runs will see the same type of increase. Talking heads will continue to manipulate language and math for the nefarious purpose of gaining eyes on the page. The savvy reader will learn how to tune them out and read what they aren’t saying.
Maybe those who are so against the challenge are upset because they haven't been asked to participate.
As the headline shouts at from the warm glow of your electronic devise, it is clear that the ALS is perpetrating some kind of fraud on the American and world public with its ice challenge. Only 27 percent of the funds raised are going to research. Where is all the rest of the almost $100 million dollars going?
Let’s go to snopes.com to find out. According to Snopes and the ALS website, only 28 percent of funds are going to research. That number agrees with the fraud number. FRAUD! FRAUD! FRAUD! Pitchforks and torches. KILL THE BEAST!
79% of money raised goes to research and services
ALS is also using 19 percent of the funds for patient and community services and an additional 32 percent for public and professional education. That means that 79 percent of money raised is going to research and services that ALS provides to people.
Both sides are right up to this point as long as you do not want to quibble over one percent. The ICE BUCKET FRAUD story even uses the same graph. The person who wrote the story just ignored every other facet of the graph and decided midway down that education and patient and community services could be easily lumped into “fundraising, overhead, executive salaries, and external donations.” At least, this website gives you the correct information even if the writer has blatantly misinterpreted it.
The ice bucket challenge was started by a professional baseball player with ALS. It grew from there. It has no real ties to the ALSA. The organization never made any promises about giving all of the money to research. The organization did not start the campaign, but it has reaped the rewards. Over 3 million donors and over $100 million raised for an organization that raised about $3 million in the same time period last year.
There is only one reasonable objection to this effort for ALS. In any given year, there are only 30,000 people in America affected by the disease. That is a small number when compared to heart disease, cancer, diabetes or any other number of diseases that kill people every year. However, if you are the one being affected or you have a family member who is affected, ALS is a very real issue.
Every other objection smacks of jealousy, bitterness and the just plain inhumanity that man can justify using against his fellow man. There is no reason to dislike this effort up to this point. Yes, some are wasting water. Some are not donating. That is going to happen in every case.
Campaigns like this will continue to happen for as long as people need a reason to donate. People no longer give to a charity just because they believe in doing good. They give because their hearts or minds have been touched by some incident. If the inciting incident also happens to be fun, then so much the better.
Mark Twain was quoting Benjamin Disraeli when he said there are three kinds of lies in the world: lies, damn lies and statistics. If someone is using statistics to support his or her claim, it is important to know what those stats are actually measuring. Yes, ALS will only put 28 percent of that $100 million to research, but that is about $27.5 million more than they had last year at this same time. Other programs that ALs runs will see the same type of increase. Talking heads will continue to manipulate language and math for the nefarious purpose of gaining eyes on the page. The savvy reader will learn how to tune them out and read what they aren’t saying.
Maybe those who are so against the challenge are upset because they haven't been asked to participate.