Yes, There Is a Challenge With the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

2) Yes, there are 3 million new donors to this organization. Trust me — as a marketer and fundraiser — I believe these 3 million donors could keep someone awake many many nights stressing out. Remember all the stories about the millions of disaster donors who come out of the woodwork every now and then. Yep, someone's coffers shoot up, but those donors are not typical donors. Those donors are not necessarily connected to the organization. And, guess what, it costs money to communicate to donors.

So, ALSA now has 3 million people to start talking with — build a strategy around — and perhaps all along knowing that many of these people will not retain to the brand. Its financial reports for 2014 will forever be footnoted (*year of the Ice Bucket Challenge). Board members will want the organization to repeat this campaign — and might believe the revenue windfall can be repeated. This is a unique opportunity for ALSA's fundraisers and marketers, but it will be a challenging one to say the least.

3) How will this new influx of money be spent? This is my big question. I believe that ALSA will do the right thing. But this is a unique situation. Earlier I compared the donor volume to that of a disaster scenario, but in those cases the ability to spend the influx of money on disaster-related issues can be easily understood. In this case, it is "business as usual" for this organization, but its bank account has grown exponentially.

It seems that every known business journal has weighed in on this issue and how ALSA should spend the money. In my mind, this could be a special opportunity for ALSA to bring together the best and brightest in the ALS community and form a blue-ribbon committee to assess where the need is greatest and where the greatest benefit can be achieved. My fear is that many eyes will be on this, and I don't want this to backfire and negatively affect the trust that has been growing for charitable giving. None of us can afford to have public trust be shifted in the wrong direction.