--- title: Ice Bucket Challenge Raises $12 Million description: The ALS Association's national office has raised $11.7 million since July 29 compared with less than $50,000 in the same time last year. canonical: https://time.com/3136458/viral-als-ice-bucket-challenge-funds-raised-15-million/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-08-18T19:42:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:00:51.767Z article:section: Health og:title: Here's What the ALS Association Is Doing With The Money From The Ice Bucket Challenge og:description: How the $12 million will be spent. og:url: https://time.com/3136458/viral-als-ice-bucket-challenge-funds-raised-15-million/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt02d505faa6f43e98/69869ff03bc999afba1a4f29/als-ice-bucket.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Andy Cohen and Kim Zolciak partake in the ALS Ice Bucket challenge on "Watch What Happens Live" on Bravo. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's What the ALS Association Is Doing With The Money From The Ice Bucket Challenge twitter:description: How the $12 million will be spent. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt02d505faa6f43e98/69869ff03bc999afba1a4f29/als-ice-bucket.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Viral Ice Bucket Challenge Has Raised $15.6 Million For ALS ## Video: Tech CEOs And Execs Participate In Ice Bucket Challenge [Watch (HLS stream): Tech CEOs And Execs Participate In Ice Bucket Challenge](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Q9KoWLfd.m3u8) (1:57)  _Published 2014-08-14. The Ice Bucket Challenge has now raised $4 million for the ALS Association due in part to the challenge catching on with everyone, even the folks in Silicon Valley._  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Aug 18, 2014 7:42 PM UTC  Andy Cohen and Kim Zolciak partake in the ALS Ice Bucket challenge on "Watch What Happens Live" on Bravo. Andy Cohen and Kim Zolciak partake in the ALS Ice Bucket challenge on "Watch What Happens Live" on Bravo.Charles Sykes—NBC/Getty Images  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Aug 18, 2014 7:42 PM UTC The extremely viral ALS Ice Bucket Challenge has led to record donations to the ALS Association, raising some $15.6 million in contributions to the group and and its national affiliates since July 29 — compared with less than $50,000 in the same period last year. “It’s huge. It’s a game changer for the ALS Association,” said ALS Association President Barbara Newhouse. The $12 million figure represents more than half of the funds raised in all of 2012, when the national organization brought in $19 million in contributions. The total has been boosted by a flood of celebrities participating in the Ice Bucket Challenge, in increasingly creative ways. Project ALS, another charity dedicated to combatting Lou Gehrig’s disease, said it experienced a surge in fundraising after Ben Stiller and Ricky Gervais took the Challenge and asked people to contribute to that organization specifically. The charity raised $96,000 over a single weekend, compared to just a few thousand dollars in the first weeks of August 2013. What to do this unexpected windfall? Newhouse said the money will allow the ALS Association to “think outside the box. “We need to take some time to make some very clear decisions about how best to spend this money,” said Newhouse, who said she will consult a number of people including the families that started and popularized the ALS challenge. One clear priority will be research, on which the organization currently spends more than $6 million a year. Project ALS says all the money the organization receives will go toward innovative research and “staffing up.” Both organizations said that no matter how the money is spent, the Challenge has brought invaluable awareness to their cause. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3136458/viral-als-ice-bucket-challenge-funds-raised-15-million/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3136458/viral-als-ice-bucket-challenge-funds-raised-15-million/"},"headline":"The Viral Ice Bucket Challenge Has Raised $15.6 Million For ALS","datePublished":"2014-08-18T19:42:38.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:00:51.767Z","description":"The ALS Association raised $50,000 in the same period last year","url":"https://time.com/3136458/viral-als-ice-bucket-challenge-funds-raised-15-million/","keywords":["Research","Social Media","Fundraising","Viral Videos","philanthropy","Lou Gehrig's disease","ALS","Ice Bucket Challenge"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt02d505faa6f43e98/69869ff03bc999afba1a4f29/als-ice-bucket.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Worland","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/justin-worland/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt02d505faa6f43e98/69869ff03bc999afba1a4f29/als-ice-bucket.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Andy Cohen and Kim Zolciak partake in the ALS Ice Bucket challenge on \"Watch What Happens Live\" on Bravo.","caption":"Andy Cohen and Kim Zolciak partake in the ALS Ice Bucket challenge on \"Watch What Happens Live\" on Bravo.","creditText":"Charles Sykes—NBC/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/research/","name":"Research"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3136458/viral-als-ice-bucket-challenge-funds-raised-15-million/","name":"The Viral Ice Bucket Challenge Has Raised $15.6 Million For ALS"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Tech CEOs And Execs Participate In Ice Bucket Challenge","description":"The Ice Bucket Challenge has now raised $4 million for the ALS Association due in part to the challenge catching on with everyone, even the folks in Silicon Valley.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/Q9KoWLfd/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-08-14T19:10:06.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Q9KoWLfd.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3136458/viral-als-ice-bucket-challenge-funds-raised-15-million/","duration":"PT1M57S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3136458/viral-als-ice-bucket-challenge-funds-raised-15-million/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```