Here’s the Impact Last Year’s Ice Bucket Challenge Actually Had

I'm sure you all remember this time last year. Your social media pages were flooded (pun intended) with videos of people dumping buckets of ice water over their heads in an attempt to raise money for ALS research. Also called Lou Gherig's disease. And you also remember the participants each challenging people in their social circles to do the same thing. Well, those challenges spread like wildfire and to say the campaign went viral is a severe understatement.

The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based ALS Therapy Development Institute, a nonprofit biotech focused entirely on ALS, is one group that received a sizable chunk of those funds. According to the institute, the $4 million it received from the campaign went directly toward research programs “with the best opportunities to make an impact to end ALS.”

Other groups working to address ALS have also spoken to the impact #IceBucketChallenge funds have had on their efforts. In San Francisco, biotech company Cytokinetics received $1.5 million to fund the late-stage testing of an experimental drug, called tirasemtiv, that could improve lung function for ALS patients. This marks the first time such a drug has reached late-stage trials.

So your money that you've donated, and I've donated, has gone to worthwhile causes. And you can check for a full list of where the money went on the ALS website at www.als.org

Do you plan to participate again this year?