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Who will benefit from the ice bucket challenge?

Fortune just put a damper on the damp participants of the ice bucket challenge by questioning how ALSA will spend all that money.

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Fortune just put a damper on the damp participants of the viral ice bucket challenge by questioning how ALSA will spend all that money from the likes of President George W. Bush, actor Ben Affleck, General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt and thousands more who were doused with ice water to raise money and awareness for Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

The video campaign for ALSA (which stands for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Association) originally worked like this — write a check, or accept the challenge, in which a participant dumps a bucket of ice water over their head, challenging others to do the same. So far, the campaign has caught international attention, raising $41.8 million versus the $2.1 million the organization raised last year during the same period of time.

According to Charity Navigator, 72 percent of ALSA’s expenses go towards related programs and services, earning the non-profit four stars for 2013.  Fortune was quick to point out that in order to maintain proportional financial spending (and those four stars that rank it as a true non-profit) ALSA will have to decide how to invest $30 million in research and education this year.

Since ALS hadn’t counted on the money, there is no plan set in place on how to spend it. The organization told Fortune that some of the funds will help sustain programs that had launched without long-term funding, like grants to scientists developing ALS therapy, or operations of therapy clinics.

But even as more people are splashed, doused and drenched, how the rest of the money is spent is yet to be confirmed. But for most people and organizations not routinely featured in Fortune, extra cash is hardly a challenge. 

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