Charity Fatigue

I have nothing but admiration for what the ALS Organization has done with the "Ice Bucket Challenge" meme it has created. It's been fantastically successful, and has raised millions of dollars for ALS research. A home run.

I'm convinced, however, that many people are doing it more to see themselves on video than to donate to a charity. It's now the charity of the day, and I'm sure it's had an impact on other worthy causes.

"I've just given to ALS research so I can't give to your cause" ("Your cause isn't cool because nobody can see me on YouTube.")

The end justifies the means, so the ALS people have a hit on their hands. I have no idea how they could ever hope to raise this much notoriety or money. But we need some perspective now. I think we've entered the realm of "Charity Fatigue".

ALS affects 2 out of 100,000 people. Here's a list of other diseases which might be worthy of your money (Wikipedia). Time to give them some attention again.

Mortality Rates (death rate per year, from data for 2002^[2])

Group[3]	Cause	Percent of deaths	All Deaths per 100,000	Male Deaths per 100,000	Female Deaths per 100,000
–	All Causes	100.0	916.1	954.7	877.1
A	Cardiovascular diseases	29.34	268.8	259.3	278.4
B	Infectious and parasitic diseases	23.04	211.3	221.7	200.4
A.1	Ischemic heart disease	12.64	115.8	121.4	110.1
C	Malignant neoplasms (cancers)	12.49	114.4	126.9	101.7
A.2	Cerebrovascular disease (Stroke)	9.66	88.5	85.4	95.6
B.1	Respiratory infections	6.95	63.7	63.5	63.8
B.1.1	Lower respiratory tract infections	6.81	62.4	62.2	62.6
D	Respiratory diseases	6.49	59.5	61.1	57.9
E	Unintentional injuries	6.23	57.0	73.7	40.2
B.2	HIV/AIDS	4.87	44.6	46.2	43.0
D.1	Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease	4.82	44.1	45.1	43.1
–	Perinatal conditions	4.32	39.6	43.7	35.4
F	Digestive diseases	3.45	31.6	34.9	28.2
B.3	Diarrhea diseases	3.15	28.9	30.0	27.8
G	Intentional injuries (Suicide, Violence, War, etc.)	2.84	26.0	37.0	14.9
B.4	Tuberculosis	2.75	25.2	32.9	17.3
B.5	Malaria	2.23	20.4	19.4	21.5
C.1	Lung cancer	2.18	20.0	28.4	11.4
E.1	Road traffic accidents	2.09	19.1	40.8	10.4
B.6	Childhood diseases	1.97	18.1	18.0	18.2
H	Neuropsychiatric disorders	1.95	17.9	18.4	17.3
–	Diabetes mellitus	1.73	15.9	14.1	17.7
A.3	Hypertensive heart disease	1.60	14.6	13.4	15.9
G.1	Suicide	1.53	14.0	17.4	10.6
C.2	Stomach cancer	1.49	13.7	16.7	10.5
I	Diseases of the genitourinary system	1.49	13.6	14.1	13.1
F.1	Cirrhosis of the liver	1.38	12.6	16.1	9.1
I.1	Nephritis/nephropathy	1.19	10.9	11.0	10.7
C.3	Colorectal cancer	1.09	10.0	10.3	9.7
C.4	Liver cancer	1.08	9.9	13.6	6.2
B.6.1	Measles	1.07	9.8	9.8	9.9
G.2	Violence	0.98	9.0	14.2	3.7
–	Maternal conditions	0.89	8.2	0.0	16.5
–	Congenital abnormalities	0.86	7.9	8.1	7.7
J	Nutritional deficiencies	0.85	7.8	6.9	8.7
C.5	Breast cancer	0.84	7.7	0.1	15.3
C.6	Esophageal cancer	0.78	7.2	9.1	5.2
A.4	Inflammatory heart disease	0.71	6.5	6.7	6.2
H.1	Alzheimer's disease and other dementias	0.70	6.4	4.7	8.1
E.2	Falls	0.69	6.3	7.5	5.0
E.3	Drowning	0.67	6.1	8.4	3.9
E.4	Poisoning	0.61	5.6	7.2	4.0
C.7	Lymphomas, multiple myeloma	0.59	5.4	5.4	5.4
A.5	Rheumatic heart disease	0.57	5.3	4.4	6.1
C.8	Oral and oropharynx cancers	0.56	5.1	7.1	3.1
E.5	Fires	0.55	5.0	3.8	6.2
B.6.2	Pertussis	0.52	4.7	4.7	4.8
C.9	Prostate cancer	0.47	4.3	8.6	0.0
C.10	Leukemia	0.46	4.2	4.7	3.8
F.2	Peptic ulcer disease	0.46	4.2	5.0	3.5
J.1	Protein-energy malnutrition	0.46	4.2	4.2	4.2
D.2	Asthma	0.42	3.9	3.9	3.8
–	Endocrine/nutritional disorders	0.43	3.9	3.4	4.4
C.11	Cervical cancer	0.42	3.8	0.0	7.7
C.12	Pancreatic cancer	0.41	3.7	3.9	3.5
B.6.3	Tetanus	0.38	3.4	3.4	3.5
C.13	Bladder cancer	0.31	2.9	4.0	1.7
B.7	Sexually transmitted diseases excluding HIV/AIDS	0.32	2.9	2.9	2.9
B.8	Meningitis	0.30	2.8	2.9	2.7
G.3	War	0.30	2.8	5.0	0.5
B.7.1	Syphilis	0.28	2.5	2.7	2.3
–	Neoplasms other than malignant	0.26	2.4	2.4	2.4
J.2	Iron deficiency anemia	0.24	2.2	1.5	2.9
C.14	Ovarian cancer	0.24	2.2	0.0	4.4
B.9	Tropical diseases excluding malaria	0.23	2.1	2.5	1.6
H.2	Epilepsy	0.22	2.0	2.2	1.8
B.10	Hepatitis B	0.18	1.7	2.3	1.0
–	Musculoskeletal diseases	0.19	1.7	1.2	2.2
H.3	Parkinson's disease	0.17	1.6	1.6	1.6
H.4	Alcohol use disorders	0.16	1.5	2.5	0.4
H.5	Drug use disorders	0.15	1.4	2.2	0.5
B.1.2	Upper respiratory infections	0.13	1.2	1.2	1.2
C.16	Melanoma and other skin cancers	0.12	1.1	1.1	1.0
–	Skin diseases	0.12	1.1	0.8	1.4
C.15	Uterine cancer	0.12	1.1	0.0	2.3
B.11	Hepatitis C	0.09	0.9	1.1	0.6
B.9.1	Leishmaniasis	0.09	0.8	1.0	0.7
B.9.2	Trypanosomiasis	0.08	0.8	1.0	0.5
I.2	Benign prostatic hyperplasia	0.06	0.5	1.0	0.0