Beyond the 2014 ALS Ice BucketChallenge:Insights into Charitable GivingMeganMarley, MSTWidenerUniversitySeptember11, 2015 Abstract Thesummer 2014 Ice Bucket challenge also known as the ALS Ice Bucket challengeinvolved dumping ice water on someone’s head to promote awareness for thedisease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, commonly known as Lou Gehrig’sdisease), and encourage donations to research. The person nominated for the challenge had the option of:  making a cash donation to the ALS Association,dumping ice water on their head, or both. Most people, including celebrities and politicians opted to do both. OnDecember 30, 2014, the ALS Association announced that this summer’s “IceBucket†challenge rose over $115 million in cash donations for the largestnon-profit organization that fights Lou Gehrig’s disease.[i]  The year 2014 was a phenomenal year for theAssociation due to the unprecedented social media frenzy.  The ALS Association’s top priority isresearch and drug development to help treat and find a cure for those affectedby the disease.  Amyotrophic lateralscierosis is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cellsin the brain and the spinal cord.  Whenthe disease has progressed the brain loses the ability to initiate and controlmuscles.  The disease leads the victim tobecome paralyzed and eventually leads them to death.  The ALS Associations’ vision is to create aworld without ALS.  The Associationbelieves that stem cell research is necessary to provide benefit to people withALS in the future.  The ALS Association’smission also includes providing care services to assist people with ALS andtheir families through a network of chapters working in communities.  The cash raised in 2014 from the Ice Bucketchallenge will allow the Association to triple it’s spending on research andfocus on services to care for the victims living with ALS and their families. Over thecourse of the phenomenon celebrities, sports teams, corporations, executives,moms, dads and children took the ice bucket challenge.  Facebook, Youtube, and Twitter were floodedwith videos of everyone dumping the ice cold water over their heads.  What does this mean from a tax benefitperspective?  Who will actually benefitfrom the challenge and or the donations? Why did they choose to do this?  Where will all of these donations go?  As mentioned above, most people opted to dumpthe ice water and make a cash donation. How much of this will qualify as a donation, if at all?

This purpose of thispaper is to examine the benefits of contributing cash and personal property toa qualified organization primarily from the perspective of the individual taxpayer.  Using this past summer’s ALS Bucket Challengeas a starting point, we will revisit the Internal Revenue Service’s rulesregarding tax deductions for charitable giving. In addition to the Ice Bucket Challenge we will review some other real-lifeexamples to apply the rules regarding the maximum amount of charitable deductionsallowed in a tax year.  We will alsoprovide some taxpayer guidance regarding documentation needed they can properlycapture all of their charitable giving tax benefit in 2015.  In summary, we will explore some of the othertypes of tax benefits (i.e. State Tax and Estate Tax) as well as non-taxbenefits of charitable giving. [i] New Year, New Opportunities, by BarbaraJ. Newhouse, ALS Association President and CEO.