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Putting your dollars to work
View this interactive graphic; watch videos about progress in research, care services and advocacy; and read stories about how ALS Association chapters are making a difference in your community!
Your
Ice Bucket
Dollars
At Work
We are forever grateful for the generous outpouring of support we received from the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.
The ALS Association is leading the fight to find treatments and a cure for ALS – through robust research, care services, and public policy programs.
Here is a breakdown of how your dollars are making a difference.
Research
You are helping to reenergize global ALS research, ensuring the most promising projects are funded to accelerate the search for treatments and a cure.
Details
Patient & Community Services
You are helping to provide more support to people living with the disease, and increasing access to multi-disciplinary cary at ALS Association Certified Treatment Centers of Excellence.
Details
Public & Professional Education
You are helping to encourage Congress to expand support of ALS research and care.
Details
Fundraising
You are helping to engage more people in the movement to defeat this disease.
External Processing Fees
Donor-supported organizations, just like retail businesses, must pay transaction fees to process electronic donations (e.g., credit and debit card donations).
Numbers represent committed and anticipated spending
Here is a breakdown of how your dollars are making a difference.
$115 Million
Raised from 2014 ALS
Ice Bucket Challenge
Research
67% DetailsPatient & Community Services
20% DetailsPublic & Professional Education
9% DetailsFundraising
2%External Processing Fees
2%Research 
You are helping to advance global ALS research, ensuring the most promising projects are funded to accelerate the search for treatments and a cure.
Funding four collaborative global research initiatives:
- Project MinE —
global sequencing effort to identify new genes linked to sporadic and familial ALS - The Neuro Collaborative —
Three research labs working together to find effective treatments - The New York Genome Center —
repository for ALS genome sequencing data that increases number of genetic samples scientists can study - ALS ACT —
joint project aimed at expediting clinical trials and searching for biomarkers as indicators of disease
Increasing annual funding through various award opportunities, including:
- Investigator-initiated awards where scientists offer the best and brightest ideas for research they want to conduct; for innovative projects that are often high-risk, high-reward
- Milton Safenowitz Post-Doctoral Fellowships to support young scientists and encourage them to pursue a career in ALS research;
- Phase II clinical trial development awards for studies with promising biomarker candidates to test treatment approaches in people with ALS;
- Drug development contracts to advance treatments to clinical trials and to build academic-industry partnerships;
- Clinical development awards to support ALS clinicians focused on research involving people living with ALS;
- Clinical management grants to fund research for improving symptom management and quality of life for people with ALS;
- ALS Association-initiated awards for research in the five strategic areas and collaborative studies; and
- Assistive Technology Grant Challenge Awards to enhance technologies for people living with ALS today
With your help, The ALS Association is focusing on five key areas of ALS research:
- Biomarker discovery
- Gene discovery
- Disease model development
- Clinical studies
- Drug development
$77million
Patient & Community Services 
You are helping to provide more support to people living with the disease, and increasing access to multi-disciplinary care at ALS Association Certified Treatment Centers of Excellence.
Doubling grants to ALS Association Certified Treatment Centers of Excellence, which offer state-of-the-art multi disciplinary care and provide a home for clinical trials to find treatments for the disease.
Offering grants to ALS Association chapters to help improve patient access to care in unserved or underserved communities.
Supporting ALS Untangled to help fund the review of non-traditional treatments for ALS.
Improving education materials for people newly diagnosed and those who continue to manage the disease.
$23million
Close
Public & Professional Education 
You are helping to encourage Congress to expand support of ALS research and care.
Leading the development of a critical drug development initiative aimed at getting treatments to patients faster by creating guidance for researchers and companies to help them navigate the regulatory process with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The initiative will involve participation from the entire ALS community: people living with ALS, ALS organizations, clinicians, researchers and partners in the industry.
$10million
Close
How your support is making a difference
View how The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge has accelerated The ALS Association’s work to find treatments and a cure for the disease through research, care services and public policy initiatives.
Accelerated research to find treatments and a cure for ALS.
Learn how your support has helped to triple the amount spent on research each year; facilitate partnerships with university scientists and drug industry leaders; and fund new global collaborative research initiatives.
Expanded care for people living with the disease.
Learn how your support has helped to double grants to ALS treatment centers; expand patient access to care in underserved areas; and improve education materials for those fighting the disease.
Advanced legislative and regulatory priorities through advocacy.
Learn how your support has helped to further advance legislative and regulatory priorities; rally record numbers of people to advocate in Washington, D.C.; and create guidance and remove barriers so that companies can develop drugs faster.
Accelerating global ALS research to find treatments and a cure
The extraordinary outpouring of support during the 2014 ALS Ice Bucket Challenge has opened a new chapter in the fight against ALS, enabling The ALS Association to pursue new programs, collaborative efforts and scientific ideas. Recently, we brought all our research programs under one umbrella, The ALS Association ALS Research Institute, to accelerate advances in ALS research.
In just one year, The ALS Association has committed millions of additional dollars to support ALS research around the globe, including four collaborative research initiatives to build understanding of the disease, target new therapies, expedite clinical trials, and make DNA and RNA sequencing data available to the entire ALS research community. Your generosity has enabled The Association to fund ALS scientists just starting out in their careers and other investigators who are pursuing some of the most cutting-edged research happening in the world.
Learn more about researchFive key areas of focus
The ALS Association invests in research in the following key areas:
Gene discovery
Genes are directly responsible for over 15% of ALS, and likely contribute to most but not all other cases.
Disease model development
Multiple models of the disease offer the best opportunity to understand its complex biology and identify therapeutic targets.
Identification of biomarkers
Biomarkers that can determine risk, improve diagnosis, track disease progression and confirm drug engagement with targets are critical for speeding up the search for treatments.
Clinical trials
The value of any potential treatment can best be determined in clinical trials that are designed and carried out to provide definitive results in the shortest possible time.
Drug development
The overarching goal of all ALS research must be the rapid development of new and effective treatments.
The ALS Association in your community
With 39 chapters in communities across the U.S., volunteers and staff are helping people living with ALS and their families in a variety of ways, including providing respite care to caregivers, offering loaned medical equipment or assistive technology devices, supporting local ALS Association Certified Treatment Centers of Excellence, and more.
Nutrition Supplement Program Developed to Aid Patients
Indiana Chapter
Read More >>
Number of Clinics Increased to Serve New Patients
Rhode Island Chapter
Read More >>
New Patient Grants Made Available
Florida Chapter
Read More >>
New Genome Research Program Launched
Greater New York Chapter
Read More >>
New Clinic Established to Serve Patients
Texas Chapter
Read More >>
Grant Program Established to Help Cover Patient Costs
Central & Southern Ohio Chapter
Read More >>
Connect with us
Sign up to receive important and timely information from The ALS Association and learn how you can continue making a difference throughout the year.
Donate
Your generosity accelerates the pursuit of a cure for ALS by funding the integration of collaborative research, personalized patient care, and robust public policy programs.
