In case someone actually cares what ALS is and how the ALS Association uses all the donations it currently gets through the Ice Bucket Challenge, it is interesting to look at their last years tax return statements:
- Revenues received: ~$24 million
- Total cost of labour to run the association: ~$12.5 million
- Salaries for the leadership of the group: ~$2 million
- Other salaries and wages: ~$3.6 million
- Pension plans and employee benefits: ~$0.5 million
- Expenses for non employee labour: ~$4 million
- Travel expenses: ~$1.3 million
That means the administration costs are more than 50% of their income. In Germany, they would loose their “Non Profit” status and the tax authorities would basically treat them as any other business.
The donations are also used to support (at least in parts considered useless) animal testing: German / English
(Photo CC by Anthony Quintano)
