The money could have been donated to more common diseases, but probably wouldn't have. Humans are mostly motivated by emotion. The Ice Bucket Challenge captured

The money could have been donated to more common diseases, but probably wouldn't have. Humans are mostly motivated by emotion. The Ice Bucket Challenge captured the imagination of a ton of people and got them motivated to donate. If other common diseases need more money, they should find similar ways to pull at human's heartstrings (obviously they do as well, just not with such a public feelgood novel viral stunt like this).