The funny thing is, the ALS ice bucket challenge itself makes the same mistake. You don't solve medical or political or any kind of large-scale, societal problems through individual heroics (even multiplied times 1,000). You solve them with a societal, institutional effort. The most damning indictment of the ice bucket challenge comes in the form of the more than a dozen members of Congress who have publicly participated in the campaign, when three years ago they voted to slash funding for ALS research by supporting budget cuts.
"But!" you say, "The ice bucket challenge has already raised more money than was allocated in that federal budget!" Sorry, but that's dumb too, because in five minutes we'll all be internet-fatigued from this campaign, and donations will plummet again, and it's less than likely that the ALS Association will have found another gimmick sufficient to keep that level of research funding going (not to mention the problems with leaving research funding in the hands of private entities in the first place, who spend half the money they raise on their own salaries).