No one quite remembers how and where it started – its origin is rumored to be traced to support for a 29-year-old Boston man recently diagnosed with the rare but deadly neurodegenerative disease called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) – more commonly referred to as Lou Gehrig's Disease, after the legendary New York Yankees player who was afflicted with the little-known malady some 75 years ago.

In case you've been on a desert island for the past month, the challenge works as follows: Individuals (many celebrities included) are tapped by someone they know to accept the challenge and agree to pour a bucket of ice water on their heads and contribute $10 to ALS research, or abstain from the ice drenching and donate $100. The promotion has worked like a charm and is testament to the power of social media and its ability to encourage charitable fundraising at a grass-roots level.

Seemingly every public figure from Oprah Winfrey to Ethel Kennedy has submitted to the challenge, which has raised not only national awareness of a relatively obscure and incurable disease, but also more funds for ALS research than at any time in its history – and at lightning speed: more than $100 million in a month's time.

This campaign went viral before anyone could say the full name of ALS, with much of the donations coming from new donors – more than a million and going strong – and now catching fire in the U.K. as well. The ALS Challenge response (which has taken even the ALS Association, its primary beneficiary, by surprise) has given other non-profits and charities pause in trying to figure out how to recruit similar numbers of new and younger donors.

CEOs Yes; Corporations, Not so Much

Not to be outdone, many corporate CEOs have gladly thrown their hats into the proverbial bucket – especially among the high-tech echelons. This is to be expected, as the Internet and technology-powered companies are responsible for the promotion's success, and Silicon Valley captains of industry want to be seen as on the cutting edge of all things technology. Everyone from Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg to Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook and Elon Musk has taken the plunge alongside countless movie stars, athletes, politicians and ordinary citizens.

But has the needle of corporate charitable giving moved much as a result of the Ice Bucket Challenge – for ALS or any other cause, for that matter? Apparently not yet, though the promotion is still young and caught on during August, when much of corporate America takes its vacation. Still, we're not seeing much in the media about major corporations upping their charitable ante or encouraging employees to participate by sponsoring "ALS Challenge" events just yet.

More to the point of relevancy for us as HR professionals, should the Ice Bucket Challenge be encouraging more donations at the corporate level? According to a survey of the 150 most profitable U.S. companies and their charitable giving practices conducted by the Chronicle of Philanthropy (which has its finger on the pulse of charitable giving in the U.S.), 2013 saw record corporate profits of just under $2 trillion, but corporate cash giving rose by less than 3%, to $4.6 billion. Even the handful of most generous corporations like Alcoa (the top giver, at just above 12% of profits) barely exceeded 5% of their annual profits.

Why ALS? (Or is That Besides the Point?)

Then there's the argument posited and posted on all manner of media outlets that, while the Ice Bucket Challenge may be a fun promotion with no shortage of marketing ingenuity, are all those millions for disease research really going to the right cause?

Countless pundits and even chairman of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the University of Pennsylvania (and former adviser to President Obama) Zeke Emanuel maintain that while the promotions are well-intended and have certainly raised awareness of an obscure disease, they money is a drop in the bucket for an ailment that's baffled scientists for 150 years with no effective treatment or cure in sight – even with $100 million added to the mix.

Of course, if you happen to have a loved one suffering with ALS or know someone who has the disease, you're likely to be all in favor of funding its research. At the same time, much conventional wisdom holds that the money would be better spent on more common killer diseases where at least some progress has been made towards a cure – cancer, heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (better known as COPD or emphysema) or diabetes, to name just a few.

The good news here is that charitable giving on an individual level is on a definite uptick right now. Whether it's a temporary Internet fad or the start of a national trend remains to be seen, especially as we head into fall when donations tend to start rising toward year-end. But as far as corporate giving and our responsibilities as overseers of these campaigns go, the answers to the questions of whether the ALS Challenge should be encouraging greater levels of corporate giving, or if the disease of choice is beside the point, are a resounding "Yes."