apushatayid: Yes, in theory, but there are thousands of causes, all very deserving, and a person’s assets are limited. The walkathons and ice bucket challenges and so forth are done 1) to make a particular cause stand out from all the others and 2) to encourage the donor to give NOW, not just at year’s end, or the next time they get a raise, or on the next holiday, or just stam whenever they feel like it.
I used to work in fundraising. The #1 reason why people donate money is because they were asked. Generally speaking, it’s not going to randomly occur to someone to donate money unless it’s a special occasion, and even then, they’re much more likely to give to a couple of organizations they know well and have been giving to for years, rather than something more random like ALS research.