If you’re reading this blog, odds are that you’ve participated in the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. You’re joined by countless celebrities, as well as millions of Internet users across the country. But stop for a moment and think: “Why did I choose to donate my time/money to fight ALS?”

The Ice Bucket Challenge has mostly finished up by now, with the last few stragglers getting drenched. In hindsight, even though the Ice Bucket Challenge has given the fight against ALS a fresh boost, the whole phenomenon has swept the country into a frenzy simply because it’s trendy. And that’s the problem: viral movements and celebrities shouldn’t dictate how or where we give our charity.

The Ice Bucket Challenge is a viral trend where participants either douse themselves with ice water or donate $100 to an ALS foundation. The money is used to fight ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease—a degenerative motor-neuron disease that eventually leads to death, according to the ALS Association’s website.

The ALS Association has raised over $100 million since July 29, compared with only $2.7 million raised in the same time period last year. That money will fund research that will hopefully one day find a cure to ALS. Although the ALS Association deserves our donations, it’s worth wondering if those dollars could’ve been put to better use somewhere else. What if it was the “Heart Disease Ice Bucket Challenge” instead? In America, heart disease kills nearly 600,000 people annually, compared to ALS’s 6,000 deaths. Thus, finding a cure for heart disease could theoretically have a 100-fold impact just based on death toll.

Both are tragic diseases that deserve limitless donations of money and time, but unfortunately there are limited resources in the world. The comparison is just being used to highlight how donors should try to give their money to where it would be used most effectively, or at least to not donate on a whim (remember KONY 2012)?

Millions of people willingly donated money to Invisible Children, the non-profit that created KONY 2012, in just a few days after the video went viral. But Invisible Children’s grand intentions were never quite realized and they lost most of their support after the founder’s public meltdown.

Donating to a cause with which you have a personal connection is perfectly valid and admirable, as is charity in general. But be wary of jumping on the bandwagon. The Ice Bucket Challenge has demonstrated how powerful social media and the Internet can be when it comes to spontaneous philanthropy—for better or for worse.

As we await the next trend, it’s important to take the lessons from the Ice Bucket Challenge and try to focus high volume, out-of-the-blue charity effectively, rather than let it be dictated  by arbitrarily viral videos.