I was listening to Radio 4′s Today Programme this morning where they were talking about how 75% of us give to charity during our lifetimes, but that number drops to 7% when it comes to leaving a legacy. How, the presenter asked, do you persuade more people to continue their naturally generous streak from beyond [...]

Some years ago, I found myself newly installed as one of two creative directors hired by the fundraising agency, Cascaid. It had recently moved from Reading to London and was determined to become a major player on the London scene (which it did).

We celebrate with Square and Android as they hit major milestones, Zynga releases games on its own platform, LinkedIn launch the ability for companies to post updates and we discover Donate your Account.

Google has been making more waves in tech news this week. Some of it good, some not great but all of it interesting.

Facebook are downgrading check-ins while Foursquare are upgrading its check-in options. Also this week, Jumo has been acquired by GOOD and we donate in our sleep.

The office has been enjoying watching the funny and heartfelt charity videos submitted for the JustTextGiving video competition this week. Charities wishing to enter the competition simply need to create a short, creative video using their JustTextGiving code and post it to YouTube, and the video with the most views by 23rd of this month [...]

Google+ is integrated into Google search results in a (not so) shocking move. Kuapay pip NFC to the post with a QR code mobile payment system and Facebook Ads allow you to target people by postcode.

DudaMobile DudaMobile has recently launched a new self-serve platform that allows existing website owners create a mobile version of their site by simply typing in the website’s URL. This is a simple and brilliant offering for small organisations, who haven’t got the time or resources to make sure their site is mobile friendly. The service [...]

Last week, CharityInsight.com played host to an online debate about using social media to benefit non-profit organisations. It asked five sets of questions on behalf of charities that are all six’s and seven’s about the social web. Our very own Rachel Beer was one of the panellists.

On the 6 month anniversary of beautiful bytes we bring news that DOWNLOAD TO DONATE encourages donations in exchange for new music, Hootsuite updates its suite of tools, Foursquare reaches 10 million users and Everything Everywhere permanently suspends text donation fees.

Over the years, and the appeals, I’ve learned much about the factors that determine success in fundraising – and even more about what to avoid doing – and I’ll always be learning, because that’s one of the privileges of working with so many different charities, across such a wide variety of campaigns and media.

There has been a bit of a storm created by Martin Brookes, reported in Third Sector magazine, who told a parliamentary select committee that UK fundraiser’s “aren’t very good”. A post that looks at the bell curve of good practice across the sector.

I was reminiscing the other day about the joy of writing and receiving letters and my friend lamented that people send emails nowadays. Well that seemed pretty obvious – yeah, I suppose they do.But just looking at my personal email inbox today I can’t find any messages from people I know; every single one is a marketing message of some description.

This week we look at free agents and how social media enables them to inspire more people and generate more donations than ever before. We question whether Google should buy LinkedIn and reveal new tech acquisitions that will impact the sector. Finally we concede that Lady Gaga does some good to the world.

The old volume vs value debate is always ongoing and is as pertinent as ever with the arrival, and spread, of social media. But the way people communicate has changed, the tools we have are different, and so the debate has moved on…