ThePort Network, NTEN, and Common Knowledge co-released results of a survey examining the use of social networking as a marketing and fundraising channel.

- Among commercial social networking sites, Facebook is the most popular, with 74 percent of nonprofits maintaining a presence. Nonprofit communities on Facebook are still relatively small, with an average size of 5,454 members.

- Four-fifths of nonprofits are committing at least one-quarter of a full-time staff person to their social networking efforts. More than half of nonprofits intend to increase social networking project staffing over the next 12 months.

- Approximately one-third of nonprofits have built one or more “house” social networks. Of those with their own social networks, 86.3 percent host communities of 10,000 members or less.

The survey also indicated that nonprofits prefer more traditional marketing tactics to promote their social networks -- prioritizing website, email lists and events. Lower in popularity but still prevalent were the use of Twitter and other social networks as marketing tools.