A recent study conducted by UMass Dartmouth’s Society for New Communications Research found that Fortune 500 companies are laggards when it comes to social media adoption as compared to Forbes’ 200 biggest charities. (Every single charity in the Forbes 200 has a social media presence.) Here are more stats from UMass’ research:

• Charities’ adoption of blogging outpaces both the Fortune 500 and the Inc. 500 by 23% and 50%, respectively; 64% of these top performing charities maintain a blog for their organizations.

• 97% of these charities have a Facebook presence, 96% have Twitter accounts and 92% use YouTube.

• 55% of these charities are using online video to deliver their message and inform their audience about their mission.

• These charities report using search engines and social networking sites (76% and 75%, respectively) in their recruiting and evaluating processes.

• 90% of respondents consider social media to be very important in increasing awareness of their charity mission.