Less than half of the nation’s charities use screening tools designed to help them find donors, according to a new study of more than 1,300 fund raisers commissioned by The Chronicle.

The study asked fund raisers whether they use products that help them identify prospective donors, determine how big a gift to seek from donors, and gather demographic information about supporters. Forty-two percent of fund raiser said they used such tools.

Not surprisingly, larger nonprofit groups are more likely to use professional research tools for screening potential donors. The survey found that 66 percent of nonprofit groups with $25-million or more in annual revenue use such tools.

Results from the full survey, conducted by the research firm Campbell Rinker, in Valencia, Calif., will be released Saturday morning at the Association of Professional Researchers for Advancement conference in Denver. If you’re attending the meeting, we hope you’ll join us in the session that starts at 8:30 a.m.

For more details about the study, send a message to display@philanthropy.com.