GCM Docs

Appearance

Email provider ​

Email is GCM's most-used outbound channel — every receipt, every invite, every workflow notification, every broadcast newsletter goes through whichever provider you configure here. Pick one, configure it once, and every sender in the app uses it.

The settings live under Settings → Email.

Email provider settings

Sender identity ​

Before picking a provider, set the sender identity. This is what shows up in the recipient's inbox.

  • Sender name — Grace Church, Pastor Maria, Treasurer's Office — whatever feels right.
  • Sender email — the From: address. Use a mailbox you actually own, not a fake one.
  • Reply-To — optional. If members hit reply, where should the reply go? Defaults to the sender email.

WARNING

Don't use noreply@gmail.com style addresses unless you actually want bounces. Recipients reply to receipts more often than you'd think.

Pick a provider ​

The provider dropdown has three options:

Platform default ​

Outbound mail goes through GCM's shared sending infrastructure (Resend, behind the scenes). Sender domains are whitelisted, SPF / DKIM is handled for you, deliverability sits at industry-standard rates.

Pros:

  • Zero configuration.
  • Free up to your plan's monthly volume.
  • Handled by us — no DKIM/SPF setup needed for the platform sender domain.

Cons:

  • Subject to a shared rate limit if your church sends >10,000 emails / month.
  • From address is constrained — you can use any sender name but the visible sending domain is geniuschurchmanager.com unless you upgrade.

Most churches stay here. Switch only when you've got specific deliverability or branding needs.

Resend ​

Resend is the same provider behind the platform default, but with your own account. You manage your own sending domain, set up DKIM/SPF, and pay Resend directly.

You need:

  • Resend API key — starts with re_…. Get one from the Resend dashboard.

That's it. Sender name and email are configured above; we use those when calling Resend's send endpoint. Bring-your-own Resend keeps the same simplicity as the platform default but settles deliverability and branding to your account.

Resend credentials field

SMTP ​

For churches with a legacy mail server, a Google Workspace account they want to send through, an internal Exchange box, or any standard SMTP relay (SendGrid, Mailgun, Amazon SES, Postmark).

You need:

  • SMTP host — e.g. smtp.gmail.com, smtp.sendgrid.net, smtp.mailgun.org.
  • Port — usually 587 (STARTTLS) or 465 (implicit TLS).
  • Username — the SMTP auth user, often an app password or API key prefix.
  • Password — the SMTP auth secret.
  • TLS — leave on unless your provider explicitly requires plaintext.

SMTP credentials form

TIP

Gmail and Google Workspace require an app password, not your real account password. Set up 2FA on the sending mailbox first, then mint an app password under "App passwords."

Test the connection ​

After saving credentials, click Send test email. GCM dispatches a one-off message to the address you specify. If it arrives in <30 seconds, you're set. If it doesn't, check:

  1. The provider's own activity log first (Resend dashboard, SendGrid event log, SMTP server logs).
  2. Your spam folder.
  3. The Recent deliveries in GCM's message log — we record the provider's response code for every send.

What gets sent through this provider ​

Once configured, every outbound email uses the active provider:

  • Transactional — donation receipts, welcome emails, password resets, login codes.
  • Broadcast — newsletters and announcements composed in the messaging composer.
  • Workflow steps — every send_message step in a workflow where channel = email.
  • Reminders — birthday wishes, event reminders, attendance follow-ups.
  • Reports — scheduled report PDFs delivered to admins.

TIP

Auth emails (login codes, password resets) always go through the platform default regardless of your provider setting — to ensure new admins can finish signup even if the org provider is mid-rotation.

Templates ​

The look and feel of every transactional email lives in Email templates, not here. This page is only about how mail leaves the system; templates control what it says.

Bounces and complaints ​

Hard bounces (the address doesn't exist) and complaints (the recipient marked you as spam) feed back into GCM through the provider's webhook. Bounced addresses get a flag on the member record and skip future sends automatically — protects your sender reputation.

You can review bounced addresses under Members → Filters → Email bounced.

Rate limits ​

Each provider has its own per-second / per-day limits. GCM throttles bulk broadcasts to stay under whichever limit applies:

ProviderDefault per-second cap
Platform default10
Resend10
SMTP2 (configurable)

You can raise the SMTP cap in the credentials — but make sure your relay actually accepts it.

Cross-references ​