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Email ​

Email is the channel for longer-form content: weekly newsletters, sermon notes, monthly giving statements, event invitations with photos. Open rates are lower than WhatsApp (~25 percent industry average) but cost is essentially zero and you can send rich content.

Email send screen

Set up a provider ​

Configure a provider in Settings → Channels:

ProviderBest forNotes
Resendquickstart, modern APIGenerous free tier
SendGridhigh volume, advanced deliverabilityMore config
SMTPyour existing mail serverBring your own server

Each provider needs:

  • From email — what recipients see as the sender. Must be a domain you own.
  • Domain verification — DKIM/SPF records to prove the domain is yours, set in your DNS.
  • API key / credentials — from the provider's dashboard.

WARNING

Skipping DKIM/SPF setup is the most common cause of "my email goes to spam." Take an hour to add the DNS records before you start any bulk send — your deliverability depends on it.

Send a single email ​

From a member profile:

  1. Open the message action.
  2. Pick Email.
  3. Fill in subject, body, optional attachments.
  4. Send.

The body editor supports rich text (bold, lists, links) and merge tokens. Inline images can be attached if your provider supports them.

Send a bulk email ​

From Messaging → Send:

  1. Pick recipients.
  2. Choose Email.
  3. Compose subject + body.
  4. Optionally pick a template.
  5. Send.

Bulk sends are throttled per provider rate limits, but email scales much faster than SMS or WhatsApp — 10,000 recipients in minutes is typical.

Templates ​

For repeating content (weekly newsletter, monthly statement), build a template in Messaging → Templates:

  • HTML + plain-text body.
  • Subject line.
  • Merge token placeholders.
  • Optional pre-header text (the gray preview shown in the inbox).

Workflows can reference templates by ID, so a "monthly newsletter" workflow can stay in sync as you update the template.

Bounce handling ​

When an email bounces (recipient address doesn't exist, mailbox full, etc.):

  • The provider sends a webhook to our donation-payment-webhook-style callback (provider-specific).
  • We mark the member's email as bouncing on their profile.
  • Future bulk sends skip bouncing emails to protect your sender reputation.

You can review bounced addresses from Messaging → Bounces. Once you've cleaned the address (asked the member for an update), you can clear the bounce flag.

TIP

Persistent bounce rate above 5 percent will get your sending domain throttled by mailbox providers (Gmail in particular). Clean bounces aggressively.

Unsubscribe ​

We add an unsubscribe footer to every bulk email automatically. When a recipient clicks it:

  • They land on a confirmation page.
  • They're added to the email unsubscribe list.
  • Future bulk sends skip them.

The unsubscribe link is required by CAN-SPAM in the US and GDPR-style regulations elsewhere. Don't remove it.

Image hosting ​

When you attach images inline or in templates, we host them in your church's storage bucket and serve them with cache headers. Hot-linked images from external sites work too but break if the source disappears.

Delivery status ​

The log shows:

  • Sent — provider accepted.
  • Delivered — recipient mailbox accepted.
  • Opened (if pixel tracking is on) — recipient opened the email.
  • Clicked (if link tracking is on) — recipient clicked a tracked link.
  • Bounced / Failed — with reason.

Pixel and link tracking are configurable in the channel settings. Some churches turn them off for privacy reasons.

Common questions ​

Can I send from a Gmail address? You'd use SMTP with Gmail's server, but Gmail's free tier limits outbound to 500/day. Not practical for a church bulk. Use Resend or SendGrid instead, and set up a real domain like info@yourchurch.org.

Will my emails go to spam? Without DKIM/SPF, often. With proper setup and reasonable content, almost never. Monitor the delivered-vs-bounced ratio in the log.

Can members reply to emails? Yes — replies go to whatever address you set as Reply-to in the channel config. GCM doesn't currently capture inbound email into Conversations; replies live in your reply-to inbox.

Next steps ​