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Email Sending Infrastructure and Deliverability

WeGive sends all email communications (campaign messages, triggered emails, receipts, and notifications) through Mailgun, a professional email delivery service. Understanding how your sending infrastructure works helps you optimize deliverability and protect your domain reputation.

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Shared vs. custom sending domains

By default, your organization’s emails are sent from WeGive’s shared sending domain. This means:
  • Your emails share sending infrastructure (including IP addresses) with other WeGive organizations.
  • Deliverability reputation is pooled — the sending behavior of all organizations on the shared domain affects everyone’s delivery rates.
When you set up a custom email domain (Settings > Email > Authenticate Domain), your emails are sent from your own branded domain with your own SPF, DKIM, and DMARC authentication records. This gives you direct control over your domain’s sending reputation. Organizations that bring their own Mailgun account credentials send through their own, fully independent Mailgun infrastructure — including their own IP assignment and reputation, completely separate from WeGive’s shared resources.

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IP addresses and pools

Email is delivered from IP addresses assigned by Mailgun to the sending account. WeGive does not select or assign specific IP addresses at the application level — IP pool assignment (shared vs. dedicated IPs) is managed by Mailgun based on the account’s plan and configuration.
  • Shared IPs (Mailgun default): your email shares IP addresses with other senders on the same Mailgun account. This is the standard setup for most organizations.
  • Dedicated IPs: available through Mailgun’s own account plans. Organizations with their own Mailgun account can arrange dedicated IPs directly with Mailgun for full IP reputation isolation.

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Send pacing and volume

WeGive does not impose application-level send rate limits or throttling on your email campaigns. When you send a campaign, messages are queued and dispatched to Mailgun as fast as the delivery pipeline processes them. Mailgun applies its own per-account sending limits, and receiving mail servers (Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, etc.) may throttle or defer delivery based on:
  • Your domain’s sending reputation
  • Volume relative to your recent sending history
  • The quality of your authentication records (SPF, DKIM, DMARC)
A sudden spike in volume from a domain that has been dormant or sends infrequently is the most common trigger for receiving-side throttling — see the tips below.

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Best practices for deliverability

  1. Set up a custom sending domain with properly configured SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records. This is the single most impactful step for deliverability. You can find and verify your DNS records at Settings > Email > Authenticate Domain.
  2. Send consistently. A domain that sends regularly (even at low volume) builds a stronger reputation than one that goes dormant between large campaigns. Avoid long gaps followed by high-volume sends.
  3. Warm up gradually. If your domain is new or has not sent recently, start with smaller sends and increase volume over days or weeks rather than sending to your full list immediately.
  4. Maintain clean lists. Remove bounced and unsubscribed addresses promptly. You can manage your suppression lists (bounces, complaints, unsubscribes) from the dashboard.
  5. Enable click and open tracking to monitor engagement, but be aware that the tracking domain requires its own DNS CNAME record and TLS certificate — verify both are set up correctly when enabling tracking on a custom domain.
  6. Check your SPF record directly — confirm that a live SPF lookup for your domain actually authorizes Mailgun’s sending IPs, especially if you use a third-party DMARC or SPF management provider. A provider’s dashboard showing “verified” reflects that the record exists, not necessarily that it correctly authorizes your email service.

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What to do if emails are being throttled

If you notice delivery delays or bounces mentioning “unusual rate of mail” or “temporarily rate limited”:
  • This is a receiving-side throttle, not a WeGive or Mailgun outage. Gmail, Outlook, and other providers apply these limits based on your domain’s reputation and recent sending patterns.
  • It typically resolves on its own as Mailgun automatically retries deferred messages and the receiving server gradually accepts more traffic from your domain.
  • Future sends: ramp up volume gradually and maintain consistent sending patterns to avoid triggering these limits again.
  • If delivery issues persist beyond 24-48 hours, contact support for assistance reviewing your domain’s sending configuration and reputation.
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Last modified on October 20, 2026