Skip to main content

​
Why Bounced or Suppressed Emails Still Count Toward Your Engagement Credits

When you send an email through WeGive, an engagement credit is consumed at the moment the send is initiated — before the email provider checks whether the recipient’s address is on a bounce or suppression list. If the address turns out to be suppressed (because it previously bounced, complained, or unsubscribed at the provider level), the email is not delivered, but the credit has already been used.

​
How it works

Each email send in WeGive creates a send record as soon as the message is submitted to the email provider. This send record is what counts toward your engagement credit usage for the billing period. The email provider then processes the message on its side, checking its own suppression lists (bounce history, spam complaints, provider-level unsubscribes) after accepting the submission. If the address is suppressed, the provider blocks delivery and reports the failure back to WeGive — but the send record already exists. Your monthly engagement credit total reflects every email send attempt, not just successfully delivered emails.

​
How to reduce wasted credits

The best way to avoid spending credits on undeliverable emails is to keep your contact lists clean:
  • Review your message reports. After sending a message, check the delivery results in your message’s reporting view. Look for recipients with errors — these are addresses that failed to deliver.
  • Remove or update bad addresses. When you see repeated delivery failures for the same contact, update their email address or remove them from your communication lists.
  • Use the Email Health page. Navigate to Settings > Email Health to review your domain’s bounce and suppression status. This page shows addresses that your email provider has flagged.
  • Clean lists before large sends. Before sending to a large communication list, especially one that hasn’t been mailed recently, review it for contacts who have previously bounced or shown delivery errors.

​
Why it works this way

Email delivery is a two-step process: your platform submits the message, and then the email provider decides whether to deliver it. The provider’s suppression check happens after it accepts the submission, not before. This is standard across email service providers — the submission and the delivery decision are separate steps. WeGive meters usage at the submission step because that is the point at which platform resources are consumed (message compilation, template rendering, tracking setup, and the API call itself). Keeping your email lists healthy is the most effective way to ensure your engagement credits go toward emails that actually reach your supporters.
Last modified on October 16, 2026