Overview
The Email settings page lets you manage three things:- Custom email domains — send from your own domain instead of a generic WeGive address.
- Email addresses — create one or more sender addresses under each domain (e.g.,
[email protected],[email protected]). - Organization-level email preferences — control suppression headers and tracking globally.
Adding a Custom Email Domain
Step 1: Enter Your Domain
- On the Email settings page, click to add a new domain.
- Type just the domain name (e.g.,
yourorganization.org) — not a full email address. - Click Add.
mail.wegive.com cannot be added — it is reserved by WeGive.
Error handling: If the domain can’t be added (for example, it’s already registered), WeGive displays the specific error message returned by the server.
Step 2: Add DNS Records
Expand the Authentication section for your new domain. You’ll see three DNS records to copy into your domain provider (e.g., GoDaddy, Cloudflare, Namecheap):
Copy each record exactly as shown and add it with your DNS provider.
Tip: DNS changes can take anywhere from a few minutes to 48 hours to propagate.
Step 3: Verify Your Domain
After adding the DNS records, click Verify next to your domain. WeGive checks your DNS provider to confirm the records are in place.- Success: You’ll see a confirmation message (“Domain verification refreshed”) and the domain status updates to authenticated.
- Failure: A “Domain verification failed” message appears. Double-check that the records were entered correctly, wait for propagation, and try again.
active) or it isn’t, so if verification doesn’t succeed immediately, it’s worth waiting for DNS propagation and re-verifying rather than expecting an intermediate state to resolve on its own.
You can re-verify at any time — there’s no limit on verification attempts.
Managing Email Addresses
Once your domain is authenticated, you can create sender addresses under it.Adding an Address
- Expand your domain, then open the Addresses section.
- Click to add a new address.
- Fill in the form:
Both Handle and Display Name are required — the save button won’t work if either is blank.
Editing an Address
Click an existing address to edit it. The form pre-fills with the current handle, display name, and toggle states. Make your changes and save. WeGive confirms the update with an “Address updated” message.Removing an Address
Click the delete option on any address. A confirmation dialog appears asking you to confirm removal of the specific address (e.g., “Remove [email protected]?”). This action cannot be undone.Email Tracking
Email tracking lets you see whether recipients open your emails and click links. Tracking is controlled at the domain level — enabling it turns on both open tracking and click tracking together.How to Enable or Disable
Find the tracking toggle for your domain on the Email settings page and switch it on or off. WeGive updates the setting and confirms with “Email tracking enabled” or “Email tracking disabled.”How Tracking Works
- Open tracking embeds an invisible pixel in your emails. When the recipient’s email client loads images, the open is recorded.
- Click tracking rewrites links in your emails to route through your tracking subdomain. Clicks are recorded before redirecting the recipient.
Tracking Limitations
Tracking is not 100% accurate. Some email clients (Apple Mail with Privacy Protection, Outlook) block tracking pixels, meaning opens may be undercounted. Corporate firewalls can also strip tracking pixels. Click tracking depends on your CNAME record being properly configured.Email Suppression Headers
Suppression headers tell recipient email clients not to send automatic replies (like out-of-office messages) in response to your emails. This is useful for bulk communications — newsletters, receipts, campaign updates — where auto-replies create noise. When enabled, WeGive adds three headers to outgoing emails:Precedence: bulkX-Auto-Response-Suppress: AllX-AutoReply-Flag: false
Two Levels of Control
Organization level (global override): There is a toggle on the Email settings page that applies to all outgoing emails from your organization. When this is on, suppression headers are added to every email regardless of individual address settings. Toggling it shows a confirmation: “Suppression headers setting updated.” Address level (per-address): When the organization-level setting is off, you can enable suppression headers on individual email addresses. This lets you be selective — for instance, enabling suppression on anewsletters@ address while leaving it off for support@ where you want to receive auto-replies.
The organization-level setting always takes priority. If it’s on, address-level settings are overridden.
Brand Logo in Inbox (BIMI)
Beyond domain authentication and tracking, the Email settings page also supports BIMI (Brand Indicators for Message Identification) — a standard that displays your organization’s logo next to your emails in inboxes that support it (notably Gmail and Yahoo), once your domain meets BIMI’s stricter authentication requirements. Configuring BIMI involves uploading a qualifying logo, providing a certificate URL, and publishing a BIMI DNS record alongside your existing SPF/DKIM records. This is an additional, optional layer on top of basic domain authentication — most organizations can send authenticated email without it, but BIMI is worth considering if inbox brand recognition matters to your donor communications.Removing a Custom Email Domain
If you need to remove a domain entirely:- Click the delete option for the domain.
- A confirmation dialog appears with the warning: “Are you sure you want to remove the domain ‘yourdomain.org’ and all its custom addresses? This cannot be undone.”
- Confirm by clicking Remove domain.