> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.wegive.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Setting Up Email Settings

> WeGive Help Center article: Setting Up Email Settings

Send emails from your own domain to build trust with donors and improve deliverability. This guide walks through every setting on the **Settings → Email** page in your WeGive dashboard.

***

## Overview

The Email settings page lets you manage three things:

1. **Custom email domains** — send from your own domain instead of a generic WeGive address.
2. **Email addresses** — create one or more sender addresses under each domain (e.g., `support@yourorg.org`, `giving@yourorg.org`).
3. **Organization-level email preferences** — control suppression headers and tracking globally.

***

## Adding a Custom Email Domain

### Step 1: Enter Your Domain

1. On the Email settings page, click to add a new domain.
2. Type just the domain name (e.g., `yourorganization.org`) — not a full email address.
3. Click **Add**.

WeGive registers the domain and generates the DNS records you'll need. Once added, the domain appears in your list with its current status.

**Note:** The domain `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):

| | |
| - | - |
| Record Type | Purpose |
| **TXT (SPF)** | Authorizes WeGive to send email on behalf of your domain |
| **TXT (DKIM)** | Adds a digital signature so recipients can verify emails haven't been tampered with |
| **CNAME** | Enables email tracking and verification through your domain |

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.

WeGive determines your domain's overall authentication status from Mailgun's own reported domain state: the domain is authenticated once Mailgun reports its state as **active**. There isn't a separate "checking" status in between — a domain is either authenticated (Mailgun state `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

1. Expand your domain, then open the **Addresses** section.
2. Click to add a new address.
3. Fill in the form:

| | | |
| - | - | - |
| Field | What It Does | Example |
| **Handle** | The part before the @ sign | `support` (becomes `support@yourorg.org`) |
| **Display Name** | The sender name recipients see in their inbox | `Your Organization` |
| **Use for Verification** | When toggled on, this address sends donor verification emails | On / Off |
| **Email Suppression Headers** | Adds auto-reply suppression headers to emails from this address (see details below) | On / Off |

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 [support@yourorg.org](mailto:support@yourorg.org)?"). 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.

When you enable tracking, WeGive automatically issues a TLS certificate for your tracking subdomain to keep links secure. The Email settings page separately surfaces this certificate's status (issued, pending, or errored) so you can tell whether tracked links will actually resolve over HTTPS, rather than finding out only when a donor reports a broken link.

### 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: bulk`
* `X-Auto-Response-Suppress: All`
* `X-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 a `newsletters@` 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:

1. Click the delete option for the domain.
2. 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."*
3. Confirm by clicking **Remove domain**.

This deletes the domain and all email addresses associated with it. The action is irreversible.

***

## Troubleshooting

**Domain verification keeps failing** Confirm all three DNS records (2 TXT + 1 CNAME) are entered exactly as shown in WeGive. Check for typos, extra spaces, or missing periods. Use a tool like [MXToolbox](https://mxtoolbox.com/) to verify your records are propagated before clicking Verify again — authentication depends on Mailgun reporting the domain as active, which requires the records to be fully resolvable.

**Domain status stuck on "unauthenticated"** This means Mailgun hasn't yet reported the domain's state as active — usually because DNS records haven't finished propagating, or one was entered incorrectly. Wait a few minutes and re-verify.

**Emails landing in spam** Make sure your domain is fully authenticated with all DNS records verified. Proper SPF and DKIM records significantly improve deliverability. Consider enabling suppression headers to reduce spam flags caused by bounced auto-replies.

**Tracking links appear broken or insecure** Verify your CNAME record is correctly configured. When tracking is first enabled, WeGive issues a TLS certificate — this may take a few minutes to take effect.

**"Failed to add domain" error** The error message from the server will display in a notification. Common causes include the domain already being registered by another organization, or a typo in the domain name. Check the specific error message for details.

***

## Quick Reference

| | |
| - | - |
| Action | What Happens |
| Add domain | Registers domain, generates 3 DNS records (2 TXT + 1 CNAME) |
| Verify domain | Checks domain state with Mailgun, caches result |
| Add address | Creates a sender identity (handle + display name + toggles) |
| Edit address | Updates handle, display name, verification flag, or suppression flag |
| Delete address | Permanently removes the address (with confirmation) |
| Toggle tracking | Enables or disables open + click tracking together for a domain |
| Toggle org suppression | Globally adds auto-reply suppression headers to all emails |
| Remove domain | Permanently deletes domain and all its addresses (with confirmation) |


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