How do I send an email blast?

The email blast feature of Donor Management is the easiest way to connect with your donors (and your future donors). You can use filters to find exactly the right contacts, and send an email tailored just to them. Gone are the days of annoying, impersonal email appeals!

Some great uses for Email Blasts:

Targeted appeals based on donor giving history
 Notifying volunteers of opportunities
Bulk acknowledging your donors
Sending year-end tax summaries
Following up with event attendees or campaign contributers
Sending regular newsletters

Creating your Email Blast

From Donor Management, click Communication followed by Email Blasts.

 Next, click Add Email Blast from the top right of your screen.

The next screen has your setup options - most important are the subject line, the template, and the recipients your email blast should be sent to.  Recipients can be selected from among your groups, as well as any custom filters you have created. If you need help creating the right filter for your email blast, check out this article!

The first time you create an email blast, you’ll want to use a starter template. There are several options for layouts, from very simple to more newsletter-style layouts.

You can also choose more advanced options on this page - preview text, attachments, and delivery, oh my!

When you're done here, click Save. Don't worry, you can always come back and edit it later.

 Now, the fun part – designing your email blast! 

Click Edit to make changes to each content area.  Sections that are designated for images have optimal image size included: for example, 600x160 means a picture 600 pixels wide and 160 pixels tall will work best.  You can submit larger images, but they will be compressed to fit in those dimensions. We don't recommend uploading smaller images, because the quality may be grainy.

Customize sections of text using the Edit button, and then you'll be presented with a menu of formatting options. We recommend using merge fields so your emails can feel more personal!

When you’re finished customizing each section, be sure you click the Save button!

When you’re done customizing the email blast, click Back to Emails.

You’ll now see the email you created in the main email blasts list. You can review the recipients (click the highlighted groups and filters you've selected!) or get back to the setup options by clicking the down arrow next to Edit. When you’re ready to send your email, click Send Now. 

If you’ve scheduled a particular time for this email blast to go out, it will not be delivered until that time. If you have not scheduled a time, the email will be delivered to your group immediately. 

After your email blast has been sent, you can review your open, click, and bounce rates by returning to the Email Blasts screen and clicking View Recipients next to your sent email blast.

Any email addresses that bounced will be removed from future mailings. So will recipients who hit Unsubscribe at the bottom of the email. If you want to find particular segments of your recipient list, you can easily filter by the recipient's action status.

Happy emailing!