Newsletter

Updated 2 weeks ago

The Newsletter feature allows you to create and send email updates to donors at scale. Use it to draft donor updates, select an audience, personalize messages with donor merge tags, send the message immediately, or schedule it for later.

To navigate to newsletters, click "Newsletters" under "Communications" on the main menu.

Newsletters table

The Newsletters page lists the newsletters created for your account. At the top of the page, summary cards show the total number of newsletters and counts for drafts, scheduled newsletters, sent newsletters, and failed newsletters.

The table shows the following details:

Title: The newsletter title. Click the title to open the newsletter details page.
Status: The current delivery status.
Scheduled For: The scheduled delivery time. This is shown for scheduled newsletters.
Sender: The administrator associated with the newsletter.
Date: The date the newsletter was created.
Manage: The available actions for that newsletter.

You can search newsletters by title and filter the table by status.

The newsletter statuses are:

Draft: The newsletter has been saved and can still be edited, sent, scheduled, cloned, or deleted.
Scheduled: The newsletter is scheduled to send later. It can still be edited or cancelled before it sends.
Sending: The newsletter is being processed for delivery.
Sent: The newsletter has finished sending.
Failed: The newsletter did not finish sending. It can be retried or cloned.

The Newsletters table and status filters can also show these statuses: Partially sent, Delivery unconfirmed, and Skipped.

Note: The Sender column shows the administrator associated with the newsletter. The email address and sender name used for delivery come from your account's Email Settings when configured. If you have verified your sending domain and activated verified sending, new newsletters are delivered through the authenticated sending transport; deactivating verified sending or an unavailable managed transport returns newsletters to the existing delivery path. See Authenticated Sending for details.

To create a new newsletter, click "New Email" above the newsletter table.

Creating a newsletter has three steps: Compose, Recipients, and Preview.

Step one: Compose

In the Compose step, add the newsletter title and build the email body in the editor.

You can also:

Click "Merge Tags Reference" to view available donor merge tags. Click a tag to copy it, then paste it into the editor.
Attach one file to the newsletter. Supported file types include JPEG, PNG, PDF, CSV, Word document, and Word Open XML document files. The maximum upload size is 10 MB.
Click "Save Draft" to save the newsletter and return to the Newsletters page.
Click "Next" to continue to recipient selection.

Note: Merge tags may be unavailable if your account has no donor profile form configured, or if multiple donor profile forms are configured in a way that prevents a single donor merge-tag set from being used.

Step two: Recipients

In the Recipients step, choose which donors should receive the newsletter.

Screenshot placeholder: Newsletter recipients step with Select All Donors, Add by Tag, Add Individual Donors, and selected recipients table

You can build the audience in three ways:

Select All Donors: Select all donors with email addresses. Use "Clear selection" if you want to return to manual selection.
Add by Tag: Select one or more tags to add donors who have those tags.
Add Individual Donors: Search for donors by name or email address and add them one at a time.

Selected recipients appear in a table with display name, email address, and tags. You can search the selected recipients list and remove donors before sending or scheduling the newsletter.

When the audience is ready, click "Preview".

Step three: Preview and delivery

The Preview step shows the newsletter title, body, and attachment preview.

Screenshot placeholder: Delivery options for sending immediately or scheduling for later

Under "Delivery", choose one of the following options:

Send Immediately: Queue the newsletter for delivery right away.
Schedule for Later: Choose a timezone and scheduled time. Scheduled times must be at least 5 minutes in the future.

If you schedule the newsletter, Gratona asks for the timezone and send time before the newsletter is saved as scheduled.

Sending a saved draft

You can send or schedule an existing draft from the Newsletters table or from the newsletter details page.

From the table, click the "Send now" action on a draft newsletter. In the dialog, choose "Send immediately" or "Schedule for later".

Screenshot placeholder: Send Newsletter dialog with immediate and scheduled delivery options

From the newsletter details page, click "Approve & Send" and choose the delivery option.

Editing newsletters

To edit a draft or scheduled newsletter, click its title in the Newsletters table, then click "Edit" on the details page.

Screenshot placeholder: Newsletter details page with Edit, Approve & Send, Clone, Email Overview, Delivery results, and Logs tabs

Draft and scheduled newsletters can be edited before they are sent. You can update the title, message, attachment, and audience. For scheduled newsletters, you can also update the scheduled time and timezone.

The details page includes these tabs:

Email Overview: Preview the newsletter. In edit mode, update the content and attachment.
Audience: Review recipients. For draft and scheduled newsletters, edit the audience by adding donors, adding tags, or removing recipients.
Delivery results: After a newsletter is sent, this tab shows the donors it was sent to. Editable newsletters show the Audience tab instead.
Logs: Shows event logs when they are available for your account.

Cancelling or retrying delivery

Scheduled newsletters can be cancelled before they are sent. Click the "Cancel schedule" action in the Newsletters table. The newsletter returns to Draft status.

Failed newsletters can be retried from the Newsletters table. Click the "Retry failed" or "Retry newsletter" action to queue the newsletter for delivery again. The available action depends on the delivery records for the newsletter.

You can clone a newsletter from the Newsletters table or from the newsletter details page. Cloning always creates a new draft so you can review it before sending.

Screenshot placeholder: Clone Newsletter drawer with title field and clone scope options

When cloning, choose what to copy:

Everything: Copies the template, design, attachment, and audience.
Template only: Copies the design, message, attachment, and sender information. The audience is empty.
Audience only: Copies the recipients and audience selection. The message template is empty.

After the newsletter is cloned, Gratona opens the new draft so you can edit, send, or schedule it.

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