❖ Heads up! This article is only intended for Site Managers.
Email Blasts are a great way to send important information to a group of volunteers. This can be a simple thank you email sent to a group of volunteers who participated in one of your site's volunteer Needs or Opportunities. You can also send emails to your site's Agency or Program Managers or reach out to them in times of disaster, etc.
ℹ️ So you know: Some sites have language overrides in place. This means you might see Needs in place of Opportunities, Agencies in place of Programs, or Prerequisites in place of Qualifications.
Sending an Email Blast
Go to Communication > Email Blast from your dashboard.
Use the User Filter to build out your recipient list.
Give the email blast a Campaign Name.
Select your From email address.
While you can add your own verified email address here, we recommend using the no-reply@galaxydigital.com provided.
We recommend this because sometimes other from email addresses get lost in spam folders.
Change the From Name as needed.
Give your email blast a Subject.
Customize your message with the editor!
You can add images, and links, and play with the font size and color to personalize your message!
Save time by inserting template keys that autofill when sent!
For example, if you insert ##{{to_firstname}} at the top of your message, then the system auto-fills that space with the individual's first name!
You can test this out by sending yourself a test email to see what it looks like from the volunteer perspective!
Please only click the template key to insert it.
When you're ready to send your email, click Send Email Blast.
Click Send Me A Test to see what the email looks like from a volunteer's viewpoint!
You can also click Save Email if you love the email you've drafted and think you might want to use it again as a template in the future. To use a saved email, select it from the Load Saved Email dropdown. It saves under the Campaign Name and Subject that you used for the email.
Email Blast User Filter
You can apply filters to find the users you want to send your email blast. The options that appear in your User Fitler depend on your site. Every site is unique, so they won't all have the same options.
Go to Communication > Email Blast.
Click User Filter.
The number changes beside the results when you apply the filters of your choice. You can apply several filters to get the specific volunteers you need for your email blast!
Select the filter you want to start with. The filters that appear here depend on your site.
Events: Select this to filter for users who did or didn't attend an Event.
Agency: Select to filter for Agency-specific details, like Agency Managers, etc.
User Data: Select this one when you want to narrow down the field by user-specific information—e.g., user tags, user zip code, users in a user group, user skills, user date of birth, etc.
Volunteer: Select this when you want to narrow down the field by user role type (e.g., Advanced Program Manager or Program Facilitator), what Program a user is assigned to, Opportunity response, etc.
Program: Select this to narrow the field by user groups, initiatives, causes, etc.
Continue selecting the appropriate filters based on your initial filter selection and click Submit when you're done!
You can save this filter for future use by giving it a name and clicking Save User Filter!
You can find that filter in the Select Saved Filter dropdown when you send another email blast!
Now you can draft up your email for those filtered individuals!
Why Hasn't My Email Been Sent Yet?
After sending an Email Blast, you can expect to see it in the Email Stats page. However, it may take a few minutes for the Email Blast and list of recipients to appear. The number under the Total column may show zero until the email has been fully processed. If the Total is still showing zero by the next day, please contact us for assistance.