Knowledge Base

Messages is designed to work as a standalone communication tool within Funraisin, using supporter activity on the platform to drive emails. While engagement metrics like opens and clicks are visible, they’re not yet exportable for use in external systems.

Support for exporting engagement data is planned for a future release—but for now, Messages is best used for in-platform supporter journeys, rather than feeding engagement data into your CRM or other tools.

No—Messages can’t be triggered by actions or data updates that happen in your CRM or other marketing platforms.

Messages works independently, using supporter activity and data held within the Funraisin platform. So, for example, if a donor's status changes in Salesforce, that won’t trigger an email in Messages.

If you're running campaigns across multiple platforms, you can still use data exports or syncing tools to help coordinate your communications—but the actual triggers for Messages need to come from supporter behaviour inside Funraisin (like registering for an event or making a donation).

Not right now—Messages doesn’t offer an API for pulling engagement data (like opens or clicks) into external dashboards or tools.

We know many organisations want to bring this data into their CRM or reporting environment to get a complete view of supporter engagement. While engagement metrics are visible in the platform, they’re not currently exportable.

We’re actively working on export functionality for a future release to give you more flexibility with how you use and analyse your data.

Yes—you can absolutely keep using your existing email platform alongside Messages. They run independently and won’t technically interfere with each other.

But it’s important to step back and consider what’s being sent from each system. For example, if a supporter is actively participating in a peer-to-peer campaign and receiving automated emails from Messages, you might not want to also contact them about a tax appeal from Campaign Monitor at the same time.

To avoid overlap or message fatigue, we recommend using suppression lists in your external platform—like excluding supporters who are currently fundraising or registered for an event in Funraisin. It’s up to your team to keep an eye on both systems and make sure your communications are coordinated and intentional.

No—Messages manages opt-outs separately from your CRM or other email platforms.

When someone unsubscribes from a Messages email, they’re only opting out of communications related to the specific journey or campaign they signed up for within Funraisin. This won’t automatically update your CRM or external email tools.

Messages uses Mailgun to send all emails.

Mailgun is a widely used, industry-leading email delivery service trusted by companies like Microsoft, GitHub, and Lyft. It’s purpose-built for high-volume, reliable email sending—ensuring strong deliverability and performance across all major inbox providers.

By using Mailgun, we’re able to offer secure, fast, and reliable delivery for your supporter emails—without you needing to manage complex infrastructure or setup.

Emails sent through Messages are delivered via a shared IP—dedicated IPs are not currently available per organisation.

Some organisations ask about this because dedicated IPs can give you more control over your sender reputation and email deliverability. However, they also require consistent sending volumes and active management to maintain good standing with inbox providers.

By using a shared IP, your emails benefit from the combined volume and reputation of all senders on the platform. We work closely with Mailgun to monitor deliverability, manage sender reputation, and resolve any issues that arise—so your emails continue to land where they should.

Sender reputation is actively monitored and managed in partnership with Mailgun, our email infrastructure provider. We track deliverability rates, bounce patterns, and complaint volumes across all senders on the platform.

We know the concern—if one organisation sends low-quality or spammy emails, could that impact everyone else? That’s why we keep a close eye on deliverability signals and take action if any one account starts to negatively affect the shared IP’s reputation. This might include pausing sending, working with the charity to resolve the issue, or segmenting higher-risk senders.

Our goal is to ensure that everyone benefits from a strong, healthy sender reputation—so emails land where they’re supposed to.

Yes—but the good news is, you don’t need to manage this yourself.

IP warming is the process of gradually increasing email volume to build trust with inbox providers like Gmail and Outlook. It’s important when using a new sending IP to avoid getting flagged as spam.

Because Messages uses a shared IP that’s already been warmed in partnership with Mailgun, you benefit from that established reputation from day one. It’s one of the advantages of using Messages—you get high deliverability without needing to worry about the technical setup behind the scenes.

Yes—your emails will come from your own domain, like hello@yourcharity.org, to keep things on-brand and out of spam folders.

This is all set up as part of your DNS configuration when your Funraisin platform is launched, so there’s nothing extra you need to do. Using your own domain helps build trust with your supporters and boosts deliverability from day one.

Yes—Messages fully supports SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. These are standard email authentication protocols that help protect your emails from being spoofed or marked as spam.

They’re all set up during your initial DNS configuration when your Funraisin platform is launched. DKIM is enabled by default through Mailgun, and your IT team will be asked to add the required SPF and DMARC records when setting up your domain.

If you're not familiar with these terms, don’t worry—your IT or web team will know what they are, and our team provides everything needed to get it right from the start.

Messages Insights shows you key deliverability insights like how many emails were sent, delivered, and bounced. These are visible in Messages Insights for each campaign.

We don’t display spam complaints or inbox placement data, but we do monitor those behind the scenes through Mailgun. If an issue arises—like a spike in complaints—we’ll work with you to resolve it.

You’ll see the most important metrics to keep tabs on email health, while we handle the more technical deliverability monitoring in the background.

Messages tracks all the core engagement metrics you’d expect:

• Emails sent and delivered
  
  
• Opens and open rate
  
  
• Bounces and bounce rate
  
  
• Unsubscribes and unsubscribe rate
  
  
• Clicks and click-through rate (for engagement emails)
  
  

Right now, these metrics are available at the campaign or event level—giving you a high-level view of how your messages are performing overall. In an upcoming release, you’ll be able to drill down into individual email performance for more detailed insights.

Messages doesn’t currently track conversions (like donations) natively—but if you're using Google Analytics or another analytics tool, you can add UTM parameters to your email links to track activity on your website.

Not natively within Messages—but yes, it’s absolutely possible if you use tools like Google Analytics.

You can manually add UTM parameters to the links in your emails. This lets you track supporter behaviour—like donations—back to specific emails through your web analytics. For example, you could include a UTM campaign name like utm_campaign=tax_appeal_email_1 to see how that message performs.

It’s a simple step that gives you visibility over conversions, even though it’s not built into Messages directly.

Not at this stage—Messages doesn’t currently support A/B testing for things like subject lines, content blocks, or send times.

We know testing is a powerful tool for improving results, and it’s something we plan to support in a future release.

Not currently—Messages doesn’t support segmentation based on previous email engagement like opens or clicks.

Right now, emails are triggered based on supporter activity within the platform (like registering or donating), rather than how they’ve interacted with previous messages.

This kind of behaviour-based segmentation is something we’re looking at for future development.

No—Messages doesn’t add UTM parameters automatically, so you’ll need to include them manually on any links in your emails.

This is best practice for any campaign where you're driving traffic to your website from sources like email. Adding UTMs lets you see exactly where visitors are coming from and which emails are driving actions like donations or sign-ups.

We recommend adding UTM parameters to every link in your email if you want to track performance in Google Analytics or other reporting tools.

Supporters can receive emails via Messages when they’ve taken a clear action—like registering for an event, making a donation, or purchasing a raffle ticket.

By completing one of these actions, they’re actively providing their contact details and entering into a relationship with your organisation. That gives you a basis to contact them under legitimate interest, which is supported by most global privacy regulations (including GDPR, CCPA, and the Australian Spam Act).

Supporters can opt out of marketing emails at any time using the unsubscribe link provided in every message. Messages manages these preferences separately from your other email platforms, so it’s important to monitor and update opt-out status in each system if you’re using more than one.

No—Messages doesn’t automatically sync or respect unsubscribe or suppression lists from other platforms. Opt-outs are managed independently within Funraisin.

That means if a supporter is unsubscribed in your CRM but hasn’t opted out via Messages, they may still receive emails from us. To avoid conflicting messages or fatigue, we recommend regularly exporting your list of registered supporters from Funraisin and using it to create suppression rules in your external email tools or CRM.

For example, you might export everyone currently signed up for a peer-to-peer event and suppress them from receiving your tax appeal emails sent via another system. Many charities already have CRM integrations in place to support this kind of audience coordination—Messages simply gives you a reliable snapshot of who’s actively involved in a campaign, so you can avoid overlap in your wider comms.

Yes—supporters can manage their email preferences through the link at the bottom of any engagement message sent via Messages. From there, they can choose which types of communications they want to receive and opt out of marketing-style emails for specific events if they wish.

It’s important to note that only engagement emails can be opted out of. These are messages sent based on a time delay or supporter segment (e.g. “2 days after registration”).

Supporters will always receive transactional and triggered emails—like donation receipts or milestone notifications—as these are considered essential to their participation and cannot be turned off.

No—Messages does not currently support double opt-in.

Double opt-in is when someone provides their email address, then receives a follow-up email asking them to confirm their subscription before any further communication is sent. Some organisations use this to strengthen consent or improve list quality, especially for newsletter sign-ups.

With Messages, supporters are typically signing up through a more purposeful action—like registering for an event, making a donation, or joining a fundraising campaign. In these cases, consent to receive communications is established at the point of sign-up.

We also operate under a legitimate interest model, which is recognised in many global privacy frameworks. This means supporters can receive relevant emails related to the activity they’ve initiated, and they always have the option to opt out after receiving their first message.

Messages is designed to support compliance with key global privacy regulations by balancing supporter communication with individual rights and consent. Here's how we align with the major frameworks:

• GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation – Europe): Supporters are considered to have provided consent under legitimate interest when they take a clear action—like registering for an event or donating. All engagement emails include a clear opt-out link, and we support GDPR rights such as access, correction, and deletion of personal data upon request.
  
  
• CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act – USA): Similar to GDPR, we offer mechanisms for supporters to opt out of marketing communications and to request access or removal of their personal information in line with CCPA requirements.
  
  
• Australian Spam Act: All marketing emails sent through Messages include an unsubscribe link, and we process opt-outs immediately to ensure compliance. Only engagement messages are considered marketing—transactional and triggered emails (like receipts or milestone notifications) are not subject to the same consent rules.
  
  

While Messages helps facilitate compliance, it’s still your organisation’s responsibility to manage supporter data and consent appropriately across your other platforms. Messages doesn’t share opt-out status with external systems, so managing that holistically may require coordination between tools.

Not at this stage—Messages doesn’t currently support audience segmentation based on specific interest areas or opt-in categories.

For example, if a supporter wants to hear only about your cancer research work but not about patient services, that level of preference management isn’t yet available within the platform.

Right now, segmentation is based on supporter activity within Funraisin—like whether someone registered for a specific event or made a donation—not on thematic or interest-based preferences.

We understand how valuable this kind of targeting can be, and it’s something we’re exploring for future development.

Messages supports three main types of emails—transactional, triggered, and engagement—each designed to respond to different supporter behaviours and moments in their journey.

• Transactional emails are sent immediately after a supporter completes an action—like a donation receipt or registration confirmation. These are essential and cannot be opted out of.
  
  
• Triggered emails respond to specific milestones or real-time supporter actions—such as when someone reaches their fundraising goal or gets their first donation. They're sent automatically as soon as that condition is met.
  
  
• Engagement emails are new with Messages. These are time-based or behaviour-based communications designed to prompt action—like sending a reminder 10 days after someone registers but hasn’t started fundraising. You can use these to coach, nudge, or motivate supporters based on how they’re tracking.
  
  

You can layer multiple conditions together to create highly targeted sends—like sending an email only to participants who registered more than a week ago, haven’t made a self-donation, and haven’t reached 25% of their goal. This gives you powerful flexibility to deliver the right message at the right time, without relying on a separate marketing platform.

Yes—Messages allows you to trigger emails based on a wide range of supporter activities.

You can set up emails to send when someone completes a key action (like registering, donating, or hitting a fundraising milestone) or if they haven’t yet done something important (like completing registration or making a self-donation).

There are also event-specific triggers available. For example, if your campaign involves logging steps or kilometres, you can trigger messages based on a participant’s progress. Combined with filters, this lets you shape the ideal journey for your supporters—motivating them at just the right time.

Not in the traditional sense—Messages doesn’t use a drag-and-drop journey builder with branching paths and flowcharts.

But if you flip the way you think about journeys, you can achieve a lot of the same outcomes. Instead of building a single flow with entry and exit criteria, each email in Messages is its own rule-based touchpoint. You set the trigger conditions and filters for each message—like who should receive it, when, and under what circumstances.

This gives you a surprising amount of flexibility. You can shape a thoughtful, responsive journey simply by layering conditions—targeting messages based on actions (or inaction) taken by each supporter. It’s not a visual builder, but it’s a powerful behavioural engine built right into your campaign tools.

Yes—Messages supports a wide range of personalisation tags that let you tailor content to each supporter. You can insert dynamic fields like first name, fundraising progress, event name, and more directly into your email content.

These tags work the same way they do in other parts of the platform—like personalised URLs (PURLs)—so if you’ve used them before, they’ll feel familiar.

If a particular field isn’t available for a supporter, the fallback is always blank (just like in our current email tools), so make sure your phrasing still reads naturally.

You can view the all the available personalisation fields here. 

Time-based triggers in Messages are simple to set up. First, you define who the message should go to—for example, fundraisers who have completed registration but haven’t uploaded a profile photo.

Then, in the next step, you choose when to send it. You can schedule the message to go out a set number of days or hours before or after a specific action—like registration or a donation.

The system checks every hour for matches. If your timing is set in days, the email will send in the morning. If it’s set in hours, it’ll send on the hour. It’s an easy way to automate timely nudges based on where someone’s at in their journey.

Not yet—but this functionality is coming soon.

Conditional content blocks will be available in our second release of Messages. This feature will let you show or hide sections of an email based on supporter data or behaviour—like whether someone has started fundraising, made a self-donation, or hit a milestone.

It’s a powerful upgrade that will make it easier to build more personalised, behaviour-based journeys without needing to duplicate or split emails into multiple versions. For example, you could run a countdown series where people who’ve already started fundraising see encouragement to keep going, while others are prompted to take their first step—all within the same email.

Yes—with Messages, you can schedule emails in advance based on a specific date or a relative time (like days before or after an action).

You might choose to send an email exactly 10 days before event day, or set one to go out on the 1st of July to everyone who registered. You can also schedule based on supporter behaviour—like sending an email 3 days after someone signs up.

Whether it’s fixed-date or time-based, Messages gives you the flexibility to plan and automate emails around your campaign timeline.

Yes—Messages lets you create and store email templates so you can reuse layouts and branding across different emails.

You can either design templates upfront to speed up campaign setup, or build a message and save it as a template later once you know it performs well.

Templates can be created using HTML if you prefer to code, or you can use our no-code Visual Builder. Either way, saving templates helps keep your emails consistent and makes future campaigns faster to build.

You can build your email templates using HTML or the Visual Builder—but once you're editing the actual content of the email (adding copy, images, buttons, etc.), that’s done using the Visual Builder.

The Visual Builder is the same tool you’d use to build landing pages in Funraisin. It uses content blocks and columns, so if you’ve built out pages on your site before, it’ll feel familiar. You simply add a new section and drop in the content you need—it’s a fast, flexible way to design branded emails without needing to code.

Yes—you can import your own HTML templates into Messages.

Just make sure the code doesn’t include any platform-specific elements from your previous tool—like merge tags, link tracking, or styling that’s unique to that system. These won’t be compatible with Funraisin and may prevent your template from rendering correctly.

Once imported and cleaned up, you can use your existing designs as a base for Messages emails.

Messages includes a preview tool so you can see how your email will look before sending—but it doesn’t currently include full rendering previews across every device or inbox style (like Outlook quirks or dark mode).

If you want to do more thorough testing, we recommend sending test emails to a few inboxes your team uses—like Gmail, Outlook, and mobile—so you can check formatting across common platforms. 

You can also use tools like https://www.litmus.com/email-testing 

Our Visual Builder is designed to create emails that look great across devices, but because every inbox handles HTML a little differently, it’s always worth checking key layouts before you hit send.

Yes—Messages gives you control over which admin users can create and send emails.

You can set event-level permissions so users only have access to the events they’re responsible for. This means they’ll only be able to manage and send emails for specific campaigns.

You can also go a step further and restrict access to the Messages module entirely for certain users—giving you full control over who can manage supporter communications within your team. Contact us if you would like to do this.

No—Messages doesn’t include built-in identity resolution or tracking that follows supporters from an email click through to your website.

We don’t use anonymous cookies or persistent identifiers to track on-site behaviour after a supporter clicks a link. If you need this type of identity tracking or attribution, it would need to be handled through your own web analytics or CDP setup.

No—Messages doesn’t track a supporter’s on-site behaviour after they click through from an email.

To track that kind of journey—like what pages someone visited, how long they stayed, or if they abandoned a donation—you’d need a Customer Data Platform (CDP) or advanced web analytics setup. CDPs work by resolving identities across sessions and channels, often using persistent cookies or unique identifiers.

Messages isn’t designed to operate at that level. We don’t track or store that type of behavioural data on your site. We know this can be limiting if you’re trying to build deep behavioural journeys—but we’ve kept it simple to stay focused on in-platform supporter activity and consented communication.