SendGrid Email Integration

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Organizations looking for more control over the email system can utilize their own SendGrid account to send all of their emails from DonorSnap. This is not a required integration. All organizations have access to unlimited acknowledgement emails, contribution statement emails, and Responsive Form confirmation emails, and a specified number of mass email campaigns right from DonorSnap out of the box. Using your own SendGrid account unlocks these benefits:

  • Send mail directly from your email domain instead of from noreply@donorsnap.com
  • Customize the footers and unsubscribe verbiage at the bottom of your emails
  • Send mail using your own dedicated IP address instead of sharing your sending reputation with other organizations.
  • Send more mass emails (based on your SendGrid subscription limits)

Steps to Get Started

1. Create your SendGrid account: https://sendgrid.com. In order to take advantage of a dedicated IP address (one used only by your organization) and have full control over your sending reputation, you will need to purchase a Pro plan.

2. Customize the Settings section in SendGrid as needed:

  • Complete Sender Authentication to enable sending from your domain by modifying your domain DNS records
  • Set up the email footer that you want for your emails
  • Set up email forwarding for bounces and spam reports if desired
  • If you need help setting up your SendGrid settings, you will need to contact SendGrid support directly. DonorSnap is not able to provide much help for questions regarding your SendGrid account.

3. Create your API key in SendGrid and send it to the DonorSnap support team.
a. Go to Settings > API Keys. Click the Create API Key button.
b. Name the key DonorSnap and choose Restricted Access for the permissions.
c. Enable Full Access to Alerts, Category Management, Mail Send, Mail Settings, Suppressions, and Tracking.
d. Enable Read Access to Email Activity and Stats.
e. Click Create & View
f. Copy the API key and save it someplace safe, then send that to support@donorsnap.com. It will begin with SG. and be followed by 50 or more characters like this: SG.qwertyqpQMu41iiCecqxig.6CrASDFGHUUvGcAJj3Dt0KjkOxyE7Szxcvb7KgJiop

4. DonorSnap will update your site with the API key and activate the integration.

5. IMPORTANT: DonorSnap will send you the webhook url that you need to put in the Settings > Mail Settings > Event Webhook setting of your SendGrid account. If you skip this step, no email tracking of delivered/open/click/unsubscribe/spam will be reported back to DonorSnap and your stats and Email Tracking pages will be incomplete.

After Setup is Complete

Once the integration setup has been finished, all emails from your DonorSnap account will use your provided API key. This includes all email types including Responsive Forms, acknowledgement emails, contribution statement emails, pledge reminder emails, Mass Email Campaigns, tickler emails, etc. Each email attempted to be sent will count towards your SendGrid sending credits. If you send more emails than your SendGrid subscription allows on a monthly basis, you may be charged for the overages by SendGrid.

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