Creating an Email Template for your Volunteers – GiveCampus University

Make it easier than ever for your volunteers to send emails to their assignments by providing email templates.

Creating email templates for your volunteers is a great way to provide them with suggested language and make their work even more seamless. Following the below steps you'll be able to create an email template and share it with select roles or class years.

Where to create a template

Volunteer Management uses two libraries for template creation and editing. Choose the appropriate library based on the message audience:

Constituent-facing templates: These are messages volunteers send to constituents. Access this library via Outreach Hub in the Outreach group (which also includes Segments).
Admin-to-volunteer templates: These are messages that staff send to volunteers. Access this library via Communicate with Volunteers in the Volunteers group (which also includes All volunteers).

Note that these navigation items appear only to administrators with email template management permissions.

Creating a new template

Open the appropriate library (Outreach Hub or Communicate with Volunteers) from the left sidebar.
On the library page, click Create template. A modal will open for template creation.
Fill in the template fields: name, description, subject, body, audience/visibility, template format, and any default logging options (such as defaulting messages as Gift Conversations or Thank You Notes).
Use the token picker in the modal to insert merge tokens. The available tokens depend on the library:
- Outreach Hub offers constituent-oriented tokens.
- Communicate with Volunteers offers volunteer-oriented tokens.

Editing a template

Locate the desired template in the library and click its edit (pencil) icon. This opens a modal where you can update the template’s name, subject, body, and other settings.
The edit icon appears on all non-archived templates in both libraries.

Audience and merge tokens

Outreach Hub is for constituent-facing templates (volunteer-to-donor outreach), and Communicate with Volunteers is for admin-to-volunteer templates.
The library you select determines which merge tokens appear in the token picker.

Archiving, deleting, and per-row actions

Each library provides per-row controls for archiving and deleting templates. Use the action icon on a template’s row to perform these actions; bulk actions are not available in these libraries.

Permissions

To view either Outreach Hub or Communicate with Volunteers, you must have the necessary permission to manage email templates. If you do not see the links, check your permissions with your GiveCampus administrator.

Quick workflow summary

Volunteer-facing outreach templates:
- Left sidebar → Outreach group → Outreach Hub → click Create template or the pencil icon to edit.
Admin-to-volunteer templates:
- Left sidebar → Volunteers group → Communicate with Volunteers → click Create template or the pencil icon to edit.

Steps to creating an email template

1. Click into "Resources for Volunteers" section in the navigation menu on the left side of the page, and then into “Email Templates”

2. Click “Create new Template”

3. Give the Template a Name, Description and Subject Line.

4. Decide who should see this email template - All Volunteers or a sub-set.

Click Resources for Volunteers in the navigation menu and then select Email Templates.

4b. Check the box labeled Activate template to make it available to volunteers. If unchecked, the template will be saved as a draft. Unchecking saves the template as a draft so it remains hidden until you activate it.

If "All Volunteers" then check the box that says "Let all volunteers see this email template".
If you'd like to make the email template visible to a group of your volunteers, use the query builder to define exactly who should see this email template based on role, class year, and affiliation.

5. Enter the Subject and Body content for the email, including any Email Tokens (i.e. merge fields) you wish to use

Note: As a best practice, do not copy/paste Email Tokens from other templates or attempt to manually enter them (e.g., by typing the name of the Token). The system will only recognize Email Tokens that are inserted into the Template by clicking the Email Token buttons.

6. Select the "Template Format". A "Formal Template" will feature your school's logo at the top of the email and feel more institutional. A "Plain Text Template" will not contain a logo and will be appear as an email sent from your typical inbox with white background and black text.

7. If the Template includes a solicitation, check the box to “Default as Gift Conversation” (this ensures that GiveCampus Volunteer Management logs all emails sent using the Template as Gift Conversations). If the Template is meant to serve as a "Thank You", check the box to "Default as a Thank You Note" (this ensures that the VMS logs all emails sent using the Template as a Thank You).

8. Click “Create Email Template”

Hyperlinked Campaign Advocate Merge Tokens

Partners using both GC VM and the Social Fundraising Platform (SFP) can add Advocate Merge Tokens into email templates to automatically credit GC VM volunteers on an SFP campaign page for the clicks, donors and dollars they generate. The volunteer's GC VM email will populate the volunteer's unique advocate link.

For example, clicking “Give Now!” in the example below would direct a constituent to the campaign page and include any gift in count of advocacy for the volunteer.

Troubleshooting – A template appears as "Volunteer-Created" instead of Admin-Created

GiveCampus categorizes an email template as either Admin-Created or Volunteer-Created based on the account used when the template is saved. If the account is also registered as a volunteer in your VMS, any template created with that account will be labeled (Volunteer-created) in the Email Templates list.

This issue typically occurs when a staff member uses the same account for both administrator and volunteer roles. As a result, any templates saved while signed in to that account are treated as volunteer-created.

Restrictions on volunteer-created templates:

The Archive Email Template button is unavailable. Only admin-created templates can be archived or unarchived.
Volunteer selection and activation settings cannot be modified by administrators.

Preventing this issue in the future:

Staff members with both administrator and volunteer records should use separate GiveCampus accounts (with different email addresses) for each role. Templates created while signed in to an account that is not linked to a volunteer record will be classified as admin-created and fully manageable by administrators.

Changing the email address on a separate volunteer account

This section applies only if you already have a dedicated volunteer account (a separate GiveCampus login with its own email address). If your administrator and volunteer roles share one account, create a separate volunteer account first.

If you have a separate volunteer account and want to update its email address, follow these steps from the volunteer portal:

Sign in to GiveCampus using the volunteer account credentials (do not use your administrator login).
Open the navigation menu and click Edit Profile.
Verify that the browser URL matches this pattern: https://www.givecampus.com/vms/{your-school-nickname}/profile/edit.
On the Edit Profile page, update the Email Address field to the new email. This page includes the following fields: Profile Photo, Display Name, Email Address, and Email Signature.
Click Update Profile to save your changes.

What happens next:

The email address for that volunteer account is updated.
Templates created while signed in with the administrator account remain classified as Admin-Created and fully manageable.
Templates created from a volunteer account remain labeled as volunteer-created, are unarchivable, and their settings cannot be modified by administrators. Use the Volunteer-Created Templates filter to view them.

SAML/SSO note:

If your school uses SAML/SSO, the Email Address field will not appear on the Edit Profile page. In that case, contact your GiveCampus representative to request that your volunteer record be separated from your administrator account.

Troubleshooting tips:

Ensure you are signed in to the volunteer portal (not an administrator session) when editing the profile.
After saving, verify the change by creating a new template while signed in as an administrator and checking that it appears as Admin-Created.
If you cannot update the volunteer account’s email due to SSO or similar constraints, recreate the affected template from an unlinked administrator account by copying its content into a new template.

Identifying affected templates:

In the Email Templates section of your VMS admin, use the Volunteer-Created Templates filter to view all templates labeled as volunteer-created. The template names will display (Volunteer-created) next to them.

FAQ — file uploads in volunteer email templates

Q: Why does a file insert show as a link rather than an attachment?

FAQ — why the editor preview looks different from the email my recipients receive

Q: The editor preview shows normal spacing, but sent emails either collapse paragraphs or include extra space. Why?

A: The Volunteer Management email editor is a simplified composer that lacks line-height and paragraph-spacing controls. When text is pasted from sources like Microsoft Word, Google Docs, Outlook, or rich web pages, hidden formatting and spacing may come along. These styles might not appear in the editor preview but can affect how emails render in recipients’ clients.

Q: How can I prevent pasted text from disrupting spacing in my templates?

A: Follow these tips to avoid hidden formatting:

Type your message directly into the editor to ensure clean formatting.
If drafting elsewhere, paste as plain text to strip formatting. On most systems:
- Windows/Linux: press Ctrl+Shift+V
- Mac: press Cmd+Shift+V
- Or right-click in the editor and choose “Paste as plain text” if available.
Alternatively, paste your content into a plain-text editor (like Notepad on Windows or TextEdit in plain-text mode on Mac) before copying it into the editor.

Q: I have already pasted my content—how do I fix the spacing?

A: Use the editor’s toolbar to manually reapply formatting. For example, add fresh paragraph breaks by using the Enter key, adjust bullet and numbered lists, or remove extraneous blank lines. This helps clear any imported spacing quirks.

Q: Is there anything else I should check?

A: Yes. After pasting content from another source, review the message in the editor for any unusual blank lines, indents, or bullet inconsistencies. Adjust these using the available formatting tools. Once you save a template, send yourself a test email (using the Send me a Test Email button) and verify the appearance in a common email client (such as Gmail or Outlook) before making the template available to volunteers.

A: When you use the file insert tool, the file is uploaded to GiveCampus-hosted storage and a clickable link is inserted at the cursor position. The system does not support traditional email attachments, so files are always delivered as links. This behavior is the same whether an admin or a volunteer uses the editor.

Q: A recipient sees a URL starting with file:///C:/Users/... — what happened?

A: That URL indicates that a local file path was manually typed or pasted into the email. Recipients cannot access a file on the sender’s computer. To share a file, use the file insert tool so that the file is uploaded and a proper hosted link is provided.

Q: What file types can I insert?

A: The file insert tool supports PDF, Word (doc, docx), Excel (xls, xlsx), RTF, and plain text (txt) files.

Q: How are images handled?

A: Use the editor’s image insert tool to embed images directly. This tool uploads images and displays them inline, unlike the file insert tool which creates a link.

Q: Any tips for making file links clear?

The file name appears as link text after insertion. You can edit this text to be more descriptive.
If the file requires login credentials to access, mention this in your email so recipients know what to expect.

Fixing misclassified templates:

Recreate the template using an admin account:
- Have a staff member whose account is not linked to any volunteer record open the affected template, copy its content, and create a new template using that content. The new template will be classified as admin-created, allowing administrators to manage it fully. Note that the original volunteer-created template will remain unarchivable.
Request assistance from GiveCampus:
- If you need to separate the volunteer record from the admin account for a staff member, contact your GiveCampus representative to request the change. This adjustment ensures that future templates created using the admin account are correctly classified.

archiving and deleting email templates

The Email Templates page features two tabs—Active and Archived—to help you manage your templates. The Active tab (default) displays templates available for volunteer use, while the Archived tab shows retired templates preserved for record-keeping. Both tabs display a count badge with the total number of templates in that status, regardless of any applied search filter.

Finding the templates page

Open the left-hand navigation in your Volunteer Management admin.
Click Resources for Volunteers and then Email Templates.

Active vs. Archived tabs

Active: Shows templates currently available to volunteers. Each row includes a selection checkbox for bulk actions. When you select one or more templates, a batch actions bar appears with a More actions menu offering Archive and Delete options.
Archived: Displays retired templates for reference. This tab is read-only—no checkboxes or edit links appear—and it shows a message like "No archived templates." if none exist.

Bulk archive workflow

In the Active tab, check one or more templates in the table.
Click More actions in the batch actions bar and choose Archive.
In the confirmation dialog titled Archive selected templates?, review the message "Archived templates will be removed from the active template list." then click Archive templates.
The selected templates move to the Archived tab, and a success message confirms the action.

Bulk delete workflow

Still in the Active tab, select one or more templates via the checkboxes.
Click More actions and choose Delete.
In the confirmation dialog titled Delete selected templates?, read the warning "Selected templates will be permanently deleted. This action cannot be undone." then click Delete templates.
The deletion is permanent and cannot be reversed.

Important details

Selection checkboxes and bulk actions are available only on the Active tab. The Archived tab is strictly read-only.
The count badges reflect your complete template library, independent of search filters.
If a template is currently used by an active task, an archive attempt will fail with the error "Templates used by active tasks cannot be archived," leaving all selected templates in the Active list.
For templates marked as volunteer-created, the archive option in the single-template view is disabled. Refer to the troubleshooting section for more information on volunteer-created templates.

FAQ — using merge tokens when composing a one‑off email (no template required)

Q: Can I use merge tokens when sending a one‑off email without creating a template?

A: Yes. Volunteers can use merge tokens both in the template creation modal (accessed via New template in the Templates panel) and in the direct compose screen (accessed from Outreach). In the compose screen, a token dropdown appears in the email editor's toolbar. Volunteers can click the dropdown to insert tokens into the message body. They can reach the compose screen either by clicking Send on a template card (which loads a pre-filled compose screen) or by starting a new message from Outreach.

Q: Which merge tokens are available in the compose editor?

A: The compose editor provides the full set of constituent-facing tokens for volunteer‑to‑constituent messages. Tokens include:

Constituent tokens: Full name, first name, last name, preferred first name, nickname, first name and spouse name.
Giving tokens: Ask amount, last gift amount, last gift date.
Volunteer tokens: Volunteer name, volunteer first name, volunteer class year, volunteer role, number of assignments, assignments with gifts, last activity date.
Event tokens: Event name, event date, event location.
General tokens: Organization name.

Q: Can I type a token manually or copy one from another template?

A: No. Tokens must be inserted using the dropdown picker in the editor toolbar. Only tokens inserted via the picker will resolve correctly.

Q: When should I create a reusable template instead of sending a one‑off email?

A: Use a reusable template (created via New template in the Templates panel) when sending the same personalized message to multiple constituents or across outreach sessions. For quick, one‑off messages, the compose screen is sufficient—there is no need to create a template first.

Q: Where do I find the token picker and the templates list?

A: The token picker is located in the email editor toolbar on the compose screen (accessed from Outreach or by clicking Send on a template card). The templates list is found under the My Templates tab on the Outreach page. Click New template at the top of that panel to create a new personal template.