Creating Email Templates in GC Gift Officer

You write the same emails more often than you think — the warm intro, the visit ask, the gift thank-you, the “just checking in.” Templates let you build those once, polish them, and pull them up in two clicks whenever you need them. You still personalize before you send; you just skip the blank page.

This guide walks you through creating an email template in GC GO from start to finish: where to build it, how to set it up, how to make it feel personal with merge tokens, and how to save it so your whole team can use it — or keep it just for you.

Why templates are worth the ten minutes

A good template does more than save keystrokes:

• Consistency. Your best thank-you reads the same whether you send it Monday morning or Friday at 5.
• Speed. Pull up a saved message, swap in the specifics, and send — no rebuilding formatting every time.
• Personalization at scale. Merge tokens fill in each constituent’s name, class year, or last gift automatically, so a reusable email still feels one-to-one.
• A shared playbook. Share a template with your team and everyone starts from your strongest version instead of reinventing it.

Create your template

1. Go to Communications > Email Templates and choose to create a new template
2. Give it a Name — make it something you’ll recognize in a list six months from now. “Post-visit thank you” beats “Template 3.”
3. Add a Description — a short line about when to use it. Future you will thank you
4. Choose a type:
   • General Outreach — one-off emails you send by hand from a task
   • Cadences — steps in a multi-touch cadence, sent as part of a sequence
5. Write a Subject Line and build your message in the editor
6. Click Save Email Template

Build the message

The template editor is the same rich-text editor you send from, so you get the full toolbar:

• Text styling — bold, italic, underline, font family, size, and color
• Layout — alignment, spacing, bulleted and numbered lists, dividers, and spacers
• Structure — columns and tables when you need them.
• Calls to action — a button that stands out beats a link buried in a sentence
• Images and video — embed a photo or, if your school has GC Video, drop in a video

Personalize with merge tokens

Merge tokens are the reason a saved template doesn’t feel canned. Each one fills in a detail about the specific constituent when you send. Insert them from the editor — no need to type the syntax by hand.

Available tokens include:

• $PREFERRED_FIRST_NAME$ — preferred first name (falls back to first name)
• $FIRST_NAME$ — first name
• $SPOUSE_FIRST_NAME$ — spouse’s first name
• $DISPLAY_NAME$ — display name
• $CLASS_YEAR$ — class year
• $LAST_GIFT_DATE$ — date of their most recent gift
• $LAST_GIFT_DESIGNATION$ — the fund or area their last gift supported
• $LAST_GIFT_AMOUNT$ — amount of their last gift
• $CITY$ / $STATE$ — the constituent's city and state

Because a template is reused across many people, lean on tokens for anything that changes person to person. When you start an email from the template, GC GO fills each token in — and if a token has no data for a given constituent, it flags a Merge Tokens Missing Data message before the email goes out so you can fix it.

Add links, images, and attachments

• Personalized links. Insert a link to one of your school’s campaigns, events, or giving forms, and GC GO builds the right URL for whoever you’re emailing
• Images. Upload and embed a photo — an event shot, a campaign graphic, a handwritten thank-you
• Video. Add a video from your library. It’s one of the most personal touches you can send
• Attachments. Attach files to the email

Using your template later

Once a template is saved, it shows up when you compose an email and choose start from a template, pick yours, and it loads with all your formatting, tokens, and links in place. From there you can edit anything before you send — the template is a starting point, not a straitjacket.

Assign a Template Name. Choose a name you'll recognize later— for example, use something descriptive like Post-visit thank you rather than a generic label.

Add a Template Description. Write a short line explaining when to use this template.

Below the Template Type field, you'll see a checkbox labeled Make this template available to all other Gift Officers. Select this box to share the template with your team, or leave it unchecked to keep it personal. Only the original creator can change this setting; if you’re editing someone else’s template, the checkbox will be disabled.