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The Email Editor in GC GO

Updated

Before you start: connect your email account

Here’s the one prerequisite that trips people up: GC GO sends email from your real inbox. Before you can send anything, you need to connect your email account — Gmail or Outlook — to GC GO.

If you haven’t connected yet, you’ll see a prompt that reads “In order to send emails, you must first connect your email account.” Head to your user settings, connect your account, and come back. Once that’s done, your name and address show up automatically in the From field, and you’re ready to send.

If you don’t see the email editor at all, check two things with your GiveCampus admin:

  1. The new editor is turned on for your school.
  2. You have permission to send email from GC GO.

Write your first email

The most common place to start is right from a task in your portfolio.

  1. Open an email task for the constituent you want to reach.
  2. In the Email Prospect section, choose how you want to start:
    • Write email from scratch — start with a blank editor (selected by default).
    • Start from a template — pull in one of your saved templates.
    • Utilize AI to generate email — let GC GO draft a first pass for you to refine.
  3. Fill in the essentials: Sender Name, the From address, and a Subject Line.
  4. Write your message in the editor. Use the toolbar to format it, add personalization, or insert a link (all covered below).
  5. (Optional) Check Create contact report for this email to log the outreach as you send.
  6. Click Send Email — or click Send Test Email to Me first to see exactly what your constituent will get.

GC GO checks that your recipient, sender name, from address, subject line, and message are all filled in before it sends, so you won’t fire off a half-finished email by accident.

A guided tour of the editor

The editor is built around blocks — chunks of content (text, an image, a button, a set of columns) that you stack and style however you like. The toolbar across the top controls what you’re writing; the panel on the right controls how the selected block and the whole email look. Here’s every control, so nothing is a mystery.

The toolbar, left to right

  • Add (the blue plus, +). Your starting point for anything new. Click it to drop in a block — see the Add menu below for the full list.
  • Undo / Redo. Step backward or forward through your changes. Muscle memory works too: Cmd/Ctrl + Z and Shift + Cmd/Ctrl + Z.
  • Paragraph style. Switch the selected text between a normal paragraph and heading styles — handy for a clear section header.
  • Font. Pick the typeface. It defaults to Arial; leave it there unless you have a reason to change it.
  • Size. Set the text size (shown as 15 by default).
  • B / I / U. Bold, italic, and underline — the everyday emphasis tools.
  • Text color (A). Open the swatch to color your text. 
  • Line spacing. Adjust the space between lines to loosen up a dense paragraph.
  • Alignment. Left, center, or right. Left-aligned reads most naturally in email.
  • Lists. Turn text into a bulleted or numbered list, and indent or outdent items.
  • Link. Select text and link it to any URL.
  • GC link (the blue “G”). Insert a link to one of your school’s campaigns, events, or giving forms — GC GO builds the right URL for the person you’re emailing.
  • Merge tokens (x). Insert personalization that fills in per recipient. More on tokens below.
  • Emoji. Drop in an emoji when it fits the relationship. 🎓

The Add menu: build with blocks

Click the blue + and you’ll see everything you can add:

  • Text — a standard paragraph of copy.
  • Button — a clickable call-to-action button that stands out far better than a link buried in a sentence.
  • Image — upload and embed a photo, graphic, or scanned note.
  • GC Video — drop in a video from your library (available when your school has GC Video turned on). One of the most personal touches you can send.
  • Section — a container that groups blocks together so you can style them as a unit.
  • Divider — a horizontal line to separate ideas.
  • Spacer — adds vertical breathing room between blocks.
  • Columns — place content side by side, like an image next to text.
  • Bulleted list / Numbered list — start a list without hunting for the toolbar.

The settings panel: Block and Email tabs

The panel on the right is where you fine-tune appearance. It has two tabs:

  • Block — styles whatever block you have selected right now.
  • Email — settings that apply to the whole message.

Under the Block tab you’ll find:

  • Style
    • Background Color — set a fill behind the block using a hex code (for example, GiveCampus Blue is #005EA3). Leave it empty for no fill.
    • Border — give the block an outline: set its thickness, style (Solid, etc.), and color.
    • Border Radius — round the corners, from None to S / M / L.
  • Spacing
    • Padding — the space inside the block, around its content. Use the quick None / S / M / L presets, or click the … to set Top, Bottom, Left, and Right padding in pixels individually.
    • Apply to all sides — check this to keep all four padding values in sync.

You don’t need to touch any of this to send a great email — the defaults are clean and on-brand. Reach for the panel when you want a block to stand out.

Personalize with merge tokens

Merge tokens fill in details about each constituent automatically, so a single email feels written just for them. Add one from the (x) button in the toolbar — no need to type the syntax by hand.

Available tokens include:

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

If a token has no data to fill in for a particular constituent, GC GO catches it before you send with a Merge Tokens Missing Data message and tells you which one. Edit the email to remove the token or fill in the detail, then send.

Images, attachments, and video

  • Images. Add one from the + Add menu — a photo from an event, a campaign graphic, a thank-you note.
  • Video. Insert a GC Video from your library when your school has it enabled.
  • Attachments. Attach files to the email. There’s a total size limit across all attachments, so GC GO will let you know if you go over.

Save time with templates

If you write the same intro, ask, or thank-you again and again, save it as a template.

  • Create a template from Email Templates in GC GO. Give it a name and a short description so you can find it later.
  • Choose a type — General Outreach or Cadences — depending on how you’ll use it.
  • Share it, or keep it yours. Check Make this template available to all other Gift Officers to share it with your team, or leave it unchecked to keep it personal.
  • Build it once with a subject line, your full formatting, merge tokens, links, and attachments — then click Save Email Template.
  • Clone an existing one when you want a variation without starting over.

When you start an email from a template, you can still edit everything before you send.

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