Compose and send an email outreach

For school administrators using GiveCampus Outreach. Controls can differ between the classic email editor and the newer Composer editor.

How to use

Open Outreach, create or open a draft, select the audience, and write the email. Complete sender name, sender email, reply-to address, subject, and content. Review recipient inclusion/exclusion, personalization, and links. Send a test, correct any issues, then use the send or schedule action appropriate to the intended audience.

Before you begin

Email validation requires sender fields, subject, a sendable state, and eligible recipients. Some sequences populate recipients over time and are treated differently during scheduling. Monthly email-limit checks depend on whether the account allows overages; see the guidance below.

Invalid ordinary links can block sending. Composer buttons with no URL or a placeholder URL produce a warning rather than a blocking error in the validator. Fix those buttons before sending when they are intended to be actionable.

Troubleshooting

“Outreach is being sent” indicates queued work, not delivery to every inbox. Use recipient and sent reporting to investigate. A draft and scheduled outreach can be edited, but timing controls have additional restrictions. Do not describe an email as sent solely because it was saved or tested.

Can I use a custom merge field in the subject line?

Yes. GC Outreach supports merge tokens in the Subject Line as well as the email body. A separate merge-token button is not required beside the subject field.

1. Open Outreach → Outreach, select the draft email, and open its editor.
2. Use the email body’s merge-token picker to insert the desired supported token. For a custom uploaded field, first upload the recipient data and wait for processing so the token is available.
3. Copy the complete token text into Subject Line, preserving its spelling and delimiter characters. You can remove the temporary copy from the body if it is not needed there.
4. Save, review missing merge-data warnings, and send a test using a constituent’s details to check the actual subject and body.

Each recipient’s supported token is replaced when the email is generated. Do not use a guessed token name or assume a generic sample test verifies an individual recipient’s custom data.

Does a monthly email-limit warning stop my email from sending?

It depends on whether your institution’s account allows email overages. For an account with overages enabled, exceeding the included monthly allowance does not itself block the email; additional sends are subject to your agreement’s overage charges. A warning that you are approaching the limit is not a failed-send message.

For accounts without overages enabled, an email that would exceed the permitted monthly recipient count can be blocked. Other validation requirements can still prevent sending regardless of overage eligibility.

Check the warning shown in Outreach → Outreach and the draft’s send validation. If the message says sending will incur overages, review your agreement or ask your account team about the applicable terms before proceeding. Do not assume a universal overage price, payment requirement, or limit from another school’s example.