Configure supporter emails

Fundraise Up sends various emails to supporters based on their donation activity. The table below shows all available email templates organized by category.

Most emails include a "Manage my donation" button that takes supporters to Donor Portal, where they can view their donation history, manage recurring plans, and update their information.

You can disable any email except bank mandate and annual summary receipt emails, which cannot be turned off.

When a supporter opts out of installment receipt emails, receipts continue to be generated according to your organization's receipt settings. Supporters can still access these receipts through Donor Portal — they just won't receive them by email.

Supporters cannot opt out of one-time donation receipts. However, you can disable these receipts at the campaign level or account level through email settings.

Abandoned donation reminders are a sequence of emails sent to supporters who started a donation but didn't complete it. These reminders encourage supporters to return and finish their donation.

An abandoned donation is recorded when a supporter provides their email through the "Remind Me Later" screen in checkout, exits after entering their email in the personal Information step, or becomes inactive for one hour after entering their email. However:

• The feature requires the "Remind Me Later" screen to be enabled in your Checkout settings.
• Abandoned donation reminders are not sent for cryptocurrency donations.
• No abandoned donations or reminder emails are created in test mode.

The reminder sequence consists of four emails sent at strategic times:

1. First email: About 1 hour after the donation is abandoned.
2. Second email: 1 day after the donation is abandoned.
3. Third email: 3 days after the donation is abandoned.
4. Fourth email: 7 days after the donation is abandoned.

The email sequence automatically stops if the supporter completes their donation or clicks Unsubscribe from reminder emails in any reminder email.

Admins can also manually stop the sequence for a specific supporter:

1. Go to the Supporters tab in your Dashboard.
2. Toggle Abandoned donation to filter for supporters with abandoned donations.
3. Find the donation and click on it.
4. Scroll to the Email sequences section.
5. Click Stop.

To enable or disable the abandoned donation reminder sequence, go to Settings > Emails > Other Communications > Abandoned donation reminder.

Some Fundraise Up emails automatically include Upgrade Links that upsell supporters on ways to increase their impact. These links allow supporters to increase their recurring donation, start covering transaction costs, or make additional donations — all without re-entering their payment details.

Each link is personalized for the specific supporter and their donation history.

The following emails include upgrade links:

• One-time receipt emails
• Installment receipt emails
• Annual summary receipt emails
• Tribute e-card emails
• Fundraiser donation notifications

After making a one-time donation, supporters see an option to set up a recurring donation. The email shows two preset amounts and an Other amount option. When supporters click an amount, they go to a confirmation page where they can set up monthly giving and choose an installment date without re-entering payment details.

Upgrade links section in an email

This option appears when one-time receipt emails are enabled, your campaign accepts both one-time and monthly donations, and the payment method supports recurring donations (excludes crypto, Venmo, and PayPal without reference transactions).

This option doesn't appear for donations with tributes or donations made in test mode.

Starting with the second installment, supporters see an option to increase their donation amount directly from the email. The suggested amounts are calculated by Fundraise Up's AI based on supporter data.

This option doesn't appear in the final installment email for supporters with plan limits (maximum installments, maximum donation amount, or cut-off date), or in the next two installment emails after a supporter increases their donation.

The annual summary email includes preset amounts that supporters can click to increase their recurring donation. Clicking an amount takes them to a page where they can confirm the increase without re-entering payment details.

Only supporters with active monthly recurring plans see this option.

When someone receives a tribute notification by email, the email includes a Make a difference now button. This button opens the donation form with the same campaign as the original tribute, which allows the tribute recipient to make their own donation.

When a Fundraiser receives a donation, the Fundraiser creator gets an email notification. This email includes a Donate now button that opens the donation form with their Fundraiser, which allows the creator to make an additional donation to their own Fundraiser.

When a card linked to a recurring plan is about to expire, supporters receive up to three emails with a link to update their payment information.

Many cards are automatically updated when they expire — Fundraise Up works with card issuers and payment networks to get new card details when banks issue replacements. This keeps donations running without supporter action. However, not all banks participate in this program, and the automatic update only works for active recurring plans. The alert emails make sure supporters can update their payment information manually when automatic updates don't happen.

To enable or disable card expiration alerts, go to Settings > Emails > Other Communications > Expiring card reminder.

Supporters who use Mastercard and donate annually or semiannually can receive an email 7 days before their next scheduled donation. This helps supporters anticipate the charge and prevents surprises after long gaps between donations.

This email is only sent for:

• Mastercard-branded cards (Visa, American Express, and other payment methods don't receive this email).
• Annual or semiannual recurring plans (monthly, quarterly, or other frequencies don't receive this email).

To enable or disable Mastercard renewal reminders, go to Settings > Emails > Recurring Plans > Mastercard renewal reminder.

All email configuration happens in Settings > Emails. The settings are organized into two main areas: account-level customization that affects all emails, and individual template configuration for specific email types.

The Customization section in the sidebar contains settings that apply to all your emails by default. These settings establish your organization's email branding and appearance.

Account-level customization tab

Sender name

The sender name appears in recipients' inboxes. Use a recognizable label such as your organization's name. Avoid frequent changes to make it easy for supporters to identify emails from your organization.

Sender email

This is the reply-to address in your emails. When a supporter clicks reply in their email client, this address will be pre-populated.

By default, platform emails are sent from noreply@fundraiseup.com. To use a custom sending domain controlled by your organization:

1. Enter the sender email address you want supporters to see.
2. Click Verify.
3. Configure your DNS server with the settings Fundraise Up provides.
4. Return to the Dashboard and click Verify again to complete the process.

Primary color

This color defines the style for buttons, borders, links, and other elements in emails. The color selector accepts HEX and RGB values.

Body background

This defines the background color of the email body. The color selector accepts HEX and RGB values.

Header color

This defines the background color of the email header. Since the header contains your logo, make sure there's appropriate contrast between the background color and logo. This contrast should meet WCAG accessibility standards. The color selector accepts HEX and RGB values.

Logo

The logo image displays in the email header. Minimum resolution requirements: 160×160 px. Recommended resolution: 320×320 px.

Logo height

This slider controls the vertical sizing of the logo image. Use this to resize images where the height exceeds the width.

Logo position

Choose the logo position within the email header: left, center, or right. By default, logos are center-aligned.

Text color

This defines the color of body text in emails. Make sure there's appropriate contrast between the body background (which is white) and text color. This contrast should meet WCAG accessibility standards.

Social links

Add links to your social media profiles. You can include Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter), TikTok, YouTube, and LinkedIn. Enter the complete URL (including https://) for each profile.

Footer background

This defines the background color of the footer area. The color selector accepts HEX and RGB values.

Footer text color

This defines the color of text in the footer. Make sure the color contrast between footer text and footer background meets WCAG accessibility standards.

Footer text

Add custom text to the footer area of emails. By default, we include text that references your organization's tax ID. We recommend you modify this to include your tax ID and any other important or required content. You can use formatting and include links and images.

The sidebar organizes emails into categories: Donations, Recurring Plans, Other Communications, Tribute, and Fundraisers. Select any email to configure its specific content and behavior.

Most email templates let you personalize the content so each supporter sees their own information. You can add fields like "Supporter First Name," "Donation Amount," or "Donation Date" by clicking a tag button in the formatting toolbar.

Tab for customizing individual email templates

When you select an option from the menu — for example, "Supporter First Name" — it appears in your text as a highlighted field. So if you write "Thank you" and then insert the "Supporter First Name" field followed by "for your donation," a supporter named Alex will see "Thank you Alex for your donation" when they receive the email.

Available personalization fields include:

• Organization: Organization Name.
• Donation: Donation ID, Donation Amount, Donation Designation, Donation Designation Code, Donation Date.
• Recurring: Recurring ID, Recurring Amount, Recurring Frequency, Next Installment Date.
• Supporter: Supporter First Name, Supporter Last Name, Supporter Email.

Each email template also includes these configuration options:

Email sending

Select Enabled or Disabled to control whether this email is sent. When set to Disabled, Fundraise Up will not send that email to supporters.

You might want to disable certain emails if you have a separate system for transactional email. However, we recommend you use Fundraise Up's built-in emails whenever possible. These emails have high deliverability rates, designs that render correctly in all modern email clients, and include links that let supporters easily access information in Donor Portal or other areas of the platform.

Subject

The subject line supporters see in their inbox.

Content title

The main heading that appears at the top of the email body.

Image

Some templates include an image field. You can upload an image or leave it blank. The image will be shown below your logo.

Content text

The main body of the email. Use the formatting toolbar to style your text, add links, and upload additional images.

You can also include animated GIFs in the content text. Upload your GIF file through the formatting toolbar the same way you'd upload a standard image. If you need to resize your GIF, verify that the animation still works after you resize it. Sometimes resizing can affect the animation.

If you've enabled localization for your account under Settings > Localization > Email languages, a Localization option appears in the sidebar. Click it to access translation tools for your emails.

A language selector at the top of the page lets you switch between the languages you've activated for your account. When you select a language, all customizable email fields switch to show content for that language.

Tab for emails localization

You can translate email subject lines, content titles, email body text, and footer text. For social media, you can provide different account links for different languages — for example, if you're a Canadian organization, you can provide separate accounts for English and French-speaking supporters.

After you customize content for a language, supporters who've selected that language will receive emails with your translated content.

Each email template includes a Show preview button. When clicked, a preview window opens and shows the email with your customizations applied.

From the preview window, you can click Send test email to send a test version to any email address. Test emails include a test mode heading to help you tell them apart from actual emails sent to supporters.

To view a supporter's email history:

1. Go to the Donations, Recurring, Fundraisers, or Supporters tab in your Dashboard.
2. Find the specific record.
3. Click on the record to open its details.
4. Scroll to the Emails section.
5. Click on any email subject to view the full email content in a popup window. From the popup window, you can also resend the email if needed.

This is helpful for reference, troubleshooting, or to understand what communications a supporter received.