The Engage email editor is built on blocks. Start from one of our templates or a blank canvas, apply your branding once, and drag in the text, images, buttons, and media you need. Givebutter Plus accounts can also add fundraising blocks that pull live data from your campaigns, like a goal bar or ticket list, so your email reflects your campaign at the moment you send it.
Engage setup ⚙️
First, open your dashboard and head to Engage in the sidebar.
Engage email is automatically activated once your account has a bank account connected for payouts. Your account does not need to be a verified nonprofit to send emails.
If your Engage page includes the Get started with email heading, you'll need to attach your email domain, add email senders, and get your custom branding set up before you can send an email.
Are you a verified nonprofit? You can also create outbound SMS messages – see our dedicated guide!
Create a new email ➕
Click Engage from the left-hand sidebar, then select Emails. (The email editor works best on a desktop or laptop in a full-size browser window. If your window is too narrow, you'll be prompted to widen it before you can edit.)
Click New Email. You can choose a template to begin with, or start from scratch. (If you have saved custom templates you reuse regularly, these will be saved under the Your templates filter button.)
Please note that merge tags (dynamic variables) in template previews will be shown as [First Name].
Click Use this template to to open your selection in the editor.
Using the classic (legacy) or visual editor? If your account has created emails with our previous editors, you'll see a prompt when you click New Email that lets you choose the new editor or the previous one. Emails created in a previous editor are labeled in your email list. New accounts (and accounts that haven't created an Engage email yet) go straight to the new editor.
Editor toolbar 🧰
The bar across the top of the editor holds your main controls.
Email name – Click the title to rename your email. The email name is internal and isn't sent to recipients, and it's auto-saved once you rename it.
Desktop / mobile toggle – Switch between views to see how your email looks on each as you build.
Branding – Open the branding panel to set colors, fonts, spacing, and themes for the whole email.
Templates – Switch to a different template at any point, even after you've started building your email.
Save – Your email autosaves after each pause in editing. Hover over the status to see when it was last saved. Save as a draft to close and come back to later, or save as a template to reuse this design.
Send a test – Click the Send a test button in the editor toolbar and enter one or more email addresses. (Up to five email addresses can be entered per test.)
Email clients like Outlook and Gmail display emails in slightly different ways. Blocks are built to hold their layout across major email clients and mobile, but some clients or folders (ie. spam) can strip styling. We recommend sending a test to the inboxes your supporters use most to check before sending.
Next – Move on to choosing recipients.
Add email details ⚙️
At the top of your email canvas, click to expand the email detail options. Merge tags (dynamic variables) are available for use in the subject line and preview text.
Subject line – The subject of your message, limited to 255 characters.
Sender address – The email address that displays as the "from" email when it's sent. You can add multiple sender addresses in your Engage settings. The sender can only be changed here, not on the review step.
File attachments – Up to 5MB of attachments are supported, across up to 10 separate attachments. Images, PDFs, and MS Office files are supported.
Givebutter Plus is required for email file attachments for:
Accounts created on or after October 1st, 2026
Accounts created before October 1st, 2026 that hadn't created an Engage email by that date
Preview text – Text that appears next to your subject line in the recipient's inbox view. Preview text doesn't appear inside your email when it's opened.
Branding and themes 🎨
The branding panel applies colors, heading and body fonts, spacing, and border settings across your entire email, so you don't need to style each block one by one.
Your theme is set automatically when you create an email, but it's entirely customizable.
If your account has a theme color set: Your email will default to a theme including that color. (Your theme color becomes the primary or accent color, and others are set to complementary colors.)
If your account doesn't have a theme color set: You'll see the default theme.
If you started from a template: You'll see a custom theme based on that template's design.
You can switch to any of the pre-built themes, or adjust colors/fonts and click Save current as a theme to reuse your settings on future emails.
Hex codes and custom colors: Click on any of the theme colors to edit them. You can store the hex codes you use often under Saved colors. Any colors saved here are shared across your account, so everyone who builds emails has the same palette.
Block editor ⬛
Every component of your email (including text, images, and buttons) is made up of a block. Blocks can be added from two places: the block panel , or the dock (the shortcut bar at the bottom of the screen). Click the All blocks option on the dock to open the full block panel. Blocks are grouped into four categories: Structure, Content, Media, and Fundraising.
To add a block, click a block type to add it to the bottom of your email, or drag it from the panel or dock to the exact spot you want it.
To customize your dock, turn block types on or off in the block panel. This keeps your most-used blocks one click away.
To reposition a block, hover over it and drag the grid icon on the left.
To duplicate or delete a block, hover over it and click the duplicate or trash icon.
To edit a block or override the branding on a single block, click it to open its settings panel. Overridden settings display a revert icon arrow you can click to return to your branding defaults.
Structure blocks 🪜
Columns – Place blocks side by side. Columns stack on mobile, and you can reverse their order on mobile. (Givebutter Plus only)
Divider – Add a line to separate sections.
Spacer – Add extra space between blocks.
Content blocks ✏️
Heading and Text – Write headings, paragraphs, and bulleted lists (type a hyphen to start a list). Use the formatting panel for bold, italic, and other styles. Adjust spacing in both directions, set a custom background color, and type {{ to insert a merge tag.
Button – Set your button text and link it to a custom URL, or select a campaign directly so the link auto-updates if that campaign's URL changes. Choose a style (fill, outline, or link), a size, a shape (square, rounded, or pill), and whether it spans the full width. Alignment, colors, and spacing are all customizable.
Social links – Add links to your organization's social media accounts.
Signature – Choose a font to display a typed signature or upload an image of your signature, with an optional printed name and text underneath. Merge tags aren't supported in this block.
Media blocks 🎥
Image – Shows a placeholder until you upload or drag in an image. Add alt text, link it to a URL or campaign, and adjust size, rounded corners, and background color.
GIF – Search for a GIF through GIPHY and add it to your email. GIFs have the same settings as images.
Unsplash – Search royalty-free stock photos and illustrations to add directly to your email.
Images from GIPHY and Unsplash are provided under their own terms of use. By adding one, you agree to those terms and are responsible for how the image is used.
Canva – Connect your Canva account, export a design, and add it to your email.
What is Canva? Canva is a free design app to create images or slides. After clicking on Canva, you'll be asked to log in or create an account. You can then create graphics to publish and add to your email! Please note that some features, such as collaboration and sharing, are not available with this integration. Learn more about using Canva →
Video – Paste a YouTube link. We'll pull in the video's thumbnail so it looks like a video in your email. Most email clients can't play video inline, so clicking it opens the video on YouTube.
Fundraising blocks ➕
Fundraising blocks including tickets, auction items, goal bar, and P2P leaderboard (plus columns) are only available with Givebutter Plus. Read more about Givebutter Plus →
Fundraising blocks pull live data from your Givebutter account directly into your email. Select a campaign in the block's settings to get started.
Tickets – Show ticket types (including bundles) with a link to purchase. Display as a grid or list, toggle images, names, prices, and descriptions, choose exactly which tickets to show, and customize the button text.
Auction items – Show items with image, name, current bid, buy-now price, and sold status, plus a link to view the auction. Display as a grid or list and choose which items to show.
Goal bar – Mirrors your campaign's goal bar. Show the raised amount and/or percentage, and customize colors and border radius.
P2P leaderboard – Show top fundraisers or top teams (3, 5, or 10 at a time). Toggle amounts, and customize colors and spacing.
Without Givebutter Plus, you can still add these blocks to see how they look in your email. Locked blocks are marked with a lock icon. 🔒 You'll be prompted to start a free trial, subscribe to Givebutter Plus, or remove the Plus blocks before you can send.
Email footer 🦶
Every message includes a footer at the bottom of the email with your organization's details and an unsubscribe link. Click the footer to open its settings in the side panel. The footer settings include a Hide Givebutter branding option, which is off by default. Turning it on requires Givebutter Plus.
Personalize with merge tags 🏷️
Merge tags add customized information about each recipient to your email. To add one, type {{ in any text block to search and insert a tag, or use the Merge tags option in the block's formatting panel.
Merge tag categories include:
Contact Details (email address, mailing address, etc.)
Custom Fields (additional contact information added by you)
Donations (last donation date, largest donation amount, pledge details, etc.)
Primary Details (first name, full name, company, etc.)
Social Accounts (website and social media URLs for your organization)
Year-End Summaries (link to last year or current year EOY summary for this specific contact)
Merge tags also support fallback values (defaults) that populate if merge tag data doesn't exist. To set fallback values, go to Engage > Settings > Merge Fields, and click Add new default.
Complete list of Engage merge fields
Complete list of Engage merge fields
Account Details
Organization Address
Return Address
Contact Details
Email Address
Phone Number
Full Address
Address Line 1
Address Line 2
City
State
ZIP Code
Country
Household Name
Donations
Last Donation Amount (refers to donations only, not tickets or auction items)
Last Donation Date
Largest Donation Amount
Largest Donation Date
Total Donations This Year
Total Donations Last Year
Pledged Total
Pledged Total Fulfilled
Pledged Total Remaining
Pledge – Next Installment Due
Pledge – Pay Link
Primary Details
Prefix
First Name
Middle Name
Last Name
Suffix
Full Name
Gender
Company
Title
Birthday – If a contact's birthday was saved without a birth year, this merge tag displays the month and day only.
Social Accounts
Website URL
Facebook URL
Linkedin URL
Twitter URL
Year-End Summaries
Last Year Year-End Summary Link (specific to each individual contact)
Current Year Year-End Summary Link (specific to each individual contact)
Choose recipients 📙
When your message is ready, click Next in the editor toolbar to choose the contacts you want to send it to – your mailing list! By default, all your contacts will be included. To narrow this down, select filters to include a targeted group of contacts.
You can create filters to create targeted groups based on a variety of different criteria, such as:
Campaigns: Donors who have given to a specific campaign
Contact: Donors who have given a certain amount, recurring donors, contacts since a certain date, by bidder status, or tags
Team Member: Team Members on campaigns based on how much they've raised, the date they registered, or the number of supporters
Transactions: Donors who have a Transaction meeting the criteria set, ie. credited to a specific Team Member, over a certain amount, or by date
Tickets: Ticket holders of a specific ticket type, status (ie. checked in), or by number of tickets purchased
Recurring Plan: Donors with recurring plans by start date, amount, frequency (ie. monthly donors), or payment method
DonorSearch: Criteria set by DonorSearch, such as rating or annual gift likelihood
Custom Fields: Filtering options will vary based on the type of contact custom field.
Text fields: Includes or excludes
Number fields: Greater than, less than, or equal to
Date fields: Includes or excludes date selection
Toggle fields: yes or no
Option fields: All, Any, or None of the available options
These are cumulative filters, so you can select multiple criteria.
Need to mix "and" and "or" logic? You can add more filter groups and choose whether they're joined by "and" or "or." Click More filters, then select Filter group to start a new group.
For example: [Tag is "Volunteer" OR Tag is "Event Attendee"] AND [Total contributions greater than $100] returns volunteers and event attendees who've given more than $100.
Contact tags are also a great way to designate a specific group of donors. You can also filter contacts by clicking the Segments icon in the upper right. Segments let you save groups of filters for reuse.
Sending to all your contacts at once? You'll see a reminder to double-check before continuing. Sending to a large, unfiltered list can increase bounce and spam complaint rates, so make sure your contact data is clean.
Full list of available Engage filters
Full list of available Engage filters
Contact
Contact type
Total contributions
Last donation amount
Total soft credits
Recurring contributions
Date added
Company
Birthday
Bidder status
Widget sign-ups
Trackable messages
Received mailing
Tag
Custom fields
Engage Email Status
Address
Email
Email type
Phone
Phone type
Subscription status
Activity
Last communication date
Name
Last donation date
Deletable
Household name
Household ID
Household status
Donorsearch
Donorsearch rating
Major Gift Likelihood
Lowest External Gift Amount
Total Likely External Gift Amount
Annual Gift Likelihood
Transactions
Transactions count
Date
Amount
Contact
Campaign
Frequency
Type
Fund
Appeal
Team
Team member
Payment status
Payment method
Check deposited
Creation type
Acknowledgement
External label
Auction item
Contact type
Campaign matches
Internal note
Public message
Dedication
Custom fields
Promo code
Deletable
Team member
Campaign members count
Amount raised
Fundraising goal
Supporter count
Date registered
Ticket
Tickets count
Date
Status
Ticket type
Campaign
Custom fields
Bundle
Groups
Event
Promo code
Bidder status
Bidder ID
Recurring plan
Recurring plans count
Amount
Created on
Next bill date
Status
Payment method
Fund
Frequency
Campaign
Pledge
Pledges count
Amount
Amount fulfilled
Remaining balance
Created date
First installment date
Next installment date
Fulfillment date
Status
Type
Fund
Installment frequency
Campaign
Subscription status ❌
Contacts without an email address and contacts who are unsubscribed are automatically excluded from your send, even if they appear in your filtered list. The number of excluded contacts is shown on the last step.
If there are only a few unsubscribed contacts, you do not need to take any action and can proceed to the next step. If all of your contacts are unsubscribed, you'll need to bulk subscribe them. This is often the result of a data import issue.
Review and schedule 👀
Next, you'll review your email before it's sent out. The last step shows your recipient count, sender, and subject line, and lets you send one more test.
Choose Send now, or Schedule for later and set a date and time.
In the upper right, click Send or Schedule.
The time zone shown for scheduling messages is based on the time zone selected at the account level. To change it, head to About > Organization Profile > General Details.
Your message will now appear under the Sent or Outbox tabs in Engage, depending on whether it's been scheduled or not, the size of the mailing list, and size of the email including images and attachments. Once it's sent, take a look at your outbound message statistics to see how many people have opened your message!
FAQ 🤔
Can I still use the classic or visual email editor?
Accounts that have created emails with our previous editors can choose the new or previous editor when clicking New Email for a limited time. New accounts, and accounts that haven't created an Engage email yet, use the new editor.
For Givebutter Plus fundraising blocks, when is campaign data captured?
Fundraising data, including the goal bar and P2P leaderboard, is captured when your email is sent. Emails can't be changed after they're delivered, so these blocks (including the goal bar and P2P leaderboard) show a snapshot of your campaign at send time and won't update in recipient inboxes.
Which blocks are for Givebutter Plus subscribers only?
The following block types are available for Givebutter Plus subscribers only. Without Givebutter Plus, you can still add these blocks to see how they look in your email. These blocks are marked with a lock icon, and you'll need to start a trial, subscribe, or remove them before you can send. If you're not an admin, you'll be prompted to ask an admin on your account instead.
Fundraising blocks: Tickets, Auction items, Goal bar, and P2P leaderboard
Structure blocks: Columns
Can I reuse an email design?
Yes! Click Save > Save as template in the editor toolbar. Your saved templates appear under the Your templates filter when you create a new email. To repeat a block within the same email, use the duplicate icon.
My Engage message is sending slowly, got stuck in my outbox, or has only been delivered to some of the contacts I selected.
Engage emails will start sending immediately at the scheduled time, but depending on the size of the list, it can take some time for your email to reach everyone. This can also take a little longer if you have large attachments or images added to the email. Scheduled messages remain in the outbox until all emails (for the entire recipient list) have been sent. This can take some time if there are any bounced emails, as we retry these up to 3 times.
Can I unschedule an Engage message?
Yes! If you have scheduled an Engage message (email or SMS), you'll see a tab in Engage called Outbox. Click on your Outbox, click the three dots [...] to the right side of the relevant message, and choose Unschedule from this list of options. The message will not be deleted – it will be moved back to your Drafts folder.
My scheduled message disappeared, or went back to Draft.
If the recipients matching your filter criteria change before a scheduled message goes out (for example, contacts become unsubscribed or no longer meet your filter conditions), the message will automatically return to your Drafts folder instead of failing to send. Review your filters and recipient list, then resend when ready.