How emails and receipts work

GiveForms sends automated emails to donors at key moments — after a donation, when a recurring plan charges, when an ACH payment clears, when a refund is issued, when a donor sends a tribute gift. Most of these emails include a PDF receipt attached. This article explains how the system works at a high level so you can navigate the editor and customize each piece confidently.

Where to find emails and receipts

Email and receipt customization lives at the campaign level. From the Campaigns list, open the campaign you want to customize, then click Emails & Receipts in the editor navigation.

Each campaign has its own complete set of emails and receipts. This lets you tailor messaging to match the specific appeal — a year-end appeal can use different language and imagery from a memorial fund campaign, for example. Customizations don't affect other campaigns; if you want the same change across multiple campaigns, you'll need to apply it to each one separately.

The two layers: template and content

The Emails & Receipts editor is organized into two layers:

• Email Template is the master visual style. It sets the email logo, the default header photo, the call-to-action button color, the footer with your organization's contact info, and the reply-to address. Every email sent for this campaign inherits these settings.
• Individual email types (Thank You, Recurring, ACH, Refund, Dedication) are where you customize the content of each specific email — subject line, headline, body copy, and call-to-action button.

Think of the Email Template as your stationery: letterhead, brand colors, and contact info. The individual email types are what gets written on that stationery for each occasion.

Email types

The left navigation of the editor lists the email categories. Each one is the home for one or more specific emails:

• Thank You Emails — sent immediately after a donation completes. Separate versions for one-time, monthly, and annual donations, so you can speak to each donor relationship differently. The Thank You email is where the gift receipt is attached for credit card and other instant-clear payments.
• Recurring Emails — lifecycle notifications for the donor's recurring plan: Plan Change, Plan Paused, Plan Cancel, and Payment Failure. See Recurring emails for the four sub-emails and editorial guidance.
• ACH Emails — sent when a donor pays by bank account. ACH transactions take three to seven business days to clear, so donors receive two emails: Initiated (acknowledging the payment is in progress) and Processed (confirming the funds cleared and the donation is final). The gift receipt attaches to the Processed email, not the Initiated one, since the donation isn't final until ACH clearance.
• Refund Emails — sent when you issue a refund. Separate versions for full and partial refunds. See Refund emails for editorial guidance, and Refunding a donation for the operator workflow.
• Dedication Emails — sent to the recipient of a tribute gift (In Memory of, In Honor of) when the donor opts in to notify the recipient. Configured in the form editor rather than the Emails & Receipts editor; see Dedication emails for where to set them up.

Receipts

Receipts are PDF documents attached to specific emails. They contain the transactional info needed to satisfy legal requirements for charitable donation acknowledgments — organization details, tax ID, donation amount and date, payment method, donor info, and the standard "no goods or services were received in return for this gift" line.

The Receipts section has three templates:

• Gift Receipt — the standard receipt for completed donations. Attached to the Thank You email for instant-clear payments, and to the ACH Processed email for bank transfers.
• Refund Receipt — attached to the Refund email when you issue a full refund.
• Partial Refund Receipt — attached when you issue a partial refund. Reflects the new net donation amount the donor kept.

Each receipt template has its own logo (defaulting to the email logo), title, and footnote; Gift Receipt also has a signature block. See Receipts for editorial guidance on each template.

Personalization

Email subject lines, headlines, and body copy support personalization tokens — placeholders like {{donor_first_name}} and {{donation_amount}} that GiveForms replaces with each donor's specific data when the email is sent. Most fields in the editor have a Personalize dropdown that inserts these tokens for you, so you don't have to remember the syntax.

See Personalization tokens for the full list of variables and what each one references.

Previewing and publishing changes

The editor shows a live preview of how the email will render. Desktop and mobile preview toggles at the top of the canvas let you check both layouts. If you've made changes that aren't yet published, an EDITED badge appears near the page header at the top of the editor.

Email a Preview

Click Email a Preview to send a test version of the email currently shown in the editor to any address you choose. Useful for seeing how the email actually renders in real inboxes — Gmail, Outlook, and Apple Mail can each render slightly differently.

To preview a different email, navigate to it in the left sidebar first (Thank You, Refund, Receipts, and so on), then click Email a Preview. The preview always reflects whichever email you're currently viewing.

Publish

Clicking Publish opens a small popover with two options:

• Publish this Email — publishes only the email currently shown in the editor. Useful when you've edited multiple emails but only one is ready to ship.
• Publish All Emails — publishes every edited email at once. Use this when all your changes are complete.

Until you publish, donors will continue to receive the previously published version. If an email has never been published before, the popover shows that status as a note above the buttons.

What to learn next

The next step depends on what you're trying to do:

• If you're setting up branding for the first time, start with Email template.
• If you want to customize the post-donation thank-you message, head to Thank you emails.
• If you need to look up a personalization token, see Personalization tokens.
• If you need to resend or forward a specific receipt, see Viewing and resending a receipt.