> This is the Markdown of a Backed Help Centre page, https://admin.backed.giving/help/administrator/communications/broadcasts.md. Every page is listed at https://admin.backed.giving/help/llms.txt.

> This page uses Backed's default terms, such as Funding Round and Application Template. An organisation may rename them, so read each as your organisation's own term if you've renamed it.

A broadcast is one email written once and sent to the people behind a list of records: the
applicants on `Applications > Applicants`, the applicants of the applications on `Applications > All applications`, the
assessors on `Assess > Assessors`, the grantees of the contracts on `Contracts`, or of the milestones
on `Award and pay > Milestones`. `Application`, `Applicant`, `Assessor`, `Contract` and `Milestone` are your
organisation's own terms if you've renamed them.

## Before you start

You need the `Can access Settings > Emails` permission, and permission to see the list you start
from. Backed only ever sends to records you are allowed to see: a record outside your data access
rules is left out, even if it was ticked.

## Start a broadcast from a list

1. Open one of the five lists and narrow it with its search and filters.
2. Either tick the records you want, or tick none to address every record the list matches. After
   ticking some, `All N matching` widens the selection to every matching record, on every page.
3. Select `Broadcast`. The composer opens with the selection.

## Write it

- `Recipients` shows the list, what is selected, and how many emails will be sent once duplicate
  addresses are removed. People who have turned broadcasts off are counted separately and do not
  get it.
- Choose `One email per person` or `One email per record`. With one per person, someone behind
  several records gets one email about the first of them.
- On `Applications > All applications` only, tick `Include collaborators` to email everyone
  collaborating on each selected application as well. The count updates. Someone who is both an
  applicant and a collaborator on the same application gets one email about it; with
  `One email per record`, each application they are behind still gets its own email.
- Write the `Subject` and the `Message`. Choose `Personalisations` to add the recipient's name, your
  organisation's details or the record's details, such as an application's name.
- Add attachments. They can be 10 MB in all, and each is checked for viruses before it can be sent.
- Every broadcast ends with a link the recipient can use to unsubscribe from broadcasts.

A broadcast can reach at most 5,000 people. A larger selection says so before you send; narrow the
filters or tick fewer records.

## Check it before it goes

- `Preview` shows the email as one recipient would get it. Choose `Preview for` to see it for a
  different record.
- `Send test to me` sends the email to your own address, with `[Test]` at the start of the subject.
  A test is never counted.

## Send, schedule or save

- `Send now` sends it straight away, once you confirm the number of recipients.
- `Schedule` sends it at a date and time you choose. A broadcast addressed to a list's filters runs
  them again when it starts, so records added before then are included.
- `Save draft` keeps it to finish later. A draft can be deleted; it is never sent.

## Service messages

Tick `This is a service message` for something people must know even if they have turned
broadcasts off, such as a changed deadline. Say why in the reason box; the reason is kept with the
broadcast. A service message still carries the unsubscribe link.

## The register and a broadcast's page

`Communicate > Broadcasts` lists every broadcast with its status: `Draft`, `Scheduled`, `Sending`,
`Sent` or `Cancelled`. A scheduled broadcast can be cancelled with `Cancel` until it starts.

A broadcast's page shows when it was scheduled, started and sent, and what happened: `Recipients`,
`Sent`, `Delivered`, `Bounced` and `Suppressed` (people who had turned broadcasts off). Delivered
and bounced follow the mail provider's reports, so they can move for a day after sending. Its
recipients are listed with each one's outcome, and every email also appears in `Communicate > Email log` and on
the record's `Communications` tab.

If Backed cancels a scheduled broadcast when it is due to start, the page says why: its sender could
no longer send to that list, the list matched nobody, or it matched more than 5,000 people.

## See also

- [Email logs](email-logs.md)
- [Applications list](../applications/applications-list.md)