Sending domain

Until you set up a sending domain, your organisation's emails come from Backed's address under your organisation's name. A sending domain lets them come from an address on a domain you control, such as grants@mail.example.org, which people are more likely to recognise and trust.

You need the Emails and Organisation settings permissions to change the sending domain. Anyone who can open Communicate > Email templates can see it.

Add your domain

Open Communicate > Email templates and select Sending domain.
Enter a domain or subdomain you control, such as mail.example.org, and select Add domain.

A subdomain keeps your organisation's other email untouched, so it is usually the better choice. Each organisation has one sending domain, and a domain another organisation has verified cannot be added. Backed's own domains cannot be used.

Add the DNS records

The DNS records table lists the records to add at your DNS provider: DKIM, two SPF records and a return-path record, and a recommended DMARC record. Each row has its type, name, value and, for the MX record, a priority. Select Copy beside a name or value to copy it exactly.

Each record shows its status from the last check: Pending, Verified, Failed or Not checked. DMARC shows Found or Not found. It is recommended, not required, and never stops your domain being verified.

Verify the domain

DNS changes can take a while to reach everyone. Once the records are added, select Verify. The domain shows one of:

Pending: the records are not all found yet. Backed checks again every hour for 72 hours.
Verified: your emails now come from your domain. Backed checks it again once a day.
Failed: the screen names the record that is not set up correctly, or says the records were not found within 72 hours. Fix the record and select Verify again.

If a verified domain later fails a check, administrators who can manage emails are sent an email, and your emails go back to Backed's address until the domain is verified again.

Choose who each email comes from

Once the domain is verified, set a sender for each audience: emails to applicants, assessors, administrators and verifiers. For each, enter:

From name: shown as the sender, such as your organisation's name. It cannot contain line breaks, <, > or ".
From address: the part before @ and your domain, such as grants.
Reply-to address (optional): where replies go instead of the from address.

Select Save sender. The next email to that audience uses it. An audience with no sender still comes from Backed's address, under your organisation's name.

When emails come from Backed's address

Communicate > Email templates shows a banner whenever your emails are sent from Backed's address: when no sending domain is set up, when it is not verified yet, or when it failed verification. Email logs shows the address each email was sent from.

Remove the domain

Select Remove, then Remove domain. The domain and its senders are deleted, and your emails come from Backed's address under your organisation's name again.