Email System

What it does

NeedBridge keeps your team and volunteers informed with clear, branded emails. Common messages include account approvals, welcome emails, need updates, reminders, and confirmations.

What recipients see

  • Professional, branded emails with your logo and colors
  • Helpful subject lines and clear next steps
  • A link to manage email preferences or unsubscribe

Unsubscribe and preferences

We respect recipients’ choices:

  • Unsubscribe instantly from any email using the link at the bottom
  • Or visit the email preferences page to fine‑tune what you receive

After unsubscribing, a person will stop receiving future emails from your organization.

Branding your emails

  • Go to Admin → Settings → Branding
  • Upload your logo and choose your colors
  • These automatically apply to future emails

Tip: Preview templates at Email Demos from the main site menu to see how your brand appears.

Tips for great results

  • Keep subjects short and specific (e.g., “Your account is approved”)
  • Put the most important action near the top
  • Use one clear call‑to‑action per message
  • Reply‑to works — recipients can respond and reach your team

Volunteer email notifications: when and who gets what

Volunteers can choose how often they receive emails: Immediate, Daily, or Weekly. NeedBridge also treats critical needs differently so emergencies get maximum visibility.

How often do emails go out?

  • Daily — One email each morning (8:00 AM Eastern) with new needs from the last 24 hours plus older unmet needs (e.g. 7+ days old or due soon).
  • Weekly — One email on Sundays (11:00 AM Eastern) with new needs from the last 7 days and all open needs in their areas.
  • Immediate — An email when each new need is posted (in their service areas).

Case workers receive one daily digest at 7:00 AM Eastern with all open needs they’re responsible for.

Do need levels (e.g. critical) affect who gets emails?

Yes. Critical needs trigger an email to all subscribed volunteers in that area, regardless of their frequency setting. For high, medium, and low needs, only volunteers set to Immediate get an email when the need is posted; everyone else sees those needs in their daily or weekly digest.

Why did I get the critical need email but not others?

If your account is set to Daily or Weekly, you’ll get a separate email for every critical need, but not for other levels. Other new needs are included in your morning digest (daily) or Sunday digest (weekly). To get an email for every new need, set your notification preference to Immediate (in your email preferences or volunteer profile).

Comparison to “one morning email” (e.g. Gateway)

The Daily setting is the closest: one morning email with new and unmet needs. NeedBridge lets volunteers choose Daily, Weekly, or Immediate, so not everyone receives the same schedule.

Imported volunteers (no account)

Volunteers who are imported (e.g. via CSV or Zapier) and never set preferences do have defaults:

  • CSV import: If the row omits frequency or isSubscribed, new volunteers get frequency = daily and isSubscribed = true. You can include optional columns frequency (immediate|daily|weekly) and isSubscribed (true|false) in the CSV to override.
  • Zapier: If the create-volunteer request omits these fields, new volunteers get frequency = weekly and isSubscribed = true. The API accepts frequency and isSubscribed to set them.

So imported volunteers will receive emails by default (daily digest for CSV imports, weekly digest for Zapier-created volunteers) unless you set isSubscribed to false or choose a different frequency in the import/API.

Troubleshooting

  • Not receiving emails? Check spam/junk and mark messages as safe
  • Confirm the email address is correct on the user or volunteer profile
  • If problems continue, contact Support from the site footer