How messages work

The short version

1. An announcement is a note you write to your contacts, such as event news or a thank-you.
2. You choose who gets it: all contacts, everyone registered for one event, or donors who gave between two dates.
3. You see a preview, send a test to yourself, then send it. You cannot change it after you send it.
4. Bless puts a copy in each person’s Messages inbox in their account.
5. Bless also emails it to each person who has an email and did not unsubscribe.
6. People cannot reply. The email comes from a no-reply address with your organization’s name.

Inbox and email

Each announcement goes two ways:

	Messages inbox	Email
Who gets it	Every contact in the audience	Contacts in the audience who have an email and did not unsubscribe
Where they read it	Messages in their account	Their own email
Can they turn it off	No	Yes, with Unsubscribe or the switch in Profile and settings

A contact without an account still gets the email. A contact without an email gets only the inbox copy.

Who gets it

You choose	Who gets it
All contacts	Every contact in your organization.
Everyone registered for an event	Every contact with a registration for the event that is not canceled. This includes people on the waitlist and people whose payment is pending.
Donors who gave between	Every contact who gave between the first day and the last day. Online gifts and offline gifts count. A gift that was refunded in full does not.

Bless makes the list of people when you press Send. A person who joins the list later does not get it.

Unsubscribe

Each announcement email has an Unsubscribe link at the bottom. Many email apps also show their own unsubscribe button. Both stop all announcement emails from your organization.

After a person unsubscribes:

• Announcements still go to their Messages inbox.
• Receipts and registration confirmations still come by email.
• They can turn announcement emails on again from Profile and settings in their account.

You cannot see or change who unsubscribed. The Unsubscribes column in Sent shows how many people unsubscribed after each announcement.

Words you will see

Announcement. A message you write and send to an audience. It is a one-way note.

Audience. The people an announcement goes to.

Messages inbox. The list of messages in a member’s account, under Messages.

Automatic message. A copy of a receipt or a registration confirmation that Bless puts in the inbox. You do not write these.

Test. An email of the announcement that goes only to you. It does not go in any inbox.

Unsubscribe. Stops announcement emails from one organization. It does not stop receipts, confirmations or the inbox copy.

Who sees what

Person	Can
Owner or admin	Write, test and send announcements. See every sent announcement.
Accountant	Nothing in Messages.
Member	Read their own messages. Turn announcement emails on or off.

What Messages does not do

• You cannot save a draft, schedule an announcement, or change or delete one after you send it.
• You cannot pick people one by one, or send to a group you made.
• People cannot reply to an announcement.
• You cannot add pictures or files. The message is plain text. Links work.
• You cannot see who opened an announcement.
• Bless does not send announcements by text message.