Sending Messages

The Messages feature lets you send announcements to your members by email and text message (SMS), and optionally publish them as news posts on your website. You can send a message right away, or schedule it to go out automatically at a future date and time.

Where to Find Messages

• Organization-wide: go to /communications/messages to see and manage messages for your whole organization.
• A single group: from that group's dashboard, go to /dashboard/[group]/messages to manage messages for just that group.

Both views work the same way -- the only difference is which group(s) your message can be sent to.

The messages list is organized into up to three sections:

• Draft Messages -- Messages you're still working on. Nothing has been sent yet.
• Scheduled Messages -- Messages that will send automatically at a date and time you chose. (This section only appears if your organization has message scheduling turned on.)
• Published Messages -- Messages that have already been sent. Published messages can no longer be changed.

Creating a Message

1. From the messages list, click Create Message.

2. Choose a group. Pick which group's members should receive this message. A preview shows roughly how many members can be reached (those with a confirmed email address or phone number).

3. Enter a Title. This becomes your email's subject line and, if you publish the message to your website, the headline shown there. It does not appear in the text message.

4. Add your content. Use the three tabs to fill in what you need:

   • SMS -- A short text message. A character counter helps you keep it concise; longer messages are automatically split into multiple text segments.
   • Email -- The body of your email. Formatting (bold, links, lists, etc.) is supported.
   • Website -- Choose whether this message should also appear on your public website as a news or announcement post, and if so, who can see it (everyone, all signed-in members, or just members of this group) and which category it falls under.

   You need to fill in at least the SMS or Email tab -- you can't send a completely empty message. Members will receive the message through whichever contact method they have on file (email, text, or both).

5. Add a redirect link (optional). If you want clicking the message to take readers to a specific page or external link, enter it under Additional Options.

6. Click Create Message to save it as a draft.

Editing a Draft

Draft messages can be edited at any time before they're sent:

1. From the messages list, click on the draft message, or use its Edit action.
2. Make your changes.
3. Click Update Message to save.

Note: Once a message is published (sent), it becomes permanent and can no longer be edited.

Sending a Message Immediately

1. From the messages list, find your draft and select Publish.
2. Confirm that you want to send it.

Once published, the message is sent right away to all eligible recipients and cannot be undone or edited.

Scheduling a Message for Later

Instead of sending a message right away, you can schedule it to go out automatically at a future date and time.

This feature must be enabled for your organization. If you don't see a Schedule option, ask your administrator to turn on message scheduling.

1. From the messages list, find your draft message and click Schedule.
2. In the Schedule Message window, choose a Date and a Time. Times are shown in your organization's timezone, and can only be set on the hour or in 15-minute steps (for example, 9:00, 9:15, 9:30, 9:45).
3. The window shows an estimate of how many members will receive the message. This is just an estimate -- the actual recipient list is determined when the message actually sends, so it may differ slightly if group membership changes in the meantime.
4. Click Schedule Message to confirm.

Your message now appears in the Scheduled Messages section of the list, showing the date and time it will go out.

Changing Your Mind

• To edit a scheduled message, click on it and edit it just like a draft. Your changes are saved, and it will still send at the originally scheduled time.
• To cancel a scheduled send, select Cancel schedule on the message and confirm. The message reverts to a draft -- it will not send, and you can edit, reschedule, or delete it freely.
• To send it right away instead of waiting, first cancel the schedule, then use Publish as described above. A scheduled message can't be published directly -- you'll need to cancel the schedule first.

Heads up: In the brief window while a scheduled message is actively being sent, its Edit, Cancel schedule, and Delete actions are temporarily unavailable. This only lasts a few minutes and prevents changes from being made while it's mid-delivery.

Good to Know

• Scheduled times must be in the future and must fall on the hour or a quarter-hour mark (:00, :15, :30, :45).
• There's no limit on how far in advance you can schedule a message.
• Delivery happens automatically in the background -- you don't need to keep the page open or be signed in when the scheduled time arrives.
• If something prevents a scheduled message from sending (for example, if your organization's scheduling feature is turned off after the message was scheduled), it will revert to a draft and show a Schedule failed notice explaining why, so you can review and resend it manually.

Deleting a Message

1. From the messages list, find the message and select Delete.
2. Confirm the deletion.

Note: Only draft and scheduled messages can be deleted. Published messages are permanent and cannot be removed. Deletion cannot be undone.