Are you sending your emails as nonProfitName@gmail.com or something similar? You’re not alone. This is one of the most popular ways that non-profits communicate because they cannot afford to dish out an additional expense for an email host or they don’t understand how to set this up.
Luckily, Google offers a free tier of G Suite products for all non-profits that meet their eligibility requirements. This includes branded email addresses, cloud storage, calendars, documents video calling, and so much more! If you don’t own a domain you can buy one for less than $15/yr from plenty of services (I suggest Namecheap).
What we have attempted to do below is combine the knowledge of many tutorials across Google to make this process easier and a bit less stressful for you. After all, you probably have 100x other things to worry about.
Setup Your Free G Suite Account:
- Create a G-Suite for a Non-profit account here. Initially, you’ll be signing up for a 14-day free trial until you verify your non-profit status. If you already use GSuite you’ll need to request it to be converted here. You can choose to bring your domain or buy one through Google. In my experience, using Google can introduce problems down the road. They are one of the more expensive and locked down options.
- Next, you’ll be asked to verify your domain with Google. Use this link for more information, If you’re using Namecheap you can use this guide.
- Once you have confirmed your account, head over to Google’s Nonprofit site here to fill out the proper forms. A direct link to the form is here. This process can take 3 – 14 business days. In the meantime, you’re able to begin using the platform as you wish.
Use your Domain with Gmail
This setup process will allow you to send and receive emails with yourname@yournonprofit.com. I advise waiting until you’re done verifying your non-profit status. We will be setting up your MX Records with your domain host to direct emails to Gmail. If you have an email service already with your domain, you may see records already existing. To migrate over you’ll want to switch these to the steps below.
- First, access the Setup tool within GSuite. This is where you’ll see the steps left to finish configuring GSuite.
- You should see your domain is verified, if not follow the above section in step 2.
- Now let’s set up your MX records, you can find your domain host on this list and follow those instructions. For Namecheap, you can follow these instructions. Namecheap makes these easy and automatically propagates the domain records if you select the Gmail email service.
- Once you’ve completed this, head back over to the Setup tool and click activate. You should see your Gmail account activate and a prompt to create a new set of email addresses. This update can take some time, in my experience it takes about 2 hours.
- If you want to create additional email addresses simply go here and click ‘Add new user’.
Receiving your old emails on your new email address
The next question you’ll be asked is “How can I still utilize my old email address?” Luckily, there are a ton of options to make this possible! Essentially we will be forwarding your emails over, or if you have Google we can actually check that inbox.
Add your old email into your G Suite Account
- Log into your GSuite Account.
- Go to Gmail.com
- Click the Settings Cog on the top right, then “See All Settings”
- Now let’s click “Accounts”.
- You can choose to add an alias if you just want to be known as multiple emails within one inbox, or you can use the ‘check mail from other accounts’ option. This will sync your old account with the new account. Let’s use this option.
- Click ‘Add a mail account’. This will first ask for your email address, then the settings of this account. Don’t worry, most of these will be auto-populated.
- We highly suggest using the ‘Label incoming messages’ so you understand where these emails are coming from. When you’re ready, click ‘add account’. This will automatically check your old inbox every hour for new emails.
Forward your old emails into G Suite
Gmail: Follow steps 1-3 above. Then click ‘Forwarding’ and add the address! This will forward the emails over as they come in.
Hotmail: Setting this up in Hotmail you’ll want to follow these instructions. We suggest using the ‘Keep a copy’ option.
Yahoo: Follow these steps.
If your email provider is not listed above simply Google ‘Set up a forward for’ and include your email provider. Generally, these are very well documented online!
Now that you have set up your GSuite account you have access to their basic tier of GSuite which includes things like 30gb Cloud Drive storage, Gsuite applications, and more! You can see a list of features here.
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to shoot us an email at hello@savvytoolbelt.com.
