Email senders

An email sender is who your church’s emails appear to come from, and where replies go: the church itself, a ministry such as “Youth ministry”, or a person such as your pastor. Every email campaign goes out under a sender, and the person who owns the reply-to address confirms it by email before it can be used.

How to add a sender

1. In the staff dashboard, open Communications, then the Email senders tab.
2. Fill in Name people see, for example “Grace Church”, “Youth ministry” or “Pastor Dan Lee”.
3. Fill in Reply-to address: the email address replies should reach, such as youth@yourchurch.org.
4. Choose Add sender. The sender appears in the list marked Waiting for confirmation, with “Replies go to” and the address.
5. Within a minute or so, HoW emails that address. The email is from “HoW for your church”, with the subject Confirm “name” as an email sender for your church. It says your church wants to send email under that name with replies coming to that address.
6. The owner of the address opens Confirm this sender in the email, reads the page that opens, and chooses Confirm this sender. The page says Sender confirmed.
7. Back in Email senders, the sender now shows Confirmed (reload the page if it still says waiting). It can be chosen in a campaign’s Sent as list.

The default sender

• The first sender you add becomes the church’s default and is marked Default. A campaign that leaves Sent as empty goes out under the default.
• To change the default, open the menu (the three dots) beside a confirmed sender and choose Make the default. Only a confirmed sender can be the default.
• Removing the default leaves the church with no default until you choose another one with Make the default.

What happens with no confirmed sender

An email campaign can be written and saved without one, but it cannot be approved or scheduled until its sender is confirmed. In a campaign’s Sent as list, a sender who has not confirmed yet shows “(not confirmed yet)” and can’t be picked. If the church has no sender at all, or the default has not confirmed, approving or setting a send time for the campaign stops with a message saying so (see below). Text campaigns do not use a sender.

Good to know

• The sending address is HoW’s, not yours. Every email goes out from HoW’s own address (mailer@how.dcxlogic.com) with your sender’s name on it, and replies go straight to the reply-to address. You do not need to change anything with your email provider or your domain.
• The confirmation link lasts seven days and works once. Opening the page does not confirm anything by itself: the button does, so an email system that checks links for safety never confirms a sender by accident.
• Sending the confirmation again. Open the menu beside a sender that is waiting and choose Send the confirmation again. You can ask for it again after two minutes.
• Changing a sender. There is no edit button yet: choose Remove from the sender’s menu and add it again. A new reply-to address always needs a new confirmation.
• Removing a sender takes effect at once, without a second question. An email campaign that named that sender, and has not been approved yet, cannot be approved or scheduled until you pick another one.
• Every email ends with an unsubscribe line naming the sender (“You get this email because you agreed to hear from sender. Stop these emails.”). See Agreement to texts and email, and STOP.
• Who can do it. Anyone who can send campaigns adds, confirms, removes and chooses the default sender: owners, administrators and communications managers, and anyone your church gives the Communications area at the Manage level in a custom role. Others in Communications see the senders, with “Staff who can send campaigns add, confirm and remove senders.”, and choose from the confirmed ones in a campaign’s Sent as list.
• It used to be under Settings. Email senders moved to Communications on 2026-10-05, so the people who send campaigns can manage them; Settings opens only for the owner. Your senders didn’t change.

If something isn’t right

• The confirmation email hasn’t arrived. Ask the owner of the address to check their spam or junk folder for an email from “HoW for your church”. Then use Send the confirmation again. If it still does not arrive, check the reply-to address for a typing mistake; remove the sender and add it again with the right address.
• You asked again too soon (“a confirmation was sent a moment ago”): wait two minutes before asking again.
• “Link not found” on the confirmation page: the link is more than seven days old, was already used, or was copied incompletely. Use Send the confirmation again for a fresh one.
• The reply-to isn’t a valid email address (“the reply-to is an email address”): the address is not a valid email address. Check it for spaces or a missing part.
• The sender isn’t confirmed yet (“the sender has not confirmed their address yet”) when choosing Make the default: only a confirmed sender can be the default.
• Your church has no sender yet (“the church has no email sender yet: add one under Communications, Email senders”) on a campaign: add a sender here, have it confirmed, and try the campaign again (or pick a confirmed sender in Sent as).
• There’s no Add sender button. Your role can see senders but not change them. Ask someone who sends campaigns.
• The campaign’s sender isn’t confirmed yet (“the sender name has not confirmed their address yet”) on a campaign: the campaign’s sender, or the default, is still waiting. Have it confirmed, or pick a confirmed sender in Sent as.
• The campaign’s sender was removed (“the campaign’s sender is gone”): the sender the campaign named was removed. Edit the campaign and pick another.

What DCX Logic support can do

Support can check whether a confirmation email went out and was delivered, and help you work out why one hasn’t arrived. Support cannot confirm a sender for you: only the owner of the reply-to address can.

Coming from Planning Center

This works the way Planning Center’s custom email senders do. In Planning Center you add a sender with a name and a reply-to email, the owner of that address grants permission from a verification email, and the email goes out with your name and your reply-to. HoW works the same way: every email goes out from HoW’s own address with your sender’s name on it. Two differences: HoW keeps one sender as the church’s default, used whenever a campaign does not pick one; and in Planning Center you can change a sender’s name without a new confirmation, while in HoW you remove the sender and add it again.