How to configure Sumac to send email
This article explains how to set up your database to send emails, along with the benefits each of these email features provides you.
You must be a Sumac Administrator in order to configure Sumac to send email.
Log in to Sumac as an Administrator. Click Utilities, Customize Database, and Offices. In Sumac, your Office record holds important information about your organization name, address, and email configuration.
Double-click your Office Name, to edit the email configuration, or click "New" to create a brand new office and fill in the information in the top section. When setting up your Office, the Organization Name is the name of your organization as it appears when you log in to Sumac. The Visible name is what will show on your email communications.
If your organization offers several programs or separate newsletter lists, you can set up a separate Office record for each. This allows you to send communications from those programs or newsletter.
In the bottom section, you’ll see Email Settings. There are 3 ways to configure Sumac with your outgoing Email address:
• The first option is to enter your email’s SMTP details. Your Email Service Provider or IT support can provide these. Using SMTP will send email through your email server. More information on setting up SMTP details is presented below.
• The other two options are Sumac's Gmail or Office 365 integration. To use either of these options, select the option you want to use and then click Login. Sumac will open your web browser, ask you to log in, and your email account will be connected.
Configuring the SMTP Server Details
SMTP servers are the entities that send email through the Internet.
In the office record, there are some fields that specify information about your SMTP server. Fill in these fields to configure Sumac to send email. If you do not have all the necessary information for your SMTP server, it can usually be acquired from your Internet Service Provider, like Rogers or Verizon.
The port number is the channel on which Sumac should connect to the SMTP server. It is usually either 25 or 587, but occasionally other numbers are used.
Most SMTP servers use TLS to encrypt data being sent. On rare occasions, an email server may not support TLS. This option lets you tell Sumac to disable TLS encryption when interacting with the SMTP server.
For extra security, some email servers use SMTPS – a more secure version of SMTP. If your server uses SMTPS, then set this checkbox. Like disabling TLS, this is an infrequently used option.
Enter your SMTP server name. It looks similar to a website name and often has “smtp” as part of it. Enter a user ID. Note that this is NOT your user ID for logging on to Sumac. This is a user ID for connecting to the SMTP server. Enter the Password that goes with the user ID for connecting to the SMTP server.
The Outgoing Email display name and address are the default email name and address for the sender of bulk email. When someone replies to your bulk email, this is the address the reply goes to. Usually the display name is the name of your organization. Often you specify an info@ email account.
When you send any particular bulk email, you can override these. For example, if a particular special appeal should come from your chairperson, you can enter that person’s name and email address for that one bulk email.
Click OK to save your SMTP information in the office record. Sumac is now configured to send bulk email.
Important Note for Sending Bulk Emails:
Whether you are using your own SMTP server, or your Gmail or Office365 account to send emails through Sumac, your email account likely has some restrictions on the number of emails you can send out over a certain time period. For example, your SMTP server may only allow sending up to 500 emails in one day, or 100 emails per hour.
Sumac allows you to group the emails you are sending into smaller batches to avoid hitting those limits, but you should confirm what the sending limits are for your email server before sending bulk emails in Sumac. Email batch settings are configured in the Office record as well:
Further Reading: How do I make sure my emails don't get marked as spam?
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