Your nonprofit's email is probablyheld together with tape
Staff replying from personal Gmail accounts. A shared info@ inbox nobody owns. Newsletters landing in spam. Both Microsoft and Google offer nonprofits free or deeply discounted professional email, and most organizations either never claimed it or set it up halfway. Higgens Media finishes the job.
Email is infrastructure, and nobody was ever assigned to it
A donor writes to a staff member's personal Gmail. That staff member leaves, and the conversation leaves with them. The info@ address forwards to three people, so everyone assumes someone else answered. The year-end appeal goes out and a third of it lands in spam folders because the domain was never authenticated, and nobody knows that happened because nobody could see it.
Each of these is small. Together they cost donations, volunteers, and credibility, quietly, every week. And the fix is cheaper than most organizations think, because the software itself is nearly free.
Each of these is small. Together they cost donations, volunteers, and credibility, quietly, every week. And the fix is cheaper than most organizations think, because the software itself is nearly free.
Microsoft and Google already discounted this for you
Microsoft 365 offers qualifying nonprofits free Business Basic licenses and steep discounts on the fuller plans. Google Workspace for Nonprofits is free at the base tier. Real business email at your own domain, calendars, shared files, video calls, the works.
Claiming it requires nonprofit verification, choosing the right plan, and a proper setup. That last part is where things go sideways. An account created in an afternoon usually skips domain authentication, inbox structure, and offboarding, which are exactly the pieces that matter later.
Claiming it requires nonprofit verification, choosing the right plan, and a proper setup. That last part is where things go sideways. An account created in an afternoon usually skips domain authentication, inbox structure, and offboarding, which are exactly the pieces that matter later.
Nonprofit email setup, done right once
Verification and licensing
The team confirms your eligibility, gets your organization verified with Microsoft or Google, and picks the plan level that fits how your staff actually works. You pay the nonprofit rate, which is often nothing.
Domain authentication
SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records configured on your domain. In plain terms, these are the settings that tell Gmail and Outlook your mail is legitimate. Without them, your appeals and receipts drift toward spam folders and you never find out.
Migration
Existing mail, contacts, and calendars move over. Nobody loses ten years of donor correspondence in the switch.
Inbox structure with owners
Shared addresses like info@, donations@, and volunteer@ get set up as proper shared mailboxes with a named owner, so every message has someone responsible for answering it.
Offboarding procedure
A written, simple process for when someone leaves: the account gets secured, mail routes to their replacement, and nothing walks out the door. This one page of documentation prevents the single most expensive email problem nonprofits have.
Staff handoff
A short training session so your team knows how to use what they now have. No jargon, recorded so new hires can watch it later.
What it costs
Setup: from $950, one time
Covers verification, licensing, domain authentication, shared mailbox structure, the offboarding procedure, and staff handoff for organizations up to about 15 staff. Larger teams and complicated migrations get a firm quote after the team looks at your current setup. The software itself is billed by Microsoft or Google at nonprofit rates, which for many organizations is $0.
Ongoing management: optional
Most organizations run fine on their own after setup. If you would rather have the team handle new accounts, departures, and troubleshooting as they come up, that work fits inside a Higgens Media website care plan.
Free Intro Call
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