A nomination process can send two emails: a confirmation to the person who submits the nomination, and a notification to the nominee. This article explains how to write, preview, and troubleshoot both emails.
What It Controls
Both emails are optional, and you set them up on the nomination process form under Awards › [award name] › Setup › Nominations › Processes. Each email has its own switch, content, and merge fields, so turning one email off does not affect the other.
The Nominator's Confirmation Email
You set up the confirmation email in the process’s general settings, next to the contact and organization forms the nominator sees. Turn it on to send a confirmation after someone completes the process, then write the subject and body with the available merge fields.
The Nominee's Notification Email
| Setting | Options | Default | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nominee Notification Email switch | On, off | Off | Controls whether the nominee receives an email |
| From, Reply To, Cc, Bcc | Text and addresses | Empty | Controls who the email appears to come from and who receives copies |
| Subject, body | Text and rich text, with merge fields | Empty | Required after you turn the switch on |
| Send the notification email for the first nomination only; do not send for subsequent nominations | On, off | On | Controls whether the same nominee receives another email after a second nomination for the same award |
Warning
After you turn on the notification email, you must write a subject and body before you can save the process. Leave the switch off if you do not want to write the email yet.
If someone submits on another person’s behalf, and that person should not be notified or asked to participate, a nomination is usually the better fit than an application. In that case, leave the nominee notification email switched off. A nomination cannot collect references through the built-in references feature the way an application can, because references belong to applications. If the nomination still needs references, collect them another way, such as with a custom field.
Previewing an Email
Both email sections show the same Preview button and dialog. Enter the identifier for a real, existing nomination from any award in your account, along with an email address. To find a nomination’s identifier, open the nomination record and choose Copy ID to Clipboard from the options menu. Rhythm uses that nomination’s data to fill in the template currently shown on the form, even if you have not saved it, and sends the preview to the address you entered.
Warning
Whichever Preview button you click, the confirmation email’s or the notification email’s, the preview always sends the nominee notification template. You cannot preview the confirmation email through this button right now; to check its wording, submit a test nomination through the process.
Tip
If Preview returns an error that names the email template’s subject even though you entered one, this has been reported and addressed before. Try again after a moment, and contact support if it keeps happening.
Change Impact and How to Revert
Changes to either email’s content, or to whether it is on or off, apply only to nominations submitted after you save. Rhythm does not resend emails for nominations that already exist. If you turn the notification email off, Rhythm keeps the content you wrote, so turning it back on later restores your draft.
Why a Nominee Might Not Be Notified Every Time
By default, Rhythm notifies a nominee only the first time they are nominated for a given award, not for later nominations for that same award. Uncheck Send the notification email for the first nomination only if you want the nominee emailed every time. If a nominee is deleted and later re-added, their next nomination counts as their first nomination again.
Only person, or contact, nominees receive this email. An organization named as a nominee never receives it.
What Happens If an Email Can't Be Sent
If an email is turned on and its recipient, the nominator or the nominee, has no email address on file, Rhythm still saves the nomination. The person who submitted the nomination sees the overall submission reported as failed, even though the nomination record exists. If someone says their nomination failed but you can find it in the list, check whether the nominator’s or nominee’s contact record is missing an email address.
Permissions
Setting up a nomination process’s emails uses the same access as the rest of the award’s Nominations setup. See Awards Staff Permissions and Policies for what each policy grants inside an award.
Validation and Errors
- After you turn on the notification email, its subject and body are required, and the process will not save without them.
- The confirmation and notification emails can use merge fields for the award, award type, the nominator’s contact and organization, the nominee’s contact or organization, the nomination itself, and either party’s membership, so you can personalize either email.
- Category names are now available to merge into nomination emails. Recipient categories are a repeating field on the nominee, not a single merge field you add directly. To include them, loop over the categories with
{{#each nominee.recipient_categories}}and output{{id}}or{{name}}inside the loop, for example{{#each nominee.recipient_categories}} {{name}} {{/each}}. This is separate from the award’s own name merge field, which returns the award, not the nominee’s category, so use the loop when you need to tell a nominee which category they were nominated for.
Related
- Nomination Processes
- Submit a Nomination
- How Referee Invitations Are Sent