Forward Funder Email to GrantLoop

Funders change deadlines, ask questions and send award letters by email. When that email is forwarded to GrantLoop, LouEllen can keep your grant work up to date without anyone having to remember to pass it along.

This page is for whoever sets up the forwarding. That might be you, or it might be the person whose inbox the grant mail lands in, or whoever manages your organization's email.

What it does

Your organization has a private GrantLoop forwarding address. To find it, click your organization name at the bottom-left in GrantLoop, open Settings, then Grant inbox. Below, we call it "your GrantLoop forwarding address".

GrantLoop reads the email forwarded to that address. Right now an automated filter, with AI safety checks, keeps the grant mail (deadlines, funder questions, decisions, report reminders, new opportunities) and sets aside everything else, which we delete after a short time. We do our best, but no filter is perfect, and how we do this may change as we improve it.

LouEllen reads what's kept and uses it to plan her work. She never replies to a funder on her own.

Forward everything. You don't need to build filters or pick out grant emails. Forward the whole inbox that funders and grant portals write to, and the filter does the sorting.

Which inbox to forward

Forward the email address your organization applies for grants with: the one on your most recent application, or the one you sign into grant portals with.

  • If it's one person's inbox, follow the steps for their email (Gmail or Outlook).
  • If it's a shared address like grants@, it's usually a Google Group, a Microsoft 365 group or shared mailbox, or a forwarder at your domain host. Pick the matching section.

Gmail

This works for a personal Gmail account and for Google Workspace.

  1. In Gmail, click the gear icon, then See all settings.
  2. Open the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab.
  3. Click Add a forwarding address, paste your GrantLoop forwarding address, then click Next, Proceed and OK.
  4. Gmail sends a confirmation to the forwarding address. It shows up in GrantLoop on the Grant inbox page, with the confirmation link or code. If someone else set up GrantLoop, ask them for it.
  5. Open the link, or type the code into the Verify box back in Gmail's forwarding settings.
  6. Choose Forward a copy of incoming mail to your GrantLoop forwarding address, and keep Gmail's copy in the inbox.
  7. Click Save Changes at the bottom of the page.

If the forwarding option is greyed out, your Google Workspace administrator has turned off automatic forwarding. Ask them to allow it for this account.

Outlook and Microsoft 365

  1. In Outlook on the web, open Settings, then Mail, then Forwarding.
  2. Turn on Enable forwarding and paste your GrantLoop forwarding address.
  3. Tick Keep a copy of forwarded messages.
  4. Click Save.

Some workplaces block forwarding to outside addresses. If Outlook says forwarding isn't allowed, or forwarded mail bounces back with a message about it being blocked, ask whoever manages your email to allow forwarding to outside addresses for this mailbox.

A Google Group (like grants@)

If grants@ is a Google Group, add your GrantLoop forwarding address as a member. You'll need to be an owner or manager of the group.

  1. Open Google Groups and pick the group.
  2. Click Members, then Add members.
  3. Paste your GrantLoop forwarding address and turn on Directly add members.
  4. Click Add. Make sure the member gets Each email, not a digest.

If Google won't add an outside address, turn on Allow members outside your organization in the group's settings. If that setting is locked, your Google Workspace administrator can allow it.

A Microsoft 365 group or shared mailbox (like grants@)

These steps are for whoever administers your Microsoft 365.

A shared mailbox:

  1. Open the Microsoft 365 admin center and go to Teams & groups, then Shared mailboxes.
  2. Pick the mailbox and open Email forwarding.
  3. Forward all email to your GrantLoop forwarding address, and keep a copy in the mailbox.
  4. Save.

A distribution list or Microsoft 365 group:

  1. Add your GrantLoop forwarding address as a mail contact (Exchange admin center, Recipients, then Contacts).
  2. Add that contact as a member of the group.

Microsoft 365 may block forwarding to outside addresses by default. If forwarded mail doesn't arrive, allow external forwarding for this mailbox in your outbound spam policy.

A forwarder at your domain host

Many organizations forward grants@ (or another address at their own domain) through a forwarding service, such as ImprovMX or Cloudflare, or through the company that hosts the domain, such as Squarespace or GoDaddy.

  1. Sign in to the service that forwards the address and find the address funders write to.
  2. Add your GrantLoop forwarding address as a second destination. Keep the destination that's already there, so mail still reaches you too.
  3. Save.

Some services allow only one destination per address. In that case, set up forwarding from the inbox the mail goes to instead, using the Gmail or Outlook steps above.

Check that it works

Send a test email to the inbox you just forwarded, from a different address. In GrantLoop, the Grant inbox page shows when the first forwarded email arrives. It can take a few minutes.

Keep the address private

Treat your GrantLoop forwarding address like a password. Anyone who has it can send mail to LouEllen.

  • Only use it in forwarding settings. Don't put it in the To or Cc line of emails you send, and don't post it anywhere.
  • If you think it has leaked, an administrator can get a new address on the Grant inbox page. Then update your forwarding to the new one.

How to stop forwarding

Undo the step you took to set it up:

  • Gmail: in Forwarding and POP/IMAP, choose Disable forwarding and save. You can also remove the address there.
  • Outlook: in Settings > Mail > Forwarding, turn off Enable forwarding and save.
  • Google Group or Microsoft 365: remove the GrantLoop forwarding address from the members, or turn off the mailbox's forwarding.
  • Domain forwarder: remove the second destination.

In GrantLoop, an administrator can also switch the grant inbox off, or disconnect it and delete everything stored, on the Grant inbox page.