The primary email address in your RescueGroups.org account is used to send system notifications regarding information in your RescueGroups.org account. This way, your volunteers and applicants will see your organization's contact email address as the 'FROM' address on emails. If you choose to use your own custom domain email address as your primary email address, then you will want to configure an SPF record to allow RescueGroups.org to send these notifications on your behalf. Otherwise, these notifications may be blocked by other email servers. 

If you don't have an SPF record, there is no requirement to create one although that will decrease the success of email deliverability from our server. If your domain publishes an SPF record, we strongly recommend including RescueGroups.org servers.

Edit your domain's existing SPF record

If your domain already has an SPF record, you can include our email server easily by adding the following to your existing DNS text (TXT) record that defines your domain's SPF record:

ip4:54.173.36.224

The following is an example of what this may look like if you use Outlook as your primary mail service:

v=spf1 ip4:54.173.36.224 include:spf.protection.outlook.com -all

Create a new SPF record

If you do not have an SPF record, we would suggest creating one on your domain and be sure to include all services that may send email on your behalf, such as MailChimp or Constant Contact. You can reach out to the other services to find out what information they recommend you add to your domain's SPF record.  

Here's an example TXT record if RescueGroups.org is the only service sending email on your behalf:

  v=spf1 ip4:54.173.36.224 ~all