Email Infrastructure
A personal Gmail addressis quietly undermining your credibility.
Grant funders, corporate partners, donors, they all make a trust judgement before they read your message. pastor_chan_1975@gmail.com doesn't say “we're friendly.” It says “we may not have the infrastructure to do what we say we can.”
The reality
Do any of these sound familiar?
A personal Gmail represents your entire organisation
The founder started everything with their personal Gmail, convenient, free, back when the organisation was small. Years later the organisation has grown, but the email address hasn't. Grant applications ask for an institutional email and you write a @gmail.com address. A journalist sees it and quietly questions whether to follow up.
A departed staff member still receives organisational messages
The volunteer application notification was set to a staff member's personal inbox three years ago. That staff member left last year. Every new volunteer application is going to an unmonitored inbox. The organisation has no idea how many applicants never heard back. Worse: the former staff member can still read every message.
Your emails land in spam, not because of content
The organisation's email has no SPF, DKIM, or DMARC records configured. A significant portion of outgoing emails land in spam. Newsletter open rates are inexplicably low, the content isn't the problem, the technical setup is. Worse: someone can spoof your organisation's identity to send phishing emails.
Accounts scattered everywhere, no one in charge
The executive director has one account, the secretary another, the finance committee chair a third. Some have never had two-factor authentication enabled. Passwords were set years ago. When someone leaves, their account isn't closed, because nobody knows the complete list of accounts.
The solution
How Re:focus fixes this
Google Workspace / Microsoft 365, free for nonprofits
We help eligible organisations apply for Google for Nonprofits or Microsoft for Nonprofits, providing Workspace and Microsoft 365 at free or heavily discounted rates. This means your organisation can have yourname@yourorg.hk professional email at near-zero cost. We handle the entire application, verification, DNS configuration, and account setup.
Email architecture design, role-based shared inboxes
We design a clear email structure around how your organisation actually operates: shared inboxes for functions (info@, finance@, volunteer@) and individual addresses for staff. All shared inboxes are owned by the institution, not tied to any individual remaining in post.
Gmail history migration to institutional accounts
We migrate organisation-related email history from personal Gmail accounts to the new institutional accounts, ensuring no important correspondence is lost. We set up forwarding rules so emails to old addresses still arrive during the transition, and notify regular contacts to update their records.
Anti-phishing setup: SPF / DKIM / DMARC
We configure SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records in your DNS, ensuring: (1) your outgoing emails aren't flagged as spam, (2) nobody can impersonate your domain in phishing attacks, (3) newsletter and notification deliverability improves significantly.
Offboarding email protocol
We establish a standardised offboarding protocol: password change within 24 hours of departure confirmation, auto-reply setup, mail forwarding to successor, and a timeline for account closure. Every staff transition has a clear digital handover procedure.
Deliverables
What you receive
Google for Nonprofits / Microsoft application
Free or discounted institutional accounts for eligible organisations
Email architecture design document
All inboxes: roles, access levels, succession rules
DNS records setup
MX, SPF, DKIM, DMARC fully configured
Gmail history migration
Important email history transferred to institutional accounts
Account register & password manager
Bitwarden or equivalent setup
Organisation-wide 2FA deployment
All accounts enforce two-factor authentication
Offboarding SOP
Written standard procedure for digital handover
Email signature templates
Consistent organisational visual identity
Ready to re:focus?
Find out how exposed your email setup is