Email whitelabeling
Out of the box, the emails Droplet sends on your behalf, like workflow notifications, reminders, and approval requests, come from mail.droplet.io. Email whitelabeling (also called a custom sending domain) changes that: those emails come from a subdomain of your own domain instead, such as forms.yourdistrict.org, so the address your staff and families see is one they already recognize. This guide explains how it works, what your IT team will need to do, and how to get the process started.
What changes
Whitelabeling only changes the address Droplet's emails appear to come from. Everything else stays the same: the same notifications go to the same people at the same times, and you do not need to edit any forms or workflows. Recipients simply see mail from your organization's own domain, which builds trust and can help messages land in inboxes rather than spam folders.
There is nothing to install and no downtime. Until the switch is flipped, your emails keep sending from mail.droplet.io exactly as they do today.
Why a subdomain?
Whitelabeling is set up on a subdomain of your domain, not the domain itself. Most organizations choose something like forms.yourdistrict.org or droplet.yourdistrict.org. The subdomain setup is required by Mailgun, the service Droplet uses to send email, and it is a deliberate safety measure:
It protects your main domain's reputation. Email providers track a sending reputation for every domain. Keeping Droplet's mail on its own subdomain means your organization's day-to-day email reputation stays completely separate.
It limits the blast radius. If anything ever went wrong with automated messages, the effect would be contained to the subdomain rather than touching your main domain.
It is the standard, supported configuration. Subdomain sending is the setup Mailgun supports directly, so it is the most reliable path and the easiest to keep healthy over time.
How setup works
Setup is a short back-and-forth between your team and ours. You will want someone who can edit your organization's DNS records, usually your IT team, involved from the start.
Reach out to your Customer Success Manager, or contact Droplet support, and let us know you would like email whitelabeling.
Pick the subdomain your emails should come from. forms.yourdomain and droplet.yourdomain are both popular choices. The subdomain does not need to exist yet; your IT team will create the records for it in the next steps.
Our engineering team configures your subdomain on our side and sends you the exact DNS records to add, with the precise hostnames and values spelled out.
The records are added wherever your organization manages DNS, such as your domain registrar, Cloudflare, or AWS Route 53. Note that this is your DNS host, which is not necessarily the same place as your email provider.
Reply to let us know the records have been added. We will verify them on our end. DNS changes can take up to 24 to 48 hours to propagate, though they are often much faster.
Once the records verify, we enable the custom sending domain for your organization. From that point on, Droplet's emails come from your subdomain. There is nothing further to do on your side.
The DNS records, in plain words
The records we send are standard email-authentication records, scoped to your chosen subdomain only. You can expect records along these lines:
| Record type | What it does |
|---|---|
| TXT (SPF) | Tells receiving mail servers that Mailgun is allowed to send email for your subdomain. |
| TXT (DKIM) | Publishes a signing key so receiving servers can confirm each message really came from your subdomain and was not altered in transit. |
| CNAME | Sometimes included to support link and delivery tracking on the subdomain. |
The exact hostnames and values are unique to your subdomain, so always use the ones from the email we send you rather than examples from the internet.
Because every record lives on the subdomain, none of this touches the DNS records your organization already uses for its regular email. Your existing MX, SPF, and DKIM setup on the main domain stays exactly as it is.
Common questions
Can our emails come from our main domain instead of a subdomain?
We stick to the subdomain setup. It is the configuration Mailgun supports directly, and it keeps your main domain's email reputation fully insulated from automated sending. In practice recipients still see your organization's name and domain, which is what matters for recognition.
Will this affect our regular email at all?
No. The records are scoped to the subdomain, so your everyday email, and any other services sending on your main domain, are unaffected.
How long does setup take?
Most of the timeline is the back-and-forth: choosing a subdomain, adding the records, and DNS propagation. When your IT team can add records promptly, the whole process typically wraps up within a few business days.
What happens to emails while setup is in progress?
Nothing changes until we enable the domain. Emails keep sending from mail.droplet.io the whole time, so there is no gap in notifications.
Who on our side needs to be involved?
Whoever manages DNS for your domain, typically your IT team or network administrator. If your DNS is managed by an outside vendor, forwarding them our email with the records is usually all it takes.
Related reading
Organization settings covers the Emails section where the custom sending domain lives once enabled, along with the rest of your org-level configuration.
Get help with Droplet explains the ways to reach our support team when you are ready to start.
Ready to go, or not sure which subdomain to pick? Reach out and we will walk through it with you. Whichever direction you choose, we are here to help.