Every Inbox conversation belongs to one Inbox Domain: Client, Donor, or Volunteer. This keeps one-to-one texting separated by who you're talking to, so a message thread with a donor never mixes into client care texting, and staff who only work with volunteers don't see donor conversations just because a contact happens to hold both roles.
Client is the default. Every conversation and phone number your organization had before this change stays in the Client domain.
Texting fee: Client, Donor and Volunteer domain text messages (incoming and outgoing) will add a text messaging usage fee on your monthly CoolFocus invoice when CoolFocus sends or receives an actual text message. Turning a setting on alone does not bill you, but each message that goes out or comes in can. Full list: What Counts as a Text Message & What are the Text Usage Fees?.
What an Inbox Domain is
Every conversation in Inbox belongs to one of three Inbox Domains:
Client: care and client texting. This is the default and covers every conversation and phone number that existed before Inbox Domains launched.
Donor: one-to-one texting with donors.
Volunteer: one-to-one texting with volunteers.
A domain is a hard boundary, not just a label. Staff only see conversations in the domains they have permission to view, so a message to a donor never shows up for a volunteer-only coordinator, even if that same person is tagged as a volunteer somewhere else in CoolFocus.
Inbox Domains cover one-to-one operational conversations only. Mass fundraising or volunteer blast messages still belong in Engage, not Inbox.
No Staff or Administrator domain: Inbox texting only covers Client, Donor, and Volunteer conversations. You cannot text a staff member or administrator through Inbox. For internal communication, use notes, tasks, announcements, or your organization's regular staff communication channel instead.
Switching domains
Temporarily unavailable: the domain switcher is turned off while we rework it. An organization with access to more than one domain currently sees only the Client domain in Inbox. An organization with access to just Donor or just Volunteer still sees that domain, unchanged.
Temporarily unavailable: the domain switcher is turned off while CoolFocus reworks it, so every organization's Inbox currently shows the Client domain, with mailboxes like Your Inbox, Unassigned, All, Closed, and Tags. If your organization has no access to the Client domain, Inbox shows your organization's own authorized domain (Donor or Volunteer) instead, but there is no switcher to move between domains right now.
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Switching phone lines within a domain
Temporarily unavailable: the phone-line switcher is turned off while we rework it. Inbox currently shows all lines within your domain together instead of letting you filter down to one number.
Temporarily unavailable: the per-line switcher is off along with the domain switcher above. Inbox mailboxes show conversations across every connected number for your domain instead of one line at a time.
Who can see which domain
Access to a domain follows the same permissions your organization already uses for people records:
Client - the same access that already governs client texting (permission to view Clients / CPC Clients, or your existing Inbox access).
Donor - requires permission to view Donors.
Volunteer - requires permission to view Volunteers.
Administrators manage these permissions the same way they manage other record permissions, in User Groups and Permissions.
Phone numbers belong to one domain
Each connected texting number belongs to exactly one Inbox Domain. An administrator sets it from Settings → Phone → Numbers: open the number and choose Client, Donor, or Volunteer under Inbox domain.
Inbound texts to a number create or continue a conversation in that number's domain.
Once a conversation has received an inbound text on a specific line, CoolFocus treats that line as sticky for the conversation. Staff replies go out from that same line as long as it is still a valid, active number for your organization, so the person keeps texting the same number they first reached you from.
If the conversation has no sticky inbound line yet, or that line is no longer valid, outbound texts prefer a From number that matches the conversation's domain instead.
If no number is mapped to that domain either, CoolFocus falls back to your organization's normal preferred-sender rules (the number marked Use for Reminders, then the oldest connected number).
Do not create a separate phone number for every donor or volunteer. One number per domain is enough; the domain field is what separates the conversations.
Numbers connected before this feature default to Client. You only need to change a number if you want donor or volunteer texting on a different line.
A phone number's Campaign Label (used for local attribution reporting, such as radio ad vs website) is a separate setting. It is not the same thing as your carrier A2P campaign registration, and setting a label does not change your A2P compliance status.
Consent rules by domain
Every outbound text still respects STOP replies and opt-out status, regardless of domain. Beyond that:
Donor and Volunteer domain messages always require the contact to have completed positive SMS opt-in before CoolFocus will send. There is no advisory mode for those domains.
Client domain messages continue to follow your organization's existing A2P consent setting (enforced or advisory), unchanged from before this feature.
For broader compliance setup, see Texting Compliance Requirements.
Merging conversations stays within a domain
CoolFocus only offers merge targets that share the same person, the same conversation type, and the same Inbox Domain. A Donor conversation cannot be merged into a Client or Volunteer conversation for the same person.
See Merging & Cleaning Up Conversations for the step-by-step merge workflow.
Related
Texting Compliance Requirements
Announcements, dated notices for your team.
Tasks, follow-up tracked right on a record.