Developers

We are using Google Apps to set up your email at your domain. Google Apps is a service that brings the popular Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Talk services to your domain.

Google has created a easy process to follow in order to get setup with your Google apps account.  You can view their process here: https://support.google.com/nonprofits/answer/3367223?rd=2

Step 1: Sign up

The following is the step by step process on how to set this up, it will walk through the signup process, domain verification, setting up email accounts & lists, activating your email, setting up your email clients & migrating your email.

Google Apps provides a free edition and several tiers for their paid option. If your organization requires less than 20 email accounts, the Google Apps free edition will work great for you. Sign-up for the free edition here: http://www.google.com/nonprofits/join/

Google also provides registered non-profits the ability to get the Business edition at a significantly discounted price: http://www.google.com/nonprofits/join/, click the "Apply here" to start the process if you're a non-profit. It will take up to thirty (30) days for Google to approve your application.

Step 2: Verify your domain

If you selected the non-profit option, you will need to wait for Google to approve your application before proceeding with this step. Free or paid users, please continue!

Upon logging in the first time into the Google Apps dashboard, you will be asked to verify your domain. You have two options here. If you know how to use FTP, select the option to upload a special file to your site's servers. Download this file, open it using your favorite text editor (e.g. TextEdit on Mac, Notepad on Windows) and paste in your unique string that Google gives you. Then upload it to your domain's servers so you can access it at http://your-domain.com/googlehostedservice.html. 

Your other option assumes you have access to your domain's DNS in order to create a special CNAME record for your domain.

Note: A video walkthrough is available for this step.

Step 3: Create your email accounts

Create email accounts for everyone on your staff team that you want to have access to Google Apps services (calendars, documents, email, chat, etc).

To setup emails will that ONLY forward to personal accounts (these will not be accounts), you will want to create a "group" for each one of these users. See the "Groups" tab when you login to the Google Apps Dashboard. More information can be found here: http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/topic.py?hl=en&topic=25838

For example, if you would like to forward to , you will create an email list for with as the sole recipient. You can also use an email list to setup a group for multiple people (for example: that will automatically email everyone on staff).

Note: if you create temporary passwords at this step for accounts, please have your users log in at least once to setup their password.

Step 4: Activate email & configure MX records

If you manage your own DNS & MX Records, proceed with this step. Go to your Google Apps Dashboard, select "Active Email" under Email and follow the instructions on how to edit your MX Records. If we control your MX records, let us know when you are ready to have your MX records changed.

Note: Once you activate email and change the MX Records, email will begin arriving in your Google Apps account. Due to the nature of how these changes propagate across the internet, you may receive email at your old servers for as long as a day after you activate your email.

Step 5: Setup your email clients

Users may access the email through the browser at: http://mail.google.com/a/[your-domain.com] or through an email client. To setup email clients, you can go with your protocol of choice, instructions are here: POP3, IMAP

Step 6: Migrate old email

If your users would like to upload their old emails in Outlook to their new Google Apps server, you may use Google Email Uploader. We don't support Google Email Uploader related queries, so for detailed instructions and troubleshooting, please visit the User Guide wiki and the Discussion Group. If users' existing mail is on the server and you would like to migrate those emails to Google Apps, you may use the Google Mail Fetcher. This program is configured within each user's individual account under http://mail.google.com/a/[your-domain.com], not the Google Apps Admin Interface.

If you've made it through all these steps, congratulations, you've setup your email successfully!

FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

Can I continue using Microsoft Outlook / Mail.app / my mail client?

Yes! GMail has both POP3 and IMAP access. You can use these setup guides: POP3 and IMAP.

Is Google Apps an exchange server?

No.

Does Google Calendar tie in with Ekklesia 360 Events?

Currently, you can subscribe to a feed of your Ekklesia 360 Events inside Google Calendar. However, it is not possible to import events from Google into Ekklesia 360.