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.
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.
If your permissions give you access to more than one domain, a domain switcher appears at the top of the Inbox sidebar with a tab for each domain you can access (Client, Donor, Volunteer). Select a tab to see that domain's mailboxes: Your Inbox, Unassigned, All, Closed, Tags, and so on. Each domain keeps its own set of mailboxes, tags, and teammate assignments; there is no combined view across domains.
If your organization only uses one domain (or you only have access to one), the switcher does not appear and Inbox works the same as before.
Composing a new conversation, searching for a recipient, and creating a new contact all stay scoped to whichever domain tab is currently selected.
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.
Each connected texting number belongs to exactly one Inbox Domain. An administrator sets it from Settings → Phone (or Settings → Inbox Settings → 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.
Outbound texts prefer a From number that matches the conversation's domain. If no number is mapped to that domain, CoolFocus falls back to your organization's normal preferred-sender rules.
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.
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.
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.
