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?.
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.
If a domain has more than one texting number connected to it, CoolFocus shows a line switcher (an All lines option plus one entry per number) below the domain tabs so you can filter the mailbox down to a single line. This switcher only lists numbers that belong to the domain you currently have selected. A number connected to the Donor domain never shows up while you're viewing Client.
If the domain you're viewing has only one texting number, CoolFocus hides the line switcher entirely, there is nothing to choose between. This is common for organizations that keep one number per 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.
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.
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.
• What Counts as a Text Message & What are the Text Usage Fees?
• Inbox Overview
• Sending Text Messages
• Texting Compliance Requirements
• Merging & Cleaning Up Conversations
• User Groups and Permissions
