Route Alumni Email via Google Workspace or Office 365

The fastest way to offload alumni email from your institution is to route it through your existing Google Workspace or Office 365 environment. No DNS changes. No new MX records on your primary domain. Alumni keep their original @school.edu addresses and never know anything changed.

This guide walks through the technical setup for both platforms. The whole process takes about 30 minutes of admin time.

How the Routing Works

The concept is the same regardless of platform. Your email system acts as the first stop — it checks whether the recipient is a local user (current student, faculty, staff). If they are, mail delivers normally. If the recipient doesn’t exist locally, the email routes to Alumni Forwarding, where we look them up and forward to their personal inbox.

Email Flow:

1. Incoming email to jane@school.edu
2. Google Workspace / Office 365 checks local directory
3. If user is found — Delivers to local mailbox
4. If user is unknown — Routes to Alumni Forwarding
5. Alumni Forwarding performs lookup and forwards to personal inbox (or rejects if not found)

Before You Begin

Make sure these prerequisites are in place:

• Your Alumni Forwarding service has been provisioned and configured to accept mail for your domain(s)
• Alumni addresses and forwarding destinations have been imported (via CSV or API)
• You have admin access to your Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 admin console

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Google Workspace: Unknown User Routing

This configuration uses Google Workspace’s built-in mail routing to send unrecognized recipients to Alumni Forwarding. The setup has two parts: adding a mail host, then creating a routing rule.

How It Works

1. Add a Mail Route

In the Google Admin console under Gmail → Hosts, you add Alumni Forwarding’s mail server as a route destination. This tells Google where to send mail when a recipient isn’t found locally.

2. Create a Routing Rule

Under Gmail → Routing, you create a rule that targets “Unrecognized / Catch-all” accounts and routes them to the mail host you just added. You also enable “Suppress bounces” so that Alumni Forwarding handles rejection for addresses not in our system.

3. That’s It

Incoming email routes to Google first. Known users deliver locally. Unknown users route to Alumni Forwarding for lookup and delivery. You can safely deprovision alumni accounts to reclaim storage.

Full Setup Guide

For step-by-step instructions with screenshots, see our Knowledge Base article:

Full Setup Guide: Google Workspace Unknown User Routing

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Office 365: Transport Rule + Connector

The Office 365 setup uses three components working together: a Distribution Group to identify alumni, a Connector to define where their mail goes, and a Mail Flow Rule to tie them together.

Component Overview

• Distribution Group — Contains all alumni members (mailbox users and mail contacts)
• Connector — Points to Alumni Forwarding mail servers
• Mail Flow Rule — Routes group members’ mail through the connector

How It Works

1. Create a Distribution Group + Mail Contacts

Create a Distribution List in the Exchange Admin Center to hold all alumni. For alumni without M365 mailboxes, add them as Mail Contacts with an email address at your tenant’s domain so M365 recognizes them as valid recipients.

2. Create a Connector

Add an outbound connector in Exchange Admin Center pointing to Alumni Forwarding’s mail servers. Set it to activate only when a transport rule directs messages to it. Multiple hosts are available for redundancy.

3. Create a Mail Flow Rule

Create a rule that matches recipients who are members of your alumni Distribution Group and redirects their mail through the connector you created. That’s it — mail for alumni routes to Alumni Forwarding, everyone else delivers normally.

Note: Mail Flow Rules can take up to 30 minutes to take effect, and Connectors may take longer. Test with a single alumni address before rolling out to all members.

Full Setup Guide

For step-by-step instructions with screenshots, see our Knowledge Base article:

Full Setup Guide: Office 365 Transport Rule Configuration

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Testing Your Configuration

After setup, verify the routing is working correctly:

1. Test a known local user — Send an email to an active student or staff member. It should deliver to their local mailbox as usual — no change in behavior.

2. Test a known alumni address — Send an email to an alumni address that exists in Alumni Forwarding. It should arrive in their personal inbox within seconds.

3. Test an unknown address — Send an email to a made-up address at your domain that doesn’t exist anywhere. It should be rejected — not silently dropped.

Common Questions

What happens if someone emails an address that doesn’t exist in either system?

The email routes to Alumni Forwarding, we check our lookup table, and if the address isn’t there either, the message is properly rejected with a standard bounce. No black holes.

Do I need to change my MX records?

No. Your MX records stay exactly as they are, pointing to Google or Microsoft. The routing happens internally after the mail is received.

Can I do this gradually?

Absolutely. You can start by routing a small batch of alumni and expand over time. For Google, all unknown users route automatically. For O365, you control exactly who’s in the Distribution Group.

What about email authentication (SPF/DKIM/DMARC)?

Alumni Forwarding handles full authentication chain preservation. We implement SRS (Sender Rewriting Scheme) and ARC (Authenticated Received Chain) to maintain authentication integrity through the forwarding hop.

How do alumni update their forwarding address?

Through our self-service portal. Alumni receive a link, verify their identity by clicking a confirmation sent to their personal inbox, and can update their forwarding destination anytime. No IT involvement needed.

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Need help with setup?

Our team can walk you through the configuration on a screen share, or handle the setup for you. Most deployments are completed in a single session. Schedule a call and we’ll get you routing in under an hour.

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Related reading:

• How Google Storage Caps Impact University Alumni Email
• Why Email Security Matters for University Alumni Networks

Ready to set up alumni forwarding for your institution? We’ll have you routing in under an hour.

Schedule a Setup Call