Donor Receipt Email Shortcodes

I am trying to edit the html email that goes out to donors after donation , wanting to include their email as a parameter in a link so i can prepopulate a form to opt-in for newsletter (since i cant include the checkbox on the give form). However when i add the html <a href=”https://cochiseharmreduction.org/opt-in?email={donor_email}”>Opt-In to Newsletter</a> , the {donor_email} shortcode is not translated to donors email, it just comes in as the same url in the address bar as in the shortcode with {donor_email} instead of the actual value.
Do. I need to escape the shortcode because its in quotes or something? Any help would be so appreciated.