diff --git a/app/models/admin_dashboard_data.rb b/app/models/admin_dashboard_data.rb
index 5bd181b63..a4caf42bc 100644
--- a/app/models/admin_dashboard_data.rb
+++ b/app/models/admin_dashboard_data.rb
@@ -49,7 +49,8 @@ class AdminDashboardData
       twitter_config_check,
       github_config_check,
       failing_emails_check,
-      default_logo_check ].compact
+      default_logo_check,
+      contact_email_check ].compact
   end
 
   def rails_env_check
@@ -106,4 +107,9 @@ class AdminDashboardData
       I18n.t('dashboard.default_logo_warning')
     end
   end
+
+  def contact_email_check
+    return I18n.t('dashboard.contact_email_missing') if !SiteSetting.contact_email.present?
+    return I18n.t('dashboard.contact_email_invalid') if !(SiteSetting.contact_email =~ User::EMAIL)
+  end
 end
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/app/models/site_setting.rb b/app/models/site_setting.rb
index 831458250..1e94e265c 100755
--- a/app/models/site_setting.rb
+++ b/app/models/site_setting.rb
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ class SiteSetting < ActiveRecord::Base
   client_setting(:title, "Discourse")
   client_setting(:logo_url, '/assets/d-logo-sketch.png')
   client_setting(:logo_small_url, '/assets/d-logo-sketch-small.png')
+  setting(:contact_email, '')
   setting(:company_full_name, 'My Unconfigured Forum Ltd.')
   setting(:company_short_name, 'Unconfigured Forum')
   setting(:company_domain, 'www.example.com')
diff --git a/config/locales/server.en.yml b/config/locales/server.en.yml
index ad61dfbee..cf04b78f3 100644
--- a/config/locales/server.en.yml
+++ b/config/locales/server.en.yml
@@ -348,6 +348,8 @@ en:
     github_config_warning: 'The server is configured to allow signup and log in with GitHub (enable_github_logins), but the client id and secret values are not set. Go to <a href="/admin/site_settings">the Site Settings</a> and update the settings. <a href="https://github.com/discourse/discourse/wiki/The-Discourse-Admin-Quick-Start-Guide" target="_blank">See this guide to learn more</a>.'
     failing_emails_warning: "There are %{num_failed_jobs} email jobs that failed. Check your config/production.rb file and ensure that the config.action_mailer settings are correct."
     default_logo_warning: "You haven't customized the logo images for your site. Update logo_url, logo_small_url, and favicon_url in the <a href='/admin/site_settings'>Site Settings</a>."
+    contact_email_missing: "You haven't provided a contact email for your site. Please update contact_email in the <a href='/admin/site_settings'>Site Settings</a>."
+    contact_email_invalid: "The site contact email is invalid. Please update contact_email in the <a href='/admin/site_settings'>Site Settings</a>."
 
   content_types:
     education_new_reply:
@@ -385,6 +387,7 @@ en:
     discourse_org_access_key: "The access key used to access the Discourse Hub nickname registry at discourse.org"
     educate_until_posts: "Show pop-up composer education panel until the user has made this many posts"
     title: "Title of this site, will be used in the title tag and elsewhere"
+    contact_email: "The email address of someone who can be contacted about the site. Important notices from Discourse.org regarding critical updates will be sent to this address."
     company_full_name: "The full name of the company that runs this site, used in legal documents like the /tos"
     company_short_name: "The short name of the company that runs this site, used in legal documents like the /tos"
     company_domain: "The domain name owned by the company that runs this site, used in legal documents like the /tos"