WhatsApp messaging
Connect WhatsApp Business so WAQAF can send your donors and recipients automatic notifications, and understand what connecting enables.
WAQAF can send messages to your donors and recipients over WhatsApp — a gift notice to someone an honour-gift was made for, a monthly reminder to a recurring donor, and replies from a shared inbox. Before any of that works you connect your WhatsApp Business account so the platform has permission to send on your behalf. This guide shows you where the WhatsApp area lives, what connecting involves, and what it unlocks once you're connected. You'd do this once during setup; afterwards you mostly work with templates and the inbox rather than the connection itself.
Who can do this. Connecting WhatsApp needs the messaging manage permission — typically the Site Manager, or an organisation owner or admin. Other roles (for example a Site Editor, or the CEO) may have read access: they can open the WhatsApp area and see its status, but the credential fields and the Save button are disabled for them. If you don't see the WhatsApp area at all, your role doesn't include it; see Members & roles.
Where to find it. Open Communication → WhatsApp from the main dashboard navigation. The area opens on the Account section, with a side menu for Account, Templates, Bindings, Messages & Insights, and Inbox.
If you go looking under Website → Settings → Messaging, you'll find a short notice that WhatsApp has moved to its own area, with a link straight to Communication → WhatsApp. Everything to do with the connection now lives there.
What "connecting" means
WhatsApp Business messages don't go straight from WAQAF — they go through a provider that you have an account with. WAQAF supports two:
- Meta WhatsApp Cloud API — a direct integration with Meta's Graph API. This is the fuller option: it powers account status, message templates, and the inbox.
- Twilio WhatsApp — sending through your Twilio account instead.
Connecting means giving WAQAF the credentials for whichever provider you use, so it can authenticate as your business when it sends. The credentials are stored encrypted and are never shown back to you in full once saved.
These are technical credentials issued by Meta (or Twilio), not your everyday WhatsApp login. You obtain them from the provider's own setup — a WhatsApp Business phone number ID and an access token for Meta, or an Account SID, auth token and sender number for Twilio. WAQAF doesn't create them for you; it stores the ones you paste in.
Connecting your account
Open Communication → WhatsApp
Go to Communication → WhatsApp. You'll land on the Account section. If nothing is connected yet, the status panel reads "WhatsApp isn't connected yet" and invites you to add your credentials below.
Choose your provider and fill in the credentials
Below the status panel is a connection card for each provider — Meta WhatsApp Cloud API and Twilio WhatsApp. Fill in the card for the provider you use:
- For Meta, the fields include Access token and Phone number ID, plus an optional Graph API version. To enable account status, templates and media headers you also add your WhatsApp Business Account ID (WABA) and Meta App ID, and the Meta App Secret that verifies inbound messages.
- For Twilio, the fields include Account SID, Auth token, a WhatsApp
sender number (in E.164 form, e.g.
+96899807054), and Template SIDs.
Required fields must be filled before Save becomes available.
Set Active and, if needed, default
Each card has an Active toggle and a Use as default provider toggle. Leave Active on so the connection is usable. If you connect both providers, turn on Use as default provider on the one you want WAQAF to send through — when both are active, the default is used.
Save
Press Save. A confirmation appears and the card shows a Connected badge. Your credentials are encrypted on the way in.
When you come back later, saved credential fields show a "Enter a new value to replace the saved credential" placeholder rather than the real value — WAQAF never displays the stored secret. You only retype a field when you actually want to change it; leaving them blank and saving just updates the Active / default toggles.
Checking the connection is healthy
The Account section's status panel tells you whether the connection is working. Once connected (and with a WABA ID added) it shows your phone number, its display name and quality rating, your business account details, and an API access line. Use Refresh to re-check at any time.
- "Management API reachable" means templates and insights are available — you're fully set up.
- A message that your token can send but can't manage templates means you need to
reconnect with a token that has the
whatsapp_business_managementpermission. - A prompt to add your WhatsApp Business Account ID means account status and templates aren't enabled yet — add the WABA ID on the connection card.
What connecting enables
Once you're connected, the other sections come to life:
- Templates — WhatsApp only allows automated messages built from pre-approved templates. Here you create templates, Sync with Meta to pull in existing ones, and Submit for approval. Meta reviews each one; you can send with it once it's Approved.
- Bindings — choose which approved template fires for each automatic message. WAQAF's automatic events are the Gift notice (sent to the recipient when an honour gift is made for them) and the Recurring reminder (a monthly reminder to recurring donors, in Arabic). Each event can be switched on or off.
- Messages & Insights — a record of what was sent, with delivery status and cost.
- Inbox — a shared inbox for the conversations people start with you, where you can reply within WhatsApp's 24-hour reply window.
Bindings can only point at approved templates. If you pick a template that has no approved Arabic (or English) version where the event needs one, WAQAF warns you that sends in that language will fail. Approve the template at Meta first, then bind it.
The WhatsApp button on your public site
The WhatsApp connection above is for the platform sending messages. It is a
different thing from the WhatsApp button visitors tap on your public site. That
button is just a wa.me link to a number you type in — you set it under your site's
Contact details (the WhatsApp number field), not here. You can show that
button to visitors without connecting WhatsApp Business at all; you only need the
connection above when you want WAQAF to send notifications.
See also
Your website
An overview of everything in the Website area and where to go for each part.
Payment methods
Connect a payment gateway so supporters can give through your site.
The site footer
Set the contact details, including the WhatsApp number, shown on your site.
Members & roles
See which roles can manage messaging and what each role can reach.