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I am developing an app for a registered charity in the United Kingdom and would like to touch base with you folks to see if any of you have experience with donations via in app purchases.

The donations will likely consist of pre-defined amounts, such as:

  • £1
  • £5
  • £10
  • £50
  • £100

My questions is: does Apple allow in app purchases for donations? I understand Apple will want to take their cut despite the charity status (they're evil, after all), but, I mean, a donation is effectively a purchase without any physical or digital goods in return, so will this be allowed under the in app purchase terms?

Thanks friends.

David Foster
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  • Will the user get something in your app in return for the purchase or is it a straight donation? If it's a donation you can probably punch out to justgiving or similar to actually accept the payment (granted this isn't as convenient for the user as billing their iTunes account though). If not, you probably can't claim the tax back on it. – Rup Jun 29 '10 at 08:19
  • Thanks for your comment Rup. The in app purchase is a completely charitable donation; nothing will be given to the user in return for the payment. – David Foster Jun 29 '10 at 08:50
  • This is more of a question about Apple's policies than a programming one, so this is not the appropriate place to ask it. I'd suggest asking at Apple's own developer forums: https://devforums.apple.com/ – Brad Larson Jun 29 '10 at 12:36
  • You may be interested in the [App stores site proposal](http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/30702/app-stores?referrer=bAUWu7rj0jpSPTdluUKgFA2) (though I'm not sure whether this question would in fact be appropriate there). – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil' Mar 23 '13 at 19:45

1 Answers1

7

It seems like from the App Store Review Guidelines, you can't use in-app for donations:

21. Charities and contributions

21.1 Apps that include the ability to make donations to recognized charitable organizations must be free
21.2 The collection of donations must be done via a web site in Safari or an SMS

https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/ (from http://www.iphonedownloadblog.com/2010/12/24/apple-is-denying-in-app-donations-to-developers/)

Cœur
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zlog
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