How to Collect Charitable Donations from a Native iOS App?

Question

I am working on an app that needs to have functionality to collect charitable donations.

Apple Pay on the Web: Acceptable Use Guidelines

I found at the above link that collection of charitable donations is prohibited with Apple Pay.

App Store Review Guidelines

Here in Section 3.2.2 it states that you cant use In-App Purchases to collect charitable donations.

I have found another StackOverflow post that brushes on my question here.

So, according to the Rules and Regulations, I know that I cant use in app Purchases for Charitable Donations. I also know that I can't use Apple Pay.

What is the best way to prompt a user to donate without forcing them to manually enter all of their payment info into an online form?

I have looked a little bit at Apple Wallet, but the only way that would work is if someone already has their card set up and it will help AutoFill the information. Correct me if I am wrong, but this is what I have understood.

Additionally, is there any reason Apple has given as to why it is so difficult to give charitable donations? A coworker is doing the same thing for Android and hasn't run into nearly as many roadblocks as I have.

Answer 1

The answer is no. Apple doesn't let you its in their rules:

21) Charities and contributions Apps that include the ability to make donations to recognized charitable organizations must be free The collection of donations must be done via a web site in Safari or an SMS

You can call the app review department in California: (408) 996-1010 OR (512) 674-2000, but I highly doubt you'll get any luck.

My advice would be the following:

Get creative and find some simple feature/service that you can add to your service that you can sell with an IAP/Apple Wallet that provides some simple benefit to the member, and you market that as all proceeds going towards the cause your raising money for. As long as your actually delivering some digital good within your app, I don't think Apple can dictate what you actually do with the money, you just can't take money for nothing using their service.

See this similar post: How can I handle donations through iOS?

You might want to check section 21 more closely. If your app is free to use you may be able to get around it. Or just call the review team directly. That would be fun.

Answer 2

Apple does not allow in-app donations. You can redirect to a website (eg. PayPal), but this must happen outside the app.

Using Safari View Controller to open a webview within the app will be rejected.

Instead, force the URL to be handled by the device's default web browser - they will allow this.